Handwriting Python: 7 Tips for Clean Exam Code

1. Use Lined or Graph Paper for Practice

It keeps your indentation consistent. On exam day, you get blank space — by then indentation is muscle memory.

2. One Statement per Line

Never use ; to squeeze multiple statements together.

3. Leave Wider Gaps After Keywords

for i in range(10): reads faster than foriinrange(10):.

4. Mark Indent Levels Visually

Use a faint vertical line before each indented block.

5. Distinguish Similar Characters

• 1, l, I — serif the one.
• 0, O — slash the zero.
• 2, Z — curl the 2.

6. Write Strings in Straight Quotes

Curly/smart quotes confuse markers and are technically invalid Python.

7. Double-Check Colons and Parentheses

Every if/for/while/def ends with :. Every ( has a ).