Fountain Pens Banned...

[garnet]

When I was in school it was compulsary to use a fountain pen, especialy in exams. If the school insist on using a certain type of pen then they should provide them.

[Malcy]

just use a number 2.

 

It's an HB pencil in the UK.

 

The machines used to read exam paper marks have improved in recent years but if the pupil doesn't make a good solid dark mark (and plenty don't) it doesn't matter whether they use FP, Biro or pencil.

[duna]

It was common experience in the past to receive a lot of unreadable telefax messages because the blue ballpoint wasn't readable by the sender's machine. Shallow colour and thin lines conjured with low resolution (not to mention limited capabilities of early fax machines) in order to obtain a perfectly useless sheet of white paper, with casual light grey markings emerging somewhere from the dull white(-noise) bottom. So, to 'learn' how to make a good, black, deep dot on the document in order for the scanner to read/grade the exam accurately, makes sense.

It's perfectly fine to mark such dots with a nice wet fountain pen, but even if the deep black easily obtainable from any dark black ink is highly desirable in such a situation, ink smeared all over the paper if something goes wrong, isn't. THick black spots made with FPs can be tricky to dry, and if the document is an official exam it's better to use a drier ballpoint. The BP ink smears also, but not much and it's less sensible to improper handling and less prone to form thick droplets/pools of almost-liquid ink. Big black round-tipped crayons are also often used in similar circumstances (one touch, and a nice round dot has formed).

[cubic archon]

I find it hard to believe that any decent optical scanner would not be able to pick up a black ink from a fountain pen, but could pick up the potentially faint impressions from a biro. A comment such as

He said: 'One of the exam boards said last year on one of the maths exams that a lot of decimal points weren't picked up by the computer scanners and so the pupils didn't get credit for what they had done.

seems odd - a decimal point made with a biro will generally be *much* fainter than one made with an FP, as the ball doesn't rotate when you just push it onto paper without dragging it.

Edited October 11, 2010 by cubic archon

[Scrawler]

Make them use carbon ink.

[oldstoat]

Seems like the usual Daily Wail* outrage at nothing. I'm only surprised that they didn't manage to work a swan-roasting illegal immigrant into the story.

 

*For those in countries blessed by its absence the Daily Mail is designed to foster outrage among its readers, who seem to suspect that everyone, everywhere is having a better time than them.

[wbpeoria]

Does anybody really believe that a ball-point pen will produce more scan-able text than a FP using Heart of Darkness ink?

[oldstoat]

Doesn't seem to be a matter of text, just a matter of making ticks in boxes.

[CS388]

Interesting thread, always good to read people's opinions and solutions.

 

But a Daily Mail story should never be taken seriously.

[Johnny Appleseed]

If the readers are using a purely optical scanning system, then one would think that fountain pen ink would actually work better than a ballpoint, because it can make darker marks without pressing hard. However, if the scanners are designed to pick up some quality of the ink, then the ballpoint would make more sense.

 

There may also have been problems in the past with washable blue ink in fountain pens being too light for some optical scanners. Some older ones do have problems with blue. I would note that the exams require black ballpoint ink.

 

Seems like the usual Daily Wail* outrage at nothing. I'm only surprised that they didn't manage to work a swan-roasting illegal immigrant into the story.

 

*For those in countries blessed by its absence the Daily Mail is designed to foster outrage among its readers, who seem to suspect that everyone, everywhere is having a better time than them.

 

Indeed - we had a thread here a while back with some outrage over a supposed UK government policy. Jim Strutton responded "The problem is that you are confusing the Daily Mail with a newspaper. . . You don't want us to get our information about your government from the National Inquirer, do you?"

[Parse Error]

I remember many tests where we had to use a #2 pencil.

"Please get out your #2 machine-scoring pencil..." :roflmho:

Sorry, the only pencil I have is this Pilot Croquis with 6B lead.

[Karl182]

I found this article quite alarming as I am about the do all of my exams with a fountain pen as well. I used a fountain pen for the accelerated course I was doing last year and mananged to get out about 36 pages of writing in 3 hours becuase it was so easy to write lots and lots with. I did very well in those exams so from my own experience,I really don't know how you could be penalised (Dare I say, I perhaps the FP even improved my legibility and hence my mark?). I'm sure that my exams were also scanned as well.

[FOX]

Modern computerized marking systems used for GCSEs often miss the penstrokes.

 

One of the exam boards said last year on one of the maths exams that a lot of decimal points weren’t picked up by the computer scanners.

 

Some exam scripts are scanned by a computer programmed to detect the correct answers, and Mr Williams said exam boards had told him only black ballpoint ink showed up properly.

 

So the problem is not fountain pens, but that perhaps certain inks used in them are not picked up by the computers.

 

The same problem occurred with pencils at one time, and instead of banning pencils, they did some testing and found out that #2 pencils worked best with the computer readers.

 

Seems like a good solution would be to find which fountain pen ink would work best with the computer readers, then recommend that ink.

 

What an opportunity for an ink company to design a special ink just for this purpose and market it for use and sale at schools.

 

It could be called "NUMBER 2" ink, or "FORMULA 2" ink.

 

[Scrawler]

I found this article quite alarming as I am about the do all of my exams with a fountain pen as well. I used a fountain pen for the accelerated course I was doing last year and mananged to get out about 36 pages of writing in 3 hours becuase it was so easy to write lots and lots with. I did very well in those exams so from my own experience,I really don't know how you could be penalised (Dare I say, I perhaps the FP even improved my legibility and hence my mark?). I'm sure that my exams were also scanned as well.

What is alarming is that an apparently intelligent and educated man, who is appointed headmaster, makes a knee jerk reaction, instead of thinking about the problem and being more creative in his response to a technological problem. The article makes no reference to any experimentation with ink types or consideration for the simple physics involved in the reflection and detection of light. There are several inks that do not appear invisible to an electronic scanner. In fact there are some that are hard for the human eye to see that are dark to the scanner. This is a typical modern, "throw the baby out with the bathwater" response.

[Northwoods]

What is alarming is that an apparently intelligent and educated man, who is appointed headmaster, makes a knee jerk reaction, instead of thinking about the problem and being more creative in his response to a technological problem. The article makes no reference to any experimentation with ink types or consideration for the simple physics involved in the reflection and detection of light. There are several inks that do not appear invisible to an electronic scanner. In fact there are some that are hard for the human eye to see that are dark to the scanner. This is a typical modern, "throw the baby out with the bathwater" response.

 

I was bothered by the, "I've been told that biros are picked up by the scanners better," comment. Told by whom? Basis for this conclusion? What variables were considered? Or is this just a simplified solution to a problem for which no consideration of actual causality was given?

 

How does one expect the students to understand critical thinking when the teachers and staff don't exhibit the quality themselves? Leadership by example?

Edited October 12, 2010 by Northwoods

[FOX]

I was bothered by the, "I've been told that biros are picked up by the scanners better," comment. Told by whom? Basis for this conclusion? What variables were considered? Or is this just a simplified solution to a problem for which no consideration of actual causality was given?

 

Understand you are dealing with a school system. That's how they do things.

 

How does one expect the students to understand critical thinking when the teachers and staff don't exhibit the quality themselves?

 

Now you know why society is how it is today. Too many people abandoned critical thinking and logical reasoning for learning how to "respond" in the manner that brings a reward from teachers, school grades, etc.

 

I always rather took a bad grade than abandon my ability to think and reason.

 

 

"All schools, all colleges, have two great functions: to confer, and to conceal, valuable knowledge." - Mark Twain

 

"Don't let schooling interfere with your education." - Mark Twain

 

"Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned." - Mark Twain

[Silvermink]

Like many here, I always had to use a #2 pencil on exams that get scanned.

 

As this xkcd strip makes abundantly clear, the results of using anything else can be dire.

[Scrawler]

What is alarming is that an apparently intelligent and educated man, who is appointed headmaster, makes a knee jerk reaction, instead of thinking about the problem and being more creative in his response to a technological problem. The article makes no reference to any experimentation with ink types or consideration for the simple physics involved in the reflection and detection of light. There are several inks that do not appear invisible to an electronic scanner. In fact there are some that are hard for the human eye to see that are dark to the scanner. This is a typical modern, "throw the baby out with the bathwater" response.

 

I was bothered by the, "I've been told that biros are picked up by the scanners better," comment. Told by whom? Basis for this conclusion? What variables were considered? Or is this just a simplified solution to a problem for which no consideration of actual causality was given?

 

How does one expect the students to understand critical thinking when the teachers and staff don't exhibit the quality themselves? Leadership by example?

Yes, that such a lack of critical thinking is being displayed by an apparently responsible person in their mid 30's is very disturbing and does not bode well for those in his charge. We are going to end up with a population that can be lead around by the nose.

[Jeroboam]

When I sat my GCSE's, just over ten years ago, I used my transparent Waterman Kultur with Penman Ebony, perhaps this is why one didn't do as well as one should have. Then again it could have something to do with my refusal to revise, do homework or study much at all... I going with the machine not being able to read my fp handwriting.

 

Pip-pip!

[Joane]

Seems like a good solution would be to find which fountain pen ink would work best with the computer readers, then recommend that ink.

 

What an opportunity for an ink company to design a special ink just for this purpose and market it for use and sale at schools.

 

It could be called "NUMBER 2" ink, or "FORMULA 2" ink.

 

I like this approach. It actually looks to address the specific problem rather than destroying a whole writing method to accommodate an inadequately designed machine.