Writing in Junior Cert

Azuraiii

Hi, I know this might sound stupid or something but whatever might aswell give it a shot.

When my teacher told me you had to write in pen during the exam i was kinda abit distracted by it.
Ive always written in pencil due to the fact that I make alot of mistakes.
During the mocks I was pretty gutted when i got my English..90% of my mark deduction came from my scribbling on a wrong answer which at that time i did not know about any deductions from it.(never was i aware)
And from my maths i did it in pencil as a test..it didnt do any harm.

so i was wondering if there is any harm if i wrote in pencil in the junior cert?

Desire.

I also use pencil all the time. I used pencil in all my Pres and I didn't have any problems. Two teachers told me to use pen in the Junior Cert but they've been going on about it for ages.

Azuraiii

Thanks, this is really great to hear, i was worried i would get penalized in the near junior cert.

ChloeElla

You shouldn't get penalized, but pencil rubs off very easily & fades, so your answers may be unclear. Particularly if you want your paper to be rechecked, it'll be difficult for the corrector to read.

Desire.

I'd recommend using a heavy pencil so. Not too heavy, just not one of those really light ones.

spurious

Pencil is a PITA to correct. It's usually either too faint to see or so dark that it smudges from one page to the other.
Use biro.

implausible

Plus, you can get marked on your mistakes (in English, anyway). If you rub it out, the examiner can't see it. A line through a pen-written answer can still be made out.

Chuchoter

You're old enough to use pen. This is not primary school, pencil is a bitch to read and you don't want to piss off your examiner.

Azuraiii

I'm not saying I cant use a pen..I just feel i can do an exam much better with a pencil..

Besides im pretty sure mine wont smudge or fade anyways.

apkbarry

You're pretty sure your's won't fade?

There is a good 2 month period in which it may be sitting.. doing absolutely nothing...

Colm!

deemark wrote: »

Plus, you can get marked on your mistakes (in English, anyway). If you rub it out, the examiner can't see it. A line through a pen-written answer can still be made out.

No you can't. An examiner shouldn't mark someone on a mistake that's removed from their final product.

If I spelled a word wrong in the above sentence, backspaced it and wrote it again, you'd read the finished sentence and work on that. Same thing goes with crossed-out exam mistakes.


If you really want to use pencil for rubbing out, get yourself a decent mechanical pencil. Because, seriously, normal pencils can be annoying as hell to read sometimes.

spurious

Colm! wrote: »

No you can't. An examiner shouldn't mark someone on a mistake that's removed from their final product.

Whether they should or shouldn't is debatable.

When I corrected, we were told at Junior Cert. level to allow such answers. Obviously not in the case of True/False answers, but if someone was writing about Da Vinci, got mixed up in the middle and crossed out correct facts and replaced them with facts about Michelangelo, we would correct the 'right' Da Vinci statements if they were visible.

• Don't use pencil.
• NEVER use Tippex or similar products.
• Just put a line through any mistakes you make.

implausible

Colm! wrote: »

No you can't. An examiner shouldn't mark someone on a mistake that's removed from their final product.

Often students cross out a paragraph or sentence that's better or more accurate than the one they replaced it with. I've often given more marks to half a crossed-out essay when the student didn't get time to write a better answer.

iLikePiano99

You should write in pen...pen doesn't fade. Think about it...when you finish your exam there is a good 4-5 months before the results and 2-3 months before your exam is corrected. Your exam papers will be in a pile of maybe 100 papers meaning that your paper will be squashed and compressed...chances are your work will be smudged and faded. What if you need to get it rechecked and your pencil has smudged or faded? you could end up getting a lower grade because the examiner can't read it. Also, pen looks neater and tidier. Pencil looks messy. Take everyone's advice and use pen!

Azuraiii

apkbarry wrote: »

You're pretty sure your's won't fade?

There is a good 2 month period in which it may be sitting.. doing absolutely nothing...

Yeah, i use a mechanical pencil 0.5d

Really worried since in my mocks ive made mistakes in my essay and found it when reviewed after i was done... i crossed it but had not much space to write the proper answer...therefore docked marks

AoifeMusic95

You can buy a biro with a rubber on top. I used it in the pres and found it helpful for little spelling mistakes. I put a line through other mistakes. Maybe use that kind of pen

Jackobyte

You definitely should use pen. If your answers are clear, tidy and easily legible, the examiner is going to be in a better mood, hence more and easier marks.

mixery

Well, my examiner will be pretty pissed off . My writing is terrible. The school wanted to get me a laptop, but I said I want to give it a try myself. I improved a bit, but it still looks terrible. And I have to write a note "please don't judge me by my writing but by the content" . If it goes very bad I'll take the laptop for the LC course...

spurious

mixery wrote: »

Well, my examiner will be pretty pissed off . My writing is terrible. The school wanted to get me a laptop, but I said I want to give it a try myself. I improved a bit, but it still looks terrible. And I have to write a note "please don't judge me by my writing but by the content" . If it goes very bad I'll take the laptop for the LC course...

Unless you have a physical ailment, it really might be worth your while getting a couple of headline copies and sorting out your handwriting over the summer. It's possible to do in a couple of weeks if you're prepared to work.

innovation.

Hmm well I guess I'm a bit screwed too. I don't just a put a line through my mistakes, I scribble out the whole thing. It's a force of habit, atleast I know for the rest of my exams now though.

mixery

spurious, heh, it's not that simple. I do have some homework every week on it, I have a person supervising the development and even some special pen. I did whatever I could to improve it. Well, we'll see how it goes.

Desire.

I used pen in English yesterday but I used pencil for Irish earlier and will again for paper two later.