Easy Hacks for Bright Life

We’ve all been there – it’s exam day, and you’re nervously fidgeting with your pencil and your trusty Chapstick. You’re feeling confident, but as you start filling in the bubbles on your Scantron sheet, disaster strikes. Your Chapstick smudges onto the paper, creating a sticky mess and rendering your answers illegible. What do you do? Firstly, it’s important to understand why Chapstick (or any oily substance, for that matter) can cause issues with Scantrons. Scantrons use a process called optical mark recognition, which involves a machine reading the reflectance of a marked area on the paper. Oily substances can interfere with this process by reducing the reflectivity of the paper or causing smudges that disrupt the scanning process. This can result in incorrect answers being recorded, or worse – your entire exam being rejected. So, how can you prevent this from happening to you? The best course of action is to avoid using any oily products, such as Chapstick, on exam day. However,