<p>Title says it all. I'm wondering if proctors allow them. I mean pen as in using a pen to write in the text booklet, not in the answer sheet.</p>
<p>Nope! The only things you’re allowed to have on your desk are your ID, #2 pencils, an erase, a sharpener (definitely good to have one!), and a calculator for the math sections.</p>
<p>Not allowed.</p>
<p>Never. Don’t even bring them to the test center!</p>
<p>I used a mechanical pencil freshman year.</p>
<p>The test doesn’t allow you to use mechanical pencils, pens, or highlighters because there is a chance that the machine won’t be able to read your answers when they grade your scores</p>
<p><em>facepalm</em> I mean using highlighters to mark up the passage, mechanical pencils to write in the test booklet, and pens to similarly mark up the passage!</p>
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<p>They are not allowed on the test period. Doesn’t matter what you use them for. The issue with highlighters is that students were bringing in highlighters and then picking up a particular color highlighter to tell answers to other kids using a code. I’d assume pens and mechanical pencils are banned for the same reason.</p>
<p>But why do you want to bring all those items? You can underline in lieu of highlighting. And I have no idea why you would want to switch between pens, mechanical pencils and the #2 pencil, and waste precious time when the #2 pencil alone can do the same job.</p>
<p>Breaking the college board’s rules, I used forbidden mechanical pencils on my second SAT. </p>
<p>Clearly, the unfair advantage I got from doing this explains my score improvement.</p>
<p>Machanicals and pen’s don’t need sharpening.</p>
<p>Why would you even need sharpeners?</p>
<p>Do you only take one pencil with you?
Pens and highlighters aren’t allowed.</p>
<p>All you need is 4 really good (Dixon Ticonderoga! ) pencils.</p>
<p>Use of pens and highlighters–even just marking passages in the test booklet–would get you an irregularity report if the proctor noticed it, which should happen. You aren’t even supposed to have those on the desk. Mechanical pencils you can get away with, as far as I can tell. I don’t allow them in my administrations but kids are always telling me they have used them in other tests. It drives me crazy. The instructions say no mechanical pencils–which includes number 2 mechanical pencils–but if you are found using one, you can proceed testing and I don’t think there is an irregularity report.</p>
<p>My friend used a mechanical pencil on the ACTS and scored a 34. I don’t think there is correlation between writing utensils and score though.</p>
<p>Mechanical pencils really aren’t different from regular pencils excecpt for the fact that, with enough lead, you can trust them not to screw you over.</p>
<p>If you want the SAT to be a test of how many pencils a person brought (pencil preparedness) rather than academic ability, then of course people should take the rule more seriously.</p>
<p>Please, Please, Please!! DO bring a sharpener and an eraser and use them while you write the essay. Your reader will be able to read your essay and not have to guess at half of what you wrote.</p>
<p>^Pineappleboat, Ibouchard, dzzallday, and some of the other people above are blatantly incorrect. Their information is egregiously misleading, so do not trust them. I used a mechanical pencils and got a 2370. In fact, I doubt they even took the SAT.
Please ignore them.</p>
<p>Mechanical pencils are not allowed. Period. DO NOT USE/BRING THEM ANY MORE. I’m not sure how nobody told you not to use your pencil since it should have been confiscated, but I guess you got lucky.</p>
<p>I used them. Interestingly, tons of people on this forum used them, too. The proctor saw me using them but did not confiscate them. I even asked if they were okay. She said yes.</p>