Exam day, rules & kit
Do exams have to be written in black pen?
Yes - write in black ink or black ballpoint. Exam scripts are scanned and marked on screen, and black scans most clearly. If you have already sat a paper in blue, breathe: your answers will still be marked - examiners mark what they can read, whatever the colour. Just switch to black for the rest. Gel pens, erasable pens and correcting fluid are not allowed. Bring at least two black pens.
Last updated 29 July 2026 · Written and fact-checked by the GCSEwiz team
Why black ink?
It is not tradition - it is scanning. Your paper does not travel to an examiner's kitchen table any more: it is scanned and marked on screen, often with different examiners marking different questions. Black ballpoint produces the crispest scan; other colours can come through fainter. The rule exists so that every mark you earn is easy to see. That is the whole story - there is no trick to it.
'I wrote in blue - am I doomed?'
No. This panic arrives on forums every single June, so let's settle it honestly: a paper written in blue is still marked. Examiners mark what is in front of them, and legible blue ink is legible. Blue scans slightly less crisply than black, which is why the rule says black - but nobody bins a script over ink colour, and your marks are not forfeit. So don't spend tonight re-living it.
What to actually do: use black for every remaining paper, and if you are worried, mention it to your exams officer - they have heard it before and will reassure you in about four seconds. Then let it go. The rule is worth following; breaking it once is not worth losing sleep over.
Gel pens, erasable pens and Tipp-Ex
The JCQ guidance rules out correcting fluid and correcting tape, and erasable pens with them - an answer that can vanish is a problem for a scanned, remotely-marked script. Gel pens are best avoided too: some smudge, and some inks scan poorly. A plain black ballpoint is the boring, bomb-proof choice.
Made a mistake? Cross it out with a single neat line and write the correction. Crossed-out work is simply not marked - and here is a quietly useful detail: if you cross something out and write nothing to replace it, you have removed it from consideration, so only cross out work when you have something better. A visible correction never costs you marks; examiners read past crossings-out all day.
If your pen dies mid-exam
Put your hand up. Invigilators deal with this constantly - schools keep spare pens for exactly this moment, and asking costs you nothing but the few seconds it takes. This is also why the kit list says two pens minimum: your own spare is faster than anyone's stationery drawer. A dead pen is a tiny logistics blip, not a crisis - the exam carries on, and so do you.