<p>Yeah, I now know you were supposed to do it all in pen, and I now know it said to do it in the instructions. I'm amazed I didn't notice it or hear the coordinator say it. I must've really been in the zone. I did my DBQ and both of my FRQs in pencil. Am I screwed?</p>
<ol>
<li>Is your handwriting legible?</li>
<li>Is the pencil relatively dark?</li>
</ol>
<p>If the answers to both questions are yes, then you SHOULD be alright. They require pen for legibility and clearness.</p>
<p>Yes and yes as far as I know, but after doing some research I’ve seen a lot of conflicting answers, so I was hoping to get one straight answer.</p>
<p>You should be fine.</p>
<p>This is a post from Trevor Packer, the head of AP at the College Board:</p>
<p>@AP_Trevor i answered my ap biology free response in pencil, will it still be graded even though its not in pen?</p>
<p>Trevor Packer @AP_Trevor
@harusuzumi yes it will be graded.</p>
<p>I did that for AP Euro last year, for the first essay because I didn’t know and it was fine.</p>
<p>Thanks guys :)</p>
<p>This just happened to me. I just realized that I had to use pen. I am so nervous I feel like planet Earth is exploding in my head. I hope that this thing about them actually grading it is true.</p>
<p>Same thing happened to me. 
</p>
<p>I had the pleasure of sitting next to the biggest a$$whole in the whole school during the test. I know something’s going on as I’m writing my essays when every few minutes, he turns toward me and gives me the douchiest smirk possible. Fast forward an hour or so, and the proctor has called time and is collecting the booklets. He turns towards me and says, “Hey, redisthenewblack, are you going to be real pissed when you get your 1?” I’m really not in the mood so all I do is give him a look and mutter, “really?”. </p>
<p>He then starts laughing in his douchey, condescending, superiority complex conveying, your-girlfriend-just-cheated-on-you-with-me laugh and says, “You were supposed to write the essay in pen, moron. Can’t you follow directions?” </p>
<p>I was that close to having an on the spot heart attack, hemorrhage, and brain aneurysm, all at once. The guy then talks more crap…“you’re gonna be lucky if they give you a score at all”… blah blah blah. When the proctor lets us get up, I immediately walk over to my friend on the room, and he kinda said the same thing, although not with such a condescending and belittling attitude, He said that the CollegeBoard was really anal-retentive when it comes to non-compliant people and said that they most likely throw out my answer sheets. He did say that my fairly decent multiple choice scores on the last few practice AP tests (in the 90’s) would make up for my abysmal performance on the free response, and that I would probably get a 3, which in all honesty isn’t a bad score.I talked to a couple of my other friends and my girlfriend and they all said the same thing.</p>
<p>I was under the impression that the pen was to be used ONLY for writing your initials on the front cover of the free response and filling in the other stuff on the covers. I had completely overlooked the fact that we were supposed to write the ESSAY with the pen.</p>
<p>I go home, and I’m freaking out. I log onto college confidential, post the EXACT same question, and within a matter of minutes, I had people saying, “It’s just fine, as long as they can read it they will give you a score.” Kind of a gamble, especially considering that I have less-than-stellar handwriting, but oh well. I’m hoping for the best.</p>
<p>Good luck :)</p>
<p>PD</p>
<p>Oh, wow, I don’t even think I wrote my initials in pen. But yeah, I really hope that my test is graded. I think I did really well on multiple choice, like 70/80, so that would get me around a 3 with 0s on the essays. With the essays graded, I think I have a pretty good shot at a 5.</p>
<p>lol i wrote all my answers in pencil last year for AP HuG-- not sure if the rules are any different for that one, but I got a 5 on it, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it? idk</p>
<p>Our APUSH teacher was super obsessive about how we had to use a pen, so I don’t think anyone in our class made that mistake tbh.</p>