My pen ran out in my physics exam..

My black pen ran out when i was taking physics paper 3 on 14 June..

er.. tt was like halfway through my paper and the only other writing material i had was a pencil. As some ppl would know, edexcel physics paper 3 is like a 'speed paper' where each second is crucial (at least for me~).

yeh.. i wrote the last one and a half page in a pencil, out of 4 pages.. will they penalise me for doing tt? i was so nervous tt time and couldn't think of anything but juz carrying on using pencil..
oh BTW, there's some trace showing tt my pen ran out on the paper..(though it's barely noticable)

argh~~ i'm so scared if they penalise me doing tt!!
how do u think ppl?
should i inform my sch's examination officer?

Reply 1

noggin

i did ocr chem unifying concepts on thursday and i always write displayed formulae and equations in pencil so its easy to rub out if i make a mistake. was quite pleased with the paper, had checked it through and had 5 minutes left....turned to the front of the paper and saw in capital letters DO NOT WRITE IN PENCIL...i really nearly crapped myself!! frantically went through the entire paper writing over my pencil marks in biro and then just had a chance to rub out the pencil marks from underneath. it was a close thing though - blimey! did anyone else notice that this unif concepts was a diff layout - there were barcodes and stuff on the pages..weird.

Reply 2

glance

hihogyu- you should have brought at least 50 spares pens in with you. Well, maybe not 50, but enough in case your pen runs out, then your spare pen runs out, then your spare-spare pen refuses to work and so on. I took like 10 into each exam, just to be safe :smile:

If you have anymore exams, make sure you bring spare equipment.

Reply 3

Sapphira

think i really should take more stuff into exams with me...normally just have a pen, pencil and calculator! so panicked quite badly when we needed a ruler in biology 5B...luckily they had a supply of spares for people who assumed you wouldnt need to measure anything in bio! :rolleyes:

Reply 4

The Albatross

i always take about 5 different pens, 2 pencils, two calculators, spare cartridges, and some lavender!

Reply 5

Emzeebubs

my black pen ran out in P5 maths on wednesday, so about halfway thru, it trails off and the only other pen i had was bluish purply so i wrote "pen ran out!!" frantically then carried on. hope it doesnt matter

Reply 6

ThunderCat8

noggin

did anyone else notice that this unif concepts was a diff layout - there were barcodes and stuff on the pages..weird.

My paper was laid out exactly as normal! Weird seeing as it was the same exam! My Physics FFE OCR paper had barcodes all over it down the spine, so maybe some of the papers are like that, and some are normal. Strange huh!

On the front of my Unif Concepts paper it did not say anything about not writing in pencil, so they must have had different papers sent out! Very confusing! I wrote out loads in pencil in that exam, so I hope they don't penalise me! If i didnt write in pencil, my paper would have been VERY messy indeed! (it already was, but even moreso!)

Reply 7

Rose in Bloom

I remember this time last year, I was doing my IGCSE Information Technology exam and wasn't sure of the answers so did the whole paper in pencil...then, realised that I had only 15 minutes to wrte it all up in pen....paniced majorly and then, by the end of the paper..I still had almost half the paper in pencil ...still I managed to get an A*

Reply 8

twista501

sometimes for maths exams they scan the paper and mark it on a computer screen. but i dont kno which papers this applies to. maybe the ones you hav to write the answers in the booklet with the qs. one of my teachers told me this so ive jus been using black biro everytime. i think ur ok with pencil though they arent usually that harsh. as long as they can read your writing.

Reply 9

infekt

as long as u did half ur paper in pen .... or some part ... any daft examiner would realise u ran out ... may deduct a few marks for stupidity for not takin in another pen ...

jus kidding :smile: