It's not that marks would be deducted straight away simply because you used a blue pen, but rather that when your exam is scanned onto the computer and marked by the moderators, blue pen might not turn up. This would end up making your exam paper look blank or highly illegible, which would lose you marks.
Its always been blue or black. It will show up just fine in a scanner as long as you are sensible and dont go for something like a very very light sky blue.
[QUOTE=george_c00per;64731705]It's not that marks would be deducted straight away simply because you used a blue pen, but rather that when your exam is scanned onto the computer and marked by the moderators, blue pen might not turn up. This would end up making your exam paper look blank or highly illegible, which would lose you marks.
no on the paper it says that u can use blue or black pen dont scare me =-O
[QUOTE=george_c00per;64731857]Every exam I've done so far recommends only dark blue or black pen. You basically need a colour which stands out against the page.
On a video I watched the other day once they scan them if they are illegible they can retrieve the paper and mark it manually if needs be, most usually if they are in blue ink
I use blue pen all the time BUT i have been shouted at by teachers for using blue. Blue has a lower chance of showing up on scanner than black, and since exams are scanned and sent off to examiners i wouldn't dream of taking such a risk.
If the blue ends up coming out faint and examiner won't bother trying hard to make out what you wrote and you could loose marks. DONT TAKE THE RISK
On exam papers it usually says black ball point pen
[QUOTE=gregan;64731909]On a video I watched the other day once they scan them if they are illegible they can retrieve the paper and mark it manually if needs be, most usually if they are in blue ink
Would your marks not be counted if you used a blue pen?
I doubt it; using black pen is more preferred by exam boards so that your answers, once scanned, show up clearly for the examiners to mark. With blue pen your writing may not show up as well, so what they tend to do is instead manually mark the paper by hand rather than on a computer