Saturday, October 01, 2005

Do Ya Really Gotta Use #2 Pencils??

All growing up, whenever there was a scantron (now they're called something else ...)test to take, my administator or professor has always said that we HAD to use a #2 pencil. Is this just a scam by the #2 pencil people to sell their pencils? Do the #2 pencil people make the test sheets? Or, WILL YOU REALLY MESS UP THE EXAM IF YOU DON'T USE A #2 PENCIL???

2 comments:

J said...

The #2 pencil has the market cornered, I must admit. But that's more because it's a really nice balance between "dark enough to read" and "hard enough not to need constant sharpening".

If you use a #3 pencil, it may be too light sometimes for the scanner to read, and it's hard/sharp enough to poke through the paper more often. A #1 pencil is nasty to erase, can smudge, and needs constant sharpening.

Hence the #2 pencil scam!

(I asked a teacher once. :^)

CABeachBlonde said...

That's awesome!