Why handwriting still matters

All final HSC, VCE, and QCE exams are handwritten, and they will remain so for the foreseeable future. This is just one very practical reason (among many others) that students need to be able to still write by hand.

What Teachers Are Saying

We partner with 1000 schools and speak with hundreds of educators every week. Faculty leaders are increasingly emphasising that students need more practice:

• Writing responses and essays, then reviewing and editing their own work.
• Writing under test conditions – sustained writing for an extended period, and working within the tight time limits they will have in assessments and exams, within which they’ll need to complete each question/essay response.

Additionally, a growing number of middle years teachers and leaders we speak with at Edrolo also want the flexibility to have students writing responses to questions, completing activities, and recording data in practical tasks – not just working on computers and typing.

In a world of ubiquitous AI, more and more English teachers tell us that in 2025 they will no longer accept a draft response to an essay prompt unless it is handwritten.

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Why handwriting still matters

We hear this every day in our conversations with teachers, but we’re not alone (SMH, ABC News, Deakin, National Geographic). 

The benefits of handwriting extend beyond just exam preparation. Research suggests that the act of handwriting can improve memory, foster deeper understanding, and even stimulate creativity. For instance, studies have shown that students who take notes by hand tend to recall information more effectively than those who type (Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014). 

Furthermore, the unique motor skills involved in handwriting engage different parts of the brain, potentially enhancing cognitive development and learning (National Geographic, n.d.).

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How Edrolo helps with handwriting

These are pedagogical needs we hear about from teachers every day, and how they’re seeing the benefits of Edrolo for handwriting:

• Every Year 11 and 12 Edrolo course includes hundreds of past and practice exam questions that can not only be done online, but can all be printed and completed with handwritten responses, with lined spaces and mark allocations just like a HSC or VCE assessment, under test conditions if teachers wish, used as an exit slip or group/think-pair-share task in class.
  
  
• Students in Years 7-12 are able to download extensive study notes to highlight, annotate, and fill in whilst viewing the Edrolo teacher theory.
  
  
• Every question, activity, and practical in Years 7-10 Science can be printed with lined spaces to fill in and responses written by individuals or as group work.
  
  
• Years 7-10 Mathematics includes worksheets to print and complete, and pen-and-paper chapter tests to assess students’ progress.

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References

Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159–1168.

National Geographic. (n.d.). The Benefits of Handwriting. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/benefits-of-handwriting

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