May 7, 2012
Elizabeth Luzynski
[email protected]
Disclaimer: The contents of the Scribble are completely fabricated, peppered with inconsistencies and laced with lies. Any resemblance to the truth found herein is a matter of sheer luck. The Scribble should be approached with a healthy dose of skepticism, and its claims should be taken – if they are taken at all – with many grains of salt.
You’ve used the booklets for tests in various classes, but have you ever thought that the paper inside looked familiar?
Students were shocked Monday at swirling allegations of a scam involving Blue Books – the testing booklets made of notebook paper. Blanca Parcha, a volunteer student investigator hoping to go into forensics, was at a shopping trip to Walmart when she made the discovery.
“I was at Walmart for – I mean, to pick up something for a friend, when I found something that looked like Blue Book paper,” Parcha, 21, said. “At first it seemed suspicious that the notebook paper looked just like my Blue Book paper. Then I realized that Blue Books are merely just sheets of notebook paper stapled together.”
Parcha said that she has been using Blue Books for several semesters, but has just now realized that they are made of notebook paper.
“I mean, I’m a blonde, but even for me, I’m not sure how I missed that for so long,” Parcha said.
Parcha and a handful of other students are heading up a volunteer student-run watchdog group on campus called People Ousting Liars in Commanding Environments, or POLICE.
POLICE released a statement saying that they were “royally displeased” with how long Blue Books have continued to be sold while cheaper paper can be bought elsewhere.
The group sent a media inquiry to Growling Creek Parchment Pieces – the company that produces Blue Books – but did not receive a response.
“If Blue Books are only made out of notebook paper, then why are they so expensive?” wonders POLICE member Trenton Green.
Green, a junior business major, thinks that Blue Books do not make monetary sense when someone could go to Walmart and buy notebook paper for a fraction of the cost.
“[Blue Books] should at least come with sample essay outlines in the front cover,” Green said.
Carry Watson, a sophomore communication major, wonders why professors still require students to purchase Blue Books for testing.
“It makes sense to require students to purchase Scantrons since there’s really no other way to do exams and calculate grades for dozens of students in a timely fashion,” Watson said. “But for writing essays, why can’t students just use notebook paper? Blue Books are just stapled pieces of notebook paper, anyway. If I need to bring in a stapler too, I can do that.”