Blue Books and Scantrons: Final Exam Essentials

If your child is taking final exams soon he’ll probably be studying a lot, but there’s one way he can prepare for exams that doesn’t involve studying at all. It involves purchasing the correct Blue Book or Scantron forms. No matter how techno savvy college students are these days some things never seem to change, and most students will still take exams using pencil, or pen, and paper.

Blue Books – Are exactly what the name implies.  These slim paper booklets with the traditional blue covers, approved at most colleges and universities for essay and short answer exams, range in size from 8.5 x 7 inches to 8.5 x 11 inches and usually contain 4-12 sheet of wide ruled paper. Some professors will allow students to choose their size and number of pages while others specify a certain size.

You may think it’s easy for students to cheat using Blue Books since they can hide notes within the pages of the book, but usually students will pass in their blank books at the beginning of the exam and the professor will shuffle and redistribute them randomly to all members of the class.

* A Green Book also exists and is just a recycled, earth friendly version of the Blue Book.
 

 

Scantrons – Remember all those “fill-in-the-bubble” exams and standardized tests you took in K-12? Well, if you remember what those test’s answer sheets looked like you have a good idea of what a Scantron form looks like. There are dozens of varieties of these forms from narrow, 3.5 x 8.5 inch, 30 answer forms, to 8.5 x 11 inch double-sided, 240 answer forms. Whatever size they are, they all can be electronically scanned and scored in the same way and are used for multiple choice and true false question exams.

Whatever your student needs for his exams, it’s always a good idea for him to buy in advance and buy extras as well. These forms can always be purchased at campus books stores, as well as some big box stores in college towns, and they are also often distributed for free by academic advising offices, tutoring centers or the campus library.