ATAR exams: WA students’ messy handwriting and pre-prepared answers among examiners’ key gripes

Year 12 exam markers have criticised many students’ messy and imprecise writing in last year’s ATAR exams — including “misspelt” key terms — and their failure to solve simple formulas in maths, even when given a calculator. The concerns are among dozens of examples highlighted in exam reports released last month to provide advice to teachers and students on how to get better marks in individual subjects. The summary exam reports compiled by WA’s School Curriculum and Standards Authority reveal common markers’ gripes from previous years — such as students failing to read questions properly, trying to shoehorn in memorised essays or writing illegibly — have not improved. ENGLISH AND LITERATURE Literature exam markers were scathing about the “high incidence of illegible handwriting” in the exam which 1585 students sat last year. “It is your responsibility to write clearly and legibly,” the report said. “Avoid excessive use of asterisks to other locations in your examination booklet and writing that travels up and across margins.” The report also criticised students for presenting prepared answers that related “only superficially” to the question. In the essay section, many answers lacked clear introductions to characters and events and “generalised discussion” replaced “close analysis”. “Core terminology was often misspelt,” it said. “While many essays were well written and structurally sound, there was some poor planning, overly long paragraphs, and unfocused arguments.” In English — the course with the highest number of enrolments — examiners said many of the 9433 students who sat the exam “demonstrated competence” in discussing texts they had studied. But it was obvious that some had resorted to memorising pre-prepared answers that did not fit the question. “Prepared answers were evident, with varying degrees of alignment to the question selected,” the exam report said. Students were urged to read questions carefully and consider the “command” word — such as “discuss”, “analyse”, “compare” or “evaluate” — which all required different approaches. They were also warned not to write overly-long answers and to keep their focus on the question being asked. “Avoid drifting into general discussion or adapting material prepared for different questions,” it said. “Avoid the temptation to include everything you have learned about a studied text.” MATHS Markers highlighted “simple arithmetic calculations” for being one of the “notable areas of weakness” in mathematics applications, WA’s second-most popular subject after English. Teachers were told to encourage students to use their calculator in the portion of the exam where they are permitted to “for all numerical calculations, simple or otherwise”. Students were urged to make sure their writing was legible. In mathematics methods, examiners noted students performed poorly on questions requiring written explanations “with answers often lacking clarity, appropriate terminology and/or precision”. “Many candidates presented working in a disorganised manner, which in some cases contributed to errors in solutions,” the report said. SCIENCE The chemistry report revealed a tendency for students to ascribe human-like motivations to chemical entities such as atoms or molecules. Examiners warned students not to personify chemical species — “they do not have intentions nor make choices” — while teachers were told to “discourage the use of anthropomorphic language.” Biology students were warned to write neatly, using formal language and correct technical terms. “For example, use terms such as ‘increasing’ or ‘decreasing’ rather than up and down arrows,” the biology report said. Human biology examiners urged students to focus on interpreting questions and providing an answer that clearly addressed the question being asked, rather than writing a list of points about the topic. “Avoid circular definitions when defining biological terms, such as ‘an absolute date is a date that is absolute’,” the report said. HISTORY Modern history students also struggled to identify what questions were asking them to do. “Make sure you write the essay addressing the question being asked, and not an essay on the question you wish was asked about the topic,” the report for that subject said. History teachers were urged to ensure they clearly explained to students all the terms referenced in the syllabus, which changed last year. THE ARTS Students who study design, visual art or media production and analysis also submit portfolios of their practical work, which counts towards their final marks alongside a written exam. Reports for all three subjects reminded students they should document any use of artificial intelligence tools to generate ideas or images for their portfolios. “Avoid AI-generated imagery over genuine creative exploration,” the visual art report said. Media production and analysis examiners noted that some students’ submissions had used AI generated scripts. “At times, these assisted those candidates by providing better narrative structure, however, if the candidate lacked technical filmmaking skills, the submission did not benefit from this use of AI,” it said. A SCSA spokesperson said the reports provided general advice to support students and their teachers in Year 12 courses. “Advice provided in the examination reports about the use of AI aligns with the ATAR course practical (portfolio) examination requirements,” the spokesperson said. “There was no report of an issue with the use of AI in the 2025 examinations.”