This study examined students’ expressed strategies, habits and preferences with respect to responding to supervised text-based assessments. Two trials of a computerised examination system took place in an Australian pre-university college in 2016 and 2017. Students in several classes studying geography and globalisation completed a sequence of practice and assessed work. Data were collected using pre- and post-surveys about their preferred writing styles, habits and strategies in light of their choice to type or handwrite essay and short answer examinations. Comparisons were made between those that elected to handwrite and those who chose to type the examination, with several areas being significant. The performance (grades), production (word count) of the typists and hand-writers were also correlated and compared.