random poll

[rm]

Super busy. Am suddenly curious about this. Apparently most kids entering college in the US this year don't know how to write in cursive. I suspect this is less a sign of the apocalypse than it feels like to me.

So, tell me things (as usual, poll is un-scientific and reflects my biases and experiences (and 49-year-olds can choose which age category they like better!) -- if the boxes don't work, my apologies and comments super welcome.):

[Poll #1607173]

Comments

[jinian.livejournal.com]

When I took the GRE three years ago, it required that you copy, in cursive, a statement of ethics. So far, the examiner said, everyone had been able to dredge up some form of joined-up writing, but it wasn't pretty.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Really? Why cursive? Do you have to prove you can write cursive as part of your score?

*fascinated*

[jinian.livejournal.com]

They wouldn't even let you in to take the test without doing it. I have no idea what it was meant to prove. It seems like one's real handwriting would carry more weight if they ever wound up asking "did you or did you not write this?" I know what I wrote looked very little like my ordinary writing and a lot like I'd sent an eight-year-old in to take the exam for me.

[matthewwdaly.livejournal.com]

I was going to mention that I was forced to do it as well (although my recollection was that it was for the SAT and not the GRE). It was excruciating, and undoubtedly unreadable as every letter except that in my signature had atrophied by that point.

My assumption has always been that it is an anti-cheating device. It's easy to get my smart friend to stand in for me at the SAT being held at an unfamiliar school, but not so much if he'd have to forge my cursive for a ... ye gods ... that was at least a very long paragraph.

[sevendayloan.livejournal.com]

You have to do that for the SAT, too. I couldn't tell you why. All I know is that there were strict instructions to copy and sign the Ethics Code in cursive or else.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha, I had to do that for my AP tests as well. Ouch.

[itcamefromjapan.livejournal.com]

I had to do this when I took the SAT (which was also around three years ago). The proctor told everyone, "Write, don't print," which didn't strike me as odd until she added, "which means write in cursive."

Cue enormous collective groan. The proctor spent almost five minutes writing out various cursive letters on the overhead ("How do you make a 'j' again?") before giving up and telling us to just do our best.

I write in cursive anyway, so I didn't have any problems, but I know more than one person who called that the most difficult part of the test.

[sillermoon.livejournal.com]

Oh god. I remember this. The only cursive/script I remember how to do is my signature. (I did learn formal cursive in grade school but attrition means I solely handwrite in print now). IIRC the statement had a fucking "q" in it, which I could not remember how to write in script for the life of me. I felt like such a fraud after taking this ridiculously hard standard test.