<p>Ticonderoga, hands down, a #2 soft, never hard. Makes a difference. A pencil is a tool, so if you’re using a nice one, you’re usually going to like it better, even if you don’t realize it</p>
<p>I just happened across this thread today, after a discussion on Facebook about how grade school standardized testing will be moving away from using pencil and paper to being done of computers and perhaps iPad one day.</p>
<p>I used to buy all those cheap, get 10 for a pen or 10 cents pencils. Then, one day when my (now college age son) was in elementary school, I was trying to erase something on paper and it smeared horribly. Exasperated, I said out loud to no one in particular: “Why do some erasers work so good and others smear like this?” My son immediately said, “It’s the brand of pencils”. He then told me about the Ticonderoga pencils, and that they were always given out to take the standardized tests in school. </p>
<p>I have never bought those cheap pencils again. I do like the look of the black Ticonderogas but yellow are just fine, too. Not only do they always erase cleanly, they sharpen easily, too. I work as a paraprofessional in a grade school, and the majority of kids use cheap pencils that never sharpen nicely, whether you use a manual sharpener or an electric one.</p>
<p>My son eventually preferred big fat mechanical pencils as he got older because he wrote so much, the constant having to re-sharpen a pencil took too much time. I also like them as well.</p>
<p>A runner up in the pencil category, tho, for the budget minded, are the Papermate pencils, they can be found in many colors, sharpen nicely and the erasers don’t smear, either.</p>