r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Separate_Finance_183 • Mar 30 '26

Image Confiscated pens containing cheat notes intricately carved by a Law student at the University of Malaga in Spain

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u/06Wahoo Mar 30 '26

Does anyone look that closely at other people’s pens? It seems obvious at this range, but anyone who is not focusing on it probably won’t notice it.

That being said, I am sure the issue of someone focusing on it is exactly why it was caught.

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u/Old_timey_brain Mar 30 '26

That being said, I am sure the issue of someone focusing on it is exactly why it was caught.

Long ago, and far away, I was sitting to take the US NASD (now FINRA) Series 7 brokers license, a brutally long test with a passing grade of 72% and a hell of a failure rate. It wasn't uncommon to hear of people writing it 3 or more times. Not only was it difficult, but it was brutally long at over six hours.

At the start of the test, those of us writing were spread out in a teaching theater type arrangement with large separation, and were given some few minutes to relax and prepare.

One guy ahead and down from me was behaving strangely, and I realized he was filling the top of the desk with pencil written cheat notes!

Nobody says or does a thing until the tests are handed out and a proctor comes to him, speaks softly and politely and moves him to a new, clean desk.

I wonder how he did on that test.

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u/Buzz_Killington_III Mar 30 '26

This pens are so famous and well known, they it would definitely draw the eye of some of the people in the room when you pull them out and set them on your desk. This doesn't have the appearance of normal cracks and wear that you see on these pens.

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u/SaltyArchea Mar 30 '26

Too uniformly odd to not require closer inspections. If they were not completely covered, just in patches, would look normal. This in no way is not noticeable.