Worst Fountain Pen Melt Down During An Exam?

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

Personally, I don't think I've ever had a problem with my pen during an exam. I usually just make sure my pen is full, especially if it's a blue book exam since I tend to write a lot. Most of my pens have been used once or twice for an exam. Since I don't really use ballpoints or rollerballs, it's either a regular pen or a pencil. I tend to use finer nibs that have more moderate flow and most any ink I have, and I've never really seen any bleeding during blue book exams. I often take more than one pen or pencil with me "just in case"

 

Dillon

[View from the Loft]

My trusty Parker 25 and black Quink got me through O Grades, Highers, Certificate of Sixth Year Studies, my professional exams and various other assessments over the years.

 

Many of these exams were 3 hour papers, and all were written on poor paper - but Quink coped. No nightmare scenarios, and I even refilled from the bottle a few times (used it as a couple of moments to think).

 

Of course I had a back up - Mum lent me her P45 for these occasions.

[rhodialover]

Why, just last semester I had a major incident on a History test with a Vac 700. I don't know what caused the issue, as it never happened again, but it was extremely awful so here goes: I was taking a history exam and we are allowed great choice of ink color's (some even use bright purple on everything, along with green and pink), and I was almost done, but for some reason my pen wouldn't write out the last sentence. (Essay format) It so happened that it burped a massive, and I do mean massive, blob of Diamine Oxblood everywhere. As some of you may know, Oxblood when dried look's like the Human equivalent of dried blood. I had to walk across the room and hand that in. The teacher said nothing of the incident. However, when I got the exam back, everyone saw it and made jokes about me having bled all over the paper. Did I mention that Oxblood really does look like dried blood? I did ace that test, though. Perfect 100.

[inotrym]

I always use blue Pilot G-2s for my exams. (decided that this is my favorite pen back in 2004 and never changed until half a year ago, when I discovered this forum and remembered about my FP enthousiasm)

 

FPs are nice but unless you have a real problem with your hands or sth, I would think that they are not designed for speed writing on crappy paper. Even Parker Quink bled on that paper.

 

The only combination I might consider trying is my fine Prera with Noodler's Black. But then again, I don't like taking exams in black. Blue is more easy to my eyes and makes my answers distinguishable from the questions.

[pajaro]

I didn't generally use a fountain pen in an exam, not trusting fountain pens of the 1960s.

 

If you use a fountain pen during an exam, you might run out of ink. Failing the exam gets you flunked out. Getting flunked out gets you kicked out of home. Getting kicked out of home leads to a life of crime. Don't become a criminal. Get rid of fountain pens.

[Ecriveur]

Back in the days when I wrote exams longhand, I always took multiple backup fountain pens into the exam room, just in case one of them malfunctioned. I still do that today in situations where I'm writing longhand in circumstances where I absolutely cannot afford to have anything impair my ability to write. I don't think I've ever had a malfunction though, unless you count a pen running out of ink.

Edited July 25, 2013 by Ecriveur

[truncated]

BSB in a Preppy with an old o-ring. I managed to get it on my face via my hand... ugh.

[AloofObserver]

Someone above made a very good point, you will never know if the cheap paper they give you in the exam can take you ink! You certainly wouldn't want your writing to look like a piece of modern art that no one understands!

 

....Unless you ARE trying to do a piece of modern art for your exam.... Apologies to any artist. I am not creative or sophisticated enough to understand these things... I've see some paintings which in my eyes look like coffee stains on a canvas...

This is actually a very significant problem. The exam paper at my university is so thin that even a fine TWSBI 540 nib caused immense feathering (with Waterman Florida/Serenity Blue). Luckily I brought a ballpoint with me. Now I only carry a ballpoint or a pencil to exams.

 

I also worried a little about a careless professor dropping some coffee (or whatever beverage...) on my exam thus making parts of it illegible. The ballpoint, while much less satifying to write with, is safer for exam purposes.

[Tom Aquinas]

This is actually a very significant problem. The exam paper at my university is so thin that even a fine TWSBI 540 nib caused immense feathering (with Waterman Florida/Serenity Blue). Luckily I brought a ballpoint with me. Now I only carry a ballpoint or a pencil to exams.

 

I also worried a little about a careless professor dropping some coffee (or whatever beverage...) on my exam thus making parts of it illegible. The ballpoint, while much less satifying to write with, is safer for exam purposes.

If this is the case with paper, then the university has a duty of care to warn students of the type of writing instrument to use, or even provide them, because even roller balls would be affected. The exams I have marked have been written on good paper, and I only ever saw a couple of papers answered in fp, for my subject.

[Nonsensical]

16 exams with FPs so far, no problems yet. I do carry at least 3-4 FPs, as well as a spare Uniball Jetstream/ Hi-Tec C/other BP just in case, though.

[rochester21]

I reject in full what andybiotic said. Sure, maybe expensive, quality ballpoints never fail(unless the refill runs out in the middle of the exam), but the ones i`m used to DO fail- quite a lot. They simply skip or smudge the paper because of the awful ink they use. I`m talking about the no name chinese/indian pens that kids in developing countries use by the millions.

 

Now, back to fountain pens. Naturally, i used fountain pens during 97% of my exams since 1st grade. A few times they have failed- forgot to refill the ink cartridge, one time the pen simply stopped writing and took a brake, and the last time the hero 616 jumbo that i uncapped spilled some ink- i forgot that this model does that when filled to the max. But after cleaning my fingers i kept on using the hero and got an A

 

There is one circumstance in which i wouldn`t trust a fountain pen: when you spill water on your exam sheet. Unless you have bulletproof ink, your writing will going to get smudged and fade. Fading can also occur in time, by using an unfortunate combination of cheap ink(pelikan) and cheap paper- i should know, i have had entire notebooks with faded writing

Edited July 25, 2013 by rochester21

[zuerincolour]

Man oh man oh man oh man.

I had written a full page of stuff, and the exam supervisors who watch you from the front started walking by the desks. She tripped up the steps and spilled her water on my page. She ended up telling me it was my fault for not using a 'normal pen' and I had to rewrite over with a borrowed Bic in my precious exam time.

[rochester21]

That`s not right. If SHE spilled HER bottle of water on your page without any intervention from you, then you should have been given extra time to rewrite that page. You should have filled a complaint against that supervisor !!! It`s ridiculous.

Edited July 25, 2013 by rochester21

[mmkoenecke]

I was the neurotic kid who brought THREE #2 pencils to the SAT's, and there

was a pencil sharpener in my pocket.

 

I was the neurotic kid who brought 22 #2 pencils to the SATs + a pencil sharpener, calculator, and batteries in case the calculator died.

 

Luckily, my pens have performed fairly well during exams. One time, just during class, I had a convertor fail and green ink gushed everywhere during Organic Chemistry. Later on, someone said that they didn't want to be like that girl in Orgo if they used their fountain pen.

 

Those blue books do love to drink ink, though. My Baoer 517 only made it through 2/3 of an exam with a full fill! Luckily, I had my trusty Phileas to finish out the essays.

[Tom Aquinas]

That`s not right. If SHE spilled HER bottle of water on your page without any intervention from you, then you should have been given extra time to rewrite that page. You should have filled a complaint against that supervisor !!! It`s ridiculous.

Agreed , a formal complaint more than justified on the facts given. It may also have in any event caused you to lose marks from your interruption. Her gratuitous comments about your writing instrument are out of order, and if the incident was not so long ago it is probably worthwhile writing to your Dean.

[zuerincolour]

Agreed , a formal complaint more than justified on the facts given. It may also have in any event caused you to lose marks from your interruption. Her gratuitous comments about your writing instrument are out of order, and if the incident was not so long ago it is probably worthwhile writing to your Dean.

 

That`s not right. If SHE spilled HER bottle of water on your page without any intervention from you, then you should have been given extra time to rewrite that page. You should have filled a complaint against that supervisor !!! It`s ridiculous.

 

I thought so too but given the extra time I had at the end and the really nice grade I got in the end, I didn't do much about it. I did mention the incident loudly to a friend while the course coordinator was around the next day, and he heard (yay). He told me to not worry because he graded my paper and said I did well.

[robofkent]

My trusty Parker 25 and black Quink got me through O Grades, Highers, Certificate of Sixth Year Studies, my professional exams and various other assessments over the years.

 

Many of these exams were 3 hour papers, and all were written on poor paper - but Quink coped. No nightmare scenarios, and I even refilled from the bottle a few times (used it as a couple of moments to think).

 

Of course I had a back up - Mum lent me her P45 for these occasions.

Great story, I have a Parker 25 and two Parker 45s on my desk at this moment

[Anne-Sophie]

For some reason, my primary school teachers had a thing about yellow Bic ballpoints, the thin ones in yellow that had the same shape as the contemporary Bic Crystal.

 

Those things were horrendous and I had to do all my school work with them until 4th grade.

 

In third grade, I bought one of those 4 colors Bic to do homework in my house.

 

In fourth grade, I got my first fountain pen and in fifth grade my second.

We were writing in earasable blue with ink erasers, we had to rewrite over the error with a rollerball or a ballpoint with blue ink.

 

Later on, the manufacturers offered a dual ink eraser/ultra fine marker, much easier to correct errors.

 

From 5th grade on, I took all my exams with 2 fountain pens which had been filled the night before, replacement cartridge for both, a quad colors Bic ballpoint with a spare blue refill, a rollerball with blue ink, a couple of ink erasers/fine blue marker correctors, a mechanical pencil, a couple of wood pencils and 2 erasers.

 

 

In university I had 3 plastic fountain pens with medium nibs refilled in the same manner, for class and exams, plus my nice graduation fountain pen which was used for homework.

 

We were required to write long hand, never had any problem with a fountain pen during an exam.

When one was empty, I switched to the other.

 

I did have loads of problems with rapidographs and, to this day, cannot stand thin ballpoints.

 

 

For exams or any long hand writing, I recommend at least 3 plastic or metal fountain pens school pens (cheap, cartridge/converter workhorse), filled with the same traditional blue or black ink.

 

Don't use a new fountain pen for the first time during an exam. Give it a week of daily use first.

 

Match pen and ink color, if you have to, or use demonstrators so you know they hold the same ink.

Bring a backup gel pen, rollerball or ballpoint with the same color as your fountain pen ink.

 

In addition, take pencils and erasers, handy for quick outlines, technical drawings, formula work, multiple choice tests, etc...

Edited August 24, 2013 by Anne-Sophie

[linux3214]

Standardized test paper and standardized test companies suck all around so after one incident where Collegeboard tried invalidating my AP score and used my fp ink for some bs rationalization I only use ballpoints for testing.

[yamborghini]

I tried to push some ink into the feed of my Jin Hao 159 so it would write. I did it too much and got ink all over the front of my book.

 

My visconti homosapiens ran out of ink during my philosophy exam, but luckily i had another back up.

 

I get a lot of bleed through, but you only use one side of the exam booklets in melb uni so its fine.