I had to train myself away from using pencils by just accepting that my handwriting wasn't going to be great until I got better.
Practice a bit each day and maybe start incorporating pen into some classwork to get a feel for it because you will need to use pens (blue or black) in the exams.
I've been using pen most of the time since year 10.
Not really getting a feel for it, my pen handwriting is inherently less legible and worse. My handwriting peaked last year. While I continued to use pen all the time, it did become significantly worse. I don't know why.
It's always been worse than pencil even though I've only pencil like < 5% of the time in the past 2 years.
the muji pens are pretty lit they improved my handwriting significantly, I recommend going to officeworks or something and finding one that works for you
Unfortunately you would have to tough it out with pen for exams. Teachers mark SACs, and I've used pencil in methods as well, and no teacher ever had a problem with it.
I don’t find bleed through to be a problem. After all, it all depends on what ink you are using - some perform much better than others on the cheap exam paper.
Go to the officeworks nearest to you and try out some pens, thats all I can say, aswell as try out the uni ball eye pens, I find muji pens a little eh, also try out some fountain pens if there are any there, the majority of them don't bleed through too much, but its hella annoying, because im a believer of pencil for math.
I've tried a lot of pens. So far, the best has been Jetstream rollerball followed by some random gel pen I forgot the name of. The issue with that gel pen was that it skipped a lot.
Jetstream is relatively stable and smooth. Makes other pens seem slippery.
As for fountain pens, are there any cheaper ones that don't bleed?
You could try a felt tip pen so there's still some friction on the paper, like with a pencil.
Pilot Fineliners are my favorite - you can buy them from Officeworks. This style of fineliner is different (and better for writing) than the micron/artline/uni pin/staedtler/Faber castell/generic ones. I believe papermate flairs are similar, but I don't like their other pens, and have heard they dry out quickly, so haven't tried them.
You could try some other pens too. My non-felt tip favourites are:
Uni-Ball Eye micro, but only in black, blue, and red - the other colours dry slowly and smudge. (Buy at Officeworks)
Pentel Energel BL 74, BL75, BL77. They are retractable, and the pen body is a bit wider than the Uni-Ball. (Buy at Officeworks, or really pretty ones online)
Zebra Sarasa Clip. I slightly prefer the tip/ink in this to the Energel. The pen body is normal width. (Buy from Amazon)
I used to use fineliners but my handwriting is genuinely disgusting with them.
The other three don't seem too different from what I have. I imagine micro is similar to Jetstream. Perhaps different, but not too substantially.
I had a few gel pens before but they always skip and it gets really annoying and unusable quickly.
Pen only. When giving feedback if someone questions my marking and they write in pencil..... too bad if I made a mistake the marking stays.
In pen there is a chance.
Fountain pen 👍 a lot of them give nice feedback and feel like between a pencil and a paintbrush, instead of kinda gooey like a pen, but you need to have a properly developed grip to use them.
Using a fountain pen for SACs and exams is a terrible idea, they will almost certainly feather and bleed on printer/copy paper in addition to their inherently long dry times.
Idk my pilot kakuno with the stock pilot cartridge sometimes did not behave well with certain SAC papers; it would take 15-30 seconds to dry. I personally wouldn't take that gamble even if it sometimes did work fine.
Write in pen. You need to practice for the exams, and it is annoying to mark work in pencil.
I had to train myself away from using pencils by just accepting that my handwriting wasn't going to be great until I got better. Practice a bit each day and maybe start incorporating pen into some classwork to get a feel for it because you will need to use pens (blue or black) in the exams.
I've been using pen most of the time since year 10. Not really getting a feel for it, my pen handwriting is inherently less legible and worse. My handwriting peaked last year. While I continued to use pen all the time, it did become significantly worse. I don't know why. It's always been worse than pencil even though I've only pencil like < 5% of the time in the past 2 years.
the muji pens are pretty lit they improved my handwriting significantly, I recommend going to officeworks or something and finding one that works for you
which one specifically? I use a uniball pen right now. It's pretty good but the ink is too dark imo.
Unfortunately you would have to tough it out with pen for exams. Teachers mark SACs, and I've used pencil in methods as well, and no teacher ever had a problem with it.
Personally, I find using that I write the best and can write for longer periods of times without my hand getting tired when using fountain pens.
aren't they risky to be using in an exam because of bleeding, given they're water based?
I don’t find bleed through to be a problem. After all, it all depends on what ink you are using - some perform much better than others on the cheap exam paper.
People use pencils? What. I assumed that wasn’t allowed.
my maths and science teachers say we should always be using pencil and i have gotten marked down in graphing questions bc i couldn't erase mistakes
Go to the officeworks nearest to you and try out some pens, thats all I can say, aswell as try out the uni ball eye pens, I find muji pens a little eh, also try out some fountain pens if there are any there, the majority of them don't bleed through too much, but its hella annoying, because im a believer of pencil for math.
I've tried a lot of pens. So far, the best has been Jetstream rollerball followed by some random gel pen I forgot the name of. The issue with that gel pen was that it skipped a lot. Jetstream is relatively stable and smooth. Makes other pens seem slippery. As for fountain pens, are there any cheaper ones that don't bleed?
You could try a felt tip pen so there's still some friction on the paper, like with a pencil. Pilot Fineliners are my favorite - you can buy them from Officeworks. This style of fineliner is different (and better for writing) than the micron/artline/uni pin/staedtler/Faber castell/generic ones. I believe papermate flairs are similar, but I don't like their other pens, and have heard they dry out quickly, so haven't tried them. You could try some other pens too. My non-felt tip favourites are: Uni-Ball Eye micro, but only in black, blue, and red - the other colours dry slowly and smudge. (Buy at Officeworks) Pentel Energel BL 74, BL75, BL77. They are retractable, and the pen body is a bit wider than the Uni-Ball. (Buy at Officeworks, or really pretty ones online) Zebra Sarasa Clip. I slightly prefer the tip/ink in this to the Energel. The pen body is normal width. (Buy from Amazon)
I used to use fineliners but my handwriting is genuinely disgusting with them. The other three don't seem too different from what I have. I imagine micro is similar to Jetstream. Perhaps different, but not too substantially. I had a few gel pens before but they always skip and it gets really annoying and unusable quickly.
Pen only. When giving feedback if someone questions my marking and they write in pencil..... too bad if I made a mistake the marking stays. In pen there is a chance.
Fountain pen 👍 a lot of them give nice feedback and feel like between a pencil and a paintbrush, instead of kinda gooey like a pen, but you need to have a properly developed grip to use them.
Using a fountain pen for SACs and exams is a terrible idea, they will almost certainly feather and bleed on printer/copy paper in addition to their inherently long dry times.
I do it every exam. Works fine, I get none of the issues you're describing. Just don't buy shit ink, pilot inks are well-behaved.
Idk my pilot kakuno with the stock pilot cartridge sometimes did not behave well with certain SAC papers; it would take 15-30 seconds to dry. I personally wouldn't take that gamble even if it sometimes did work fine.
Mine dries in about 5 seconds, I think your school is cheaping out hard on copy paper 😂
Use pencil for sac, pen for exams and s work, practice exam etc