Take a look at your math notes, the assignments you scrawled down in your planner or the in-class essay your teacher just handed back. Your writing might just seem like a jumble of meaningless information, but it could actually reveal a lot about your personality, or even hint at potential career options.

While graphology—the analysis of how handwriting reflects a writer’s personality—may sound like hocus pocus, it’s actually a legitimate branch of forensic science.

“Handwriting analysis has studied serial killers, it’s studied the writing of Presidents, it’s studied the writing of CEOs and low-achievers and of high-maintenance drama queens,” local freelance graphologist Sherri LaReaux said.

People with large, loopy handwriting that wanders all over the page are typically extroverts, best suited for jobs like public relations or politics. On the other hand, people with small, precise handwriting tend to be more focused and analytical, and more apt at jobs involving math and science, according to a local freelance graphologist who prefers to remain unnamed.

Based on analysis factors described in the book Handwriting Analysis: Putting It to Work for You by Andrea McNichol, Spanish teacher Fabiola Kastenhuber’s curvy, elaborate handwriting screams extrovert, a quality she attributes to her Hispanic heritage. Her writing is artistic, fitting with Kastenhuber’s self-description as a “creative human being.”

Black & White webmaster Lisa Deng, who is interested in computational biology, fills the second description. Her small, fast writing indicates high functional intelligence and introversion, qualities that fit the typical scientist’s personality.

McNichol’s book examines several handwriting traits, including slant, spacing, pressure and size, and explains what certain tendencies may indicate about the writer.

For example, according to McNichol, light pressure indicates a passive and calm writer who is a follower rather than a leader, while people who write with heavy pressure are assertive, energetic and determined. Uneven pressure, light in some places but heavy in others, indicates the writer is nervous; McNichol compares it to a mental version of pacing.

LaReaux has been analyzing handwriting for ten years as a part of a small graphology business centered in the D.C. area that entertains at corporate and private events all over the East Coast. Her accuracy rate is high—over 95 percent of the time people agree with her analysis.

“Usually their mouth drops open right to their lap because they can’t believe that this lady who they’ve never met can read them like a book,” LaReaux said.

Junior Talia Brenner hired LaReaux as entertainment for her birthday party two years ago.

“It was interesting how many of her observations seemed to be true,” Brenner said.

LaReaux is also a full-time real estate agent, and often uses her graphology skills to help her clients make decisions about buying or selling a home.

When a client’s handwriting indicates that he or she is emotionally driven, LaReaux will make sure the client gets good vibes from a house and can see their kids growing up there, she said. When dealing with clients whose handwriting indicates a more logic-based personality, LaReaux will focus on the numbers and the business side.

Outside of birthday parties and real estate, handwriting analysis plays a crucial role in the criminal justice system. While graphology is not used as testimony in court cases, police study handwriting samples to profile suspects’ personalities, the unnamed freelance graphologist said. Graphologists in the court system also analyze the handwriting of prospective jurors to determine their character and identify any biased tendencies.

Whether they work at a court or a birthday party, graphologists always strive for the most accurate analyses possible.

“We spend a lot of time studying our craft and making sure that we’re not just saying things insensitively,” LaReaux said. “We come at it with a very serious heart.”