The Best Writing Utensil For Testing and Learning: A Statistical Survey and Analysis

I've always wondered which utensil would garner the greatest scores and affect my learning most positively. This might seem like a silly inquisition, but logically speaking, it makes plenty of sense. There are many characteristics to each utensil that could possibly affect both learning and testing. Here they are!

A pencil requires sharpening and dulls over time. Because of this, a pencil could very easily distract a student from notes and interrupt a test. Also, a pencil tip can snap, causing a further interruption and distraction to the student. Pencils have erasers though, meaning they would logically condense space and allow for more legibility. No scribbling out.

A pen can easily run out of ink or simply stop writing, causing a distraction. This is more rare than a pencil tip breaking though. Likewise, the color of a pen can have a psychological effect on both the tester and the teacher or professor grading. Red is believed to create hostility and overall lower grades while green is believed to soothe and create overall higher grades.

A mechanical pencil has the advantage of not needing to be sharpened. On the other hand, mechanical pencils run out of graphite and jam relatively easily. Also, they sometimes create a screeching noise that is very irritable.

They all have their advantages to some degree. I would think that during math tests, a pen would be inferior because a lot of erasing is often necessary. On a spelling test though, it probably wouldn't matter. Why speculate when we can test though? I had to conduct a survey for my Honors Statistics course (which is technically a very in depth college course including course material usually only covered in two college statistics classes. Yay dual enrollment!) Anyways, here's how I did it, why I did it, all of the results, and my overall analysis. Since statistics is a tricky science, it's hard to get anything absolutely conclusive, but easy to find trends.

The proposed statistical analyses will be an observational study. The population of interest will be the *** High School, with a population size of roughly 400 students. My sample size will range from approximately 50 to 100 students. The main categorical data that will be collected will be the types of utensils that students use during a test and the main numerical data that will be collected will be the corresponding letter grades of the students. Other data collected will be gender and the major departments of the classes analyzed. For the Utensils data, I will have four categories as well as a subcategory for the pens section: standard pencil, mechanical pencil, unanimous utensil, and pens. The subcategory for pen used will be the color of pen.

I anticipate that the mechanical pencils as well as the pens will show higher grades than the standard wooden pencil. I also anticipate that the unanimous utensils will have a focused low grade level with a few extreme outliers. I believe that the pen colors will not have a substantial effect on the grades. I also think that gender will not create a big difference. The department will probably have an enormous effect on the grades.

I believe that confounding variables will include the departments of study considering certain subjects require different types and amounts of writing. For this reason, I will split up all of the departments into the major categories through blocking as already determined by the school district, which will include English, social studies, math, and science. These departments were chosen because they represent the entirety of the school since their classes are required for graduation. I will then take separate lists of all of the classes offered within those categories, number them, and use a random number generator to choose my sample groups through cluster sampling. I will use the first class generated in each subject. With that class in mind, I will approach the teachers and request that during their next exam, they attach a sheet of paper with the different categories on it. After they grade the papers, they will attach the letter grade at the bottom and remove the last page for my use. I will bribe them with baked goods.

Teachers and classes to be sampled:

English Department

1. Mr. *** - Honors English II, period 4

Social Studies Department

1. Mr. *** - Honors American History II, period 2

Math Department

1. Mr. *** - Honors Calculus, period 4

Science Department

1. Mrs. *** - Honors Chemistry II, period 3

Following is the questionnaire to be attached. I will know the department and will request the grade be written on one of the corners.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Please circle the type of utensil used to take this test.

Standard Wooden Pencil

Standard Pen

Mechanical Pencil

Other

If you used a pen, please indicate the color of ink (I know it’s obvious.) If you circled “other,” indicate what utensil you did use. (Answer on the line.)

Please circle your gender.

Male

Female

Following are the results to the survey.

Data does not start to appear until half way through the table, with one exception occurring within 21 – 30. From 61 – 70 onward, data then begins to accumulate. This shows how relatively high the test scores were as compared to what they could have been had they been equally distributed throughout the entire range. Also noteworthy is the fact that as the range increases, so does the frequency, which at least doubles every time after the 61 – 70 range.

The frequency of pens and pencils are somewhat similar and the scores are likewise. The frequency of mechanical pencils, on the other hand, is somewhat larger. The Average score on exams for mechanical are not much higher than those of pencils and pens. Thirty nine percent of pencil users are men, nineteen percent of mechanical users are men, and a startling eighty one percent of pen users are men. This suggests that pens are more popular amongst men and mechanical are more popular among women. Due to the higher number of women, however, this ratio is not an accurate measurement.

Black pens have a slightly higher frequency and a higher average score than blue pens. These are the only values of scores that are relatively distinguishable from one another.

Based on the data from the tables, the utensil used on a test does not have a major impact on the test score. Still, I randomly selected a bunch of honors courses, which was completely ridiculously unexpected. This could have skewed the results because an honors student typically works well under any conditions, and the knowledge of the student far outweighs extraneous factors to being educated. In other words, they naturally have more focus. Oh well! Test how you choose!