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The world-renowned Cambridge University is [consideration / considering] abolishing handwritten exams after 800 years. University [officials / official] may ask students to type their exam answers [on / in] a computer rather than use a pen. The move follows [complains / complaints] from examination markers who say they are finding test papers increasingly [illegible / ineligible] due to [poorly / poor] handwriting. Academics say today's students [primarily / primary] use laptops in lectures and tutorials [instead / rather] of pens. Students are losing the [able / ability] to write by hand. One academic said asking students to hand-write exams actually causes them physical difficulties. The muscles in their hand are not used to writing [extensively / extensive] for prolonged periods of two to three hours.

A Cambridge University lecturer, Dr Sarah Pearsall, told Britain's 'Daily Telegraph' newspaper that [handwriting / handwritten] was becoming a "lost art". She said: "Twenty years ago, students [routine / routinely] wrote by hand several hours [the / a] day, but now they write [virtual / virtually] nothing by hand, [exception / except] exams." She added: "We have been concerned for years about the [declining / declined] handwriting problem. There has definitely been a downward [trendy / trend] . It is difficult for both the students and the examiners [as / has] it is harder and harder to read these exam scripts." Dr Pearsall says some students' handwriting is [so / such] illegible that they had to return to the university over the summer to read their answers [out / in] loud to examiners who could not read their writing.