am I the only sane person left who does maths in pensil?

[CairoPrankster]

DS1, year nine, insists that he will be told to do his homework again if it is done in pensil.
Please tell me this is not normal school policy?

[CairoPrankster]

I have just checked his maths homework and it is perfect, and in pen (swoon)

The teachers among you have explained the need for pen, though it still feels nuts, I always left the workings out in pencil I just needed to be able to rub out the bits where I wrote things down in the wrong sequence or backwards [yes I do this all the time]

I don't mind having my spelling corrected, as a lifetime dyslexic you get very used to it, and yes spelling is important just not as easy as most people think.

[NoComet]

Well I never knew a pensil was a flag, although I have no doubt, spelt the writing implement that way. DD1 and me are both dyslexic and would prefer to write using erasable graphite.

[zeno]

Maths examinations have to be written in black ink for most boards now. This is because papers are scanned for marking purposes. Pencil can be used for diagrams but everything else should be in ink.

[morethanpotatoprints]

We all do maths in pencil in our house.

[freyasnow]

The rubbing out argument is neither here nor there now since so many pens have ink that can be rubbed out.

[BackforGood]

Opps - thanks MadamGinger



That said, it makes what the school is saying 'right' IYSWIM, IMO. Maths teachers want to see how a person has got to the answer they have got to - they don't want the possibility of lots of rubbing out and changes of mind not being recorded. Plus, it's harder to read as pencil tends to be much lighter in colour.

thesaurusgirl I write little tiny numbers in the corner of the square, when I've got it narrowed down to a possible 2 or 3 numbers.

[ConfusedPixie]

Definitely in pencil, I do everything in pencil though (the handy wind up ones!)

[NiceTabard]

Maybe it depends what sort of maths you are doing. I can see that if you are doing accounts or something it needs to be permanent, but if you are doing maths for the fun of it and working out and thinking around things then pencil is much more practical IME.

A bit like when you;re thinking around a problem at work you use a whiteboard precisely so that you can scribble notes / rub bits out and think through the problem.

I always enjoyed doing maths on a blackboard as well for that very reason

[WooWooOwl]

I would have thought that by year 9, it was much more common to use a pen for anything other than drawings or diagrams.

I'd also have thought that maths teachers would want to see if a student had been able to do something first time, or if they had made multiple mistakes before getting it right.

[gintastic]

I do maths daily at work on calculation paper, and I always always do it in pencil. So I can go back and amend without having to start again, a lot of what I do is an iterative process, I would waste so much time if I worked in pen!

My DH said he failed an exam for writing in pen once, not because he wrote in pen but because he couldn't easily make changes and ran out of time (7.5 hour exam - I have to sit it in April and am bricking it, only a 30% pass rate...)

[thesaurusgirl]

Hijacking slightly, but I am always in awe of people who do Sudoku in pen.

PLEASE tell me how you do that .

[Beastofburden]

When I was a baby accountant anything we wrote in pencil would be torn up, cos it could be altered. Ditto tippex. Can't see the issue now so much of stuff is typed anyway.

[Heartbrokenmum73]

DD is in Y7 and her first batch of French homework had no feedback on it other than 'please write in pen'. Quality of content was obviously unimportant

[Salmotrutta]

And yes, obviously exams are done in pen.

[Salmotrutta]

I don't teach maths but I frankly don't care what my pupils write in for my subject.

As long as it's legible and not a bloody highlighter (yes, I'm looking at you Miss Flourescent Pen Lover) they can write in blood for all I care.

[cardibach]

I am confused by all those posters who say they have always used pencil, as it has been the rule for as long as I can remember that exam work be done in pen. I teach (English) in a Secondary school and all pupils use pen for everything.

[blueemerald]

As a teacher (of English admittedly) I prefer my students to write in pen as, frankly, their mistakes are more interesting to me than their correct answers.

Also exam papers need to be written in pen.

[candycoatedwaterdrops]

Spelling is important but not on social media and not nice 'cause the OP said she has dyslexia. If OP had asked us to proof read her PhD thesis, I would obv comment.

[Tweasels]

I love using a nice sharp pencil. Something very satisfying about it. I think it's odd to make students use a pen for maths.

[madamginger]

Back for good, the op said year 9 which is 13-14 yrs old

[ShoeWhore]

Oh now you have disappointed me OP. You need a proper freshly sharpened pencil, none of this propelling pencil nonsense.

[pepperrabbit]

I do maths puzzles to relax - I have several very lovely pencils

[BackforGood]

Well, at 9, all my dc were still writing in pencil anyway - it tended to be in Yr5 or 6 that they "won" the right to start using a pen.

As an adult though numberwork should be done in pen, from an accounting pov because you can't change a figure without it being noticeable (it's why typex isn't allowed too). Except if you are doing a graph or diagram, when of course you should use pencil.

[ExitPursuedByABear]

DH loves his pencil.

and spelling is important