Trojans beware: a popular writing utensil could be messing up your test scores.

Ona recent assessment, math teacher Adrianna Gill realized some of her students did not perform well on their test.

“I noticed some of my highest performing students were getting Fs on their test,” she said.

Ms. Gill said she learned that some of her students were using erasable pens on their scantron forms, which are sheets that students use to bubble in their answers. She had to go back and regrade the tests that were filled out with erasable pens.

Ms. Gill noticed that students that used pencils on the test got the scores that they should have. However, those who used erasable pens may have received bad scores.

That’s because the test scanner doesn’t read ink as well as pencil, Gill said.

Sixth-grade student Penelope Higgins is one of the students whose test scored may have been affected because she used an erasable pen on the test.

Higgins said she writes with erasable pens often.

”I use them pretty much every day,” she said. “I like my handwriting better with erasable pens.”

Students who take tests on scantron forms should use a No. 2 pencil over a pen according to test-taking advice from Angelo State University.

Gill has changed the policy in her classroom. Her students must use pencils when taking scantron tests.