What this covers
- One PDF, never a folder of images
- Check page order before anything else - it is the most common failure
- Leave an hour before the deadline for checking
- Read the result on a screen, the way the marker will
Handwritten submission is now routine for problem sheets, take-home papers and coursework in mathematical subjects. The requirements are simple and the failure modes are consistent, which means they can be checked off.
What a submission has to be
- Format
- One PDF, not a folder of images
- Order
- Pages in the order they should be read
- Orientation
- Every page the right way up
- Size
- Under the portal's limit, typically 10 to 20 MB
- Legibility
- The faintest page readable at normal screen size
- Identification
- Name and candidate number where required
The procedure
Twenty minutes, plus an hour of slack before the deadline.
- Photograph every page properly
Flat, evenly lit from the side, camera parallel and centred. Thirty seconds a page and it determines everything downstream.
- Check you have every page
Count them against the paper. A missing page discovered at this point is trivial; discovered by a marker, it is a zero on that question.
- Convert with greyscale clean-up
Greyscale for pencil, black and white only for firm ink and only after checking your faintest page.
- Check the order
In the file list before converting, and again in the finished PDF. Phone galleries do not always sort the way you expect.
- Check the orientation
Every page the same way up. Rotate any that are not and save the rotation into the file.
- Check the size
Against the portal's limit, with room to spare. If it is over, rescan in greyscale rather than compressing twice.
- Read it as the marker will
On a screen, at normal zoom, in order, start to finish. This is the step that catches everything else.
The tools in order
Page order is the most common failure
Not legibility, not size - order. A phone gallery sorted by name puts page 10 before page 2, and a submission whose pages are out of order reads as a different, worse answer than the one you wrote. Check it twice: in the file list, and in the finished document.
Why not a folder of images
Most portals reject multiple files outright. Those that accept them present each image as a separate attachment, which a marker has to open one at a time, in whatever order the platform chooses.
One PDF is not a formatting preference. It is the difference between your work being read as a document and being read as twelve unrelated pictures.
Name and candidate number
Where the submission is anonymous, do not include them - and check the metadata too, because a PDF frequently carries the author's name in a field nobody looks at.
Where they are required, they go on the first page, written clearly, in a position that will not be cropped. Adding them after the fact is possible but fiddly; writing them on the paper before photographing is free.
The hour of slack
Everything above takes twenty minutes on a good day. The reason to start an hour early is that the failures are discovered in the checking step, and every one of them requires going back to the paper: a page missed, a page unreadable, a page photographed upside down.
A submission that is technically on time and missing question 4 is worse than one submitted forty minutes earlier with everything in it. Portals also queue under load at deadlines, which is entirely predictable and consistently surprising.
What goes wrong, and when it is caught
In order of how often we have seen each.
| Failure | Caught by | Cost if missed |
|---|---|---|
| Pages out of order | Reading the finished PDF | Answer reads as incoherent |
| A page missing | Counting against the paper | Zero on that question |
| File over the size limit | Checking before uploading | Missed deadline while fixing it |
| A page unreadable | Reading at normal zoom | Marker cannot award marks they cannot read |
| A page upside down | Reading the finished PDF | Irritation, and sometimes a lost mark |
| Name present on an anonymous submission | Checking the first page and the metadata | Possible procedural issue |
The final check, at least an hour before the deadline
- Every page present, counted against the paper
- Pages in the right order, read start to finish
- Every page the right way up
- The faintest page readable on a screen at normal zoom
- One PDF, under the size limit, with room to spare
- Name and candidate number correct, or absent if anonymous
- Document properties checked if the submission is anonymous
- Opened once in a different application than the one that made it
Questions and answers
Can I submit photographs instead of a PDF?
Most portals reject multiple files, and those that accept them show each as a separate attachment in an order you do not control. One PDF is the format every platform handles properly.
My file is over the size limit. What now?
Convert with greyscale clean-up rather than compressing a colour scan. If it is still over, drop the resolution cap and check the faintest page again. Compressing an already-compressed file twice degrades the writing for very little further saving.
Will the marker be able to search my answers?
No. The submission is an image of each page. Nothing reliably reads handwriting, and this site does not pretend to - a plausible misreading of a mathematical answer is worse than no text at all.
Should I include my name if the submission is anonymous?
No, and check the document properties as well as the pages. A PDF frequently carries the author's account name in a metadata field that page-level checking does not touch.
