Writing exams in mechanical pencil.

seriouslysweet

Why would anyone want to piss off their examiner?

GaryIrv93

spurious wrote: »

That's a fantastic strategy. Piss the examiner off.
I don't know why people have not thought of this before.

When your paper is the last of a nine hour correcting session and the writing is all blurred or invisible, they are really going to be generous in the discretionary marks.
A stroke of genius.

I wouldn't intend to piss the examiner off though? Time management is one of my main problems, especially in Geography. But I've found that I can actually write neater and a bit faster with pencil. I tried this last night. If I write quickly with pen, my handwriting ends up very sloppy. That can piss an examiner off even more than handwriting in pencil. At the end of the day though, it's your own personal choice what you use to write with, in pencil or biro. I've no intention whatsoever to piss an examiner off.

FaoiSin

reznov wrote: »

Man you're braver than I thought.
I'll pray for you tonight.

Pray for me too.

I already set aside time everyday to pray for you. Not much else I can do

Manic2

So does this mean I shouldn't number/give headings in red/green?

I usually number the question in red and then put headings in green and then write with blue pen.
And I was going to use pencil in maths.

So basically this is all unadvisable?

reznov

YeaaahFaoiSin wrote: »

I already set aside time everyday to pray for you. Not much else I can do

Whenever I open up the Project Maths papers I think you. You're my Leaving Certificate idol.

spurious

Manic2 wrote: »

So does this mean I shouldn't number/give headings in red/green?

I usually number the question in red and then put headings in green and then write with blue pen.
And I was going to use pencil in maths.

So basically this is all unadvisable?

Ideally do not put red or green anywhere near the exam paper.
They are the colours the examiners use.
If you write in blue and/or black, then everything is clear.


Pencil is OK for calculations, graphs, drawings, but where possible, outside those, biro or pen should be used.

snoreborewhore

Would people please get over what people should or shouldn't write with in an exam. Wanna use a mechanical pencil? Go for it. Wanna write in pink pen? Sure. If you don't want to piss the examiner off, don't write complete and utter crap in your exam. No ones going to mark you any less for writing in pencil and if they do then they seriously need to re evaluate their lives.

Mycroft H

snoreborewhore wrote: »

Would people please get over what people should or shouldn't write with in an exam. Wanna use a mechanical pencil? Go for it. Wanna write in pink pen? Sure. If you don't want to piss the examiner off, don't write complete and utter crap in your exam. No ones going to mark you any less for writing in pencil and if they do then they seriously need to re evaluate their lives.

Your risking the pencil getting smudged from all the movement of the scripts. There is a lack of contrast with a pencil to start with.

Do you really really wan't to irk an examiner when they have a bag full of other scripts to correct?

Geo10

My mam's friend corrects every year. Last year she said she had someone practically get full marks and they wrote everything in red ink pen. She said the examiner doesn't give a damn what you want to write with as long as you have the correct info

spurious

Geo10 wrote: »

My mam's friend corrects every year. Last year she said she had someone practically get full marks and they wrote everything in red ink pen. She said the examiner doesn't give a damn what you want to write with as long as you have the correct info

Your Mam's friend really should not be discussing with her mates what she sees or does not see during the marking process.

Anyway, I've answered from an examiner's point of view what you should write in. Blue or black biro/pen.

Use crayon if you want.

FaoiSin

My God is it that hard to understand that the more clear your answers are the easier is on the examiner.

Easier on Examiner = Happy Examiner = More likely to be generous with marks

Togepi

spurious wrote: »

Use crayon if you want.

That was my plan all along! Think I might use paint for English though, mix things up a bit. Only using red and green though, they're my favourites.

implausible

biohaiid wrote: »

So for quotes in English and stuff you shouldn't write them in red?
How about highlighting?
I always highlight mine at the end if I have time but I dont know if its 'right'.

I HATE this, it's as if the candidate thinks the examiner is an idiot who can't spot a quotation:rolleyes:. Besides, quotes are not the most important things in an essay, so why highlight/write them in red/put a flashing neon light on them? It is beyond me how a student who has to produce 10+ pages has time to do this anyway

Just use quotation marks and set them off if they're long.

Canard

I dunno, by that logic I guess you could say the examiner should know which poet you're answering on by the poems you're naming. Its just nice to make it organised I think.

WhatNowForUs?

I fail to see how people have time to change colours during an exam. i'll have to look at these exams and see what the're about these days. By the way its seen as bad practice in various fields in the real world to use tip-ex.

Togepi

WhatNowForUs? wrote: »

I fail to see how people have time to change colours during an exam. i'll have to look at these exams and see what the're about these days. By the way its seen as bad practice in various fields in the real world to use tip-ex.

I just change from blue to black when I'm quoting. It doesn't take up that much time, besides, my hands need a short break from writing every now and then so changing pen is a bit of a relief!

finality

spurious wrote: »

Ideally do not put red or green anywhere near the exam paper.
They are the colours the examiners use.
If you write in blue and/or black, then everything is clear.

Was never told not to use red. I've always used it for question numbers and to underline answers in maths (my exam papers can be a bit chaotic), and it makes things a lot clearer.
I suppose I'll use blue for this from now on.

Canard

I suppose you could use highlighter if you want but that might look a bit weird.

whiteandlight

Anything but red or green. Also please do not write in the column for the correctors! It makes it a pain to correct. In a similar vein do not write in columns in maths, like (i) on the left and (ii) on the right. Both marks have to go in the column on the right and it is easy for an examiner who has 400 odd other papers to forget to make a mistake when you have parts all over the page. Label each part and do them one underneath each other, neatly. If you are doing sections of different questions rather than completing one question at a time, make sure you put the question number with each part too.