Scantron
Scantron
[A classroom scene. There are two desks, and the front one is occupied by the student. Miss Lenhart stands panel right facing the student.] Miss Lenhart: Okay class, I've turned in your exams for grading. Now— Student: Miss Lenhart?
[View is now simply student in desk and teacher. The student is holding a pencil. Miss Lenhart looks horrified.] Student: I used a #3 pencil instead of a #2. Will that mess anything up? Miss Lenhart: You WHAT?
[Miss Lenhart stands, covering her face, in front of an off-panel right explosion. The unseen speaker is off-panel right.] AIEEE BLAM Unseen speaker: OH GOD!
[The student and Miss Lenhart are left-panel. The student looks shocked, and Miss Lenhart is still covering her face. The unseen speaker is still off-panel right.] Unseen speaker: Oh god! I've never seen so much blood!

This comic is a take on the instructions "Remember to use a #2 pencil on the Scantron" that most modern students in the US have heard many, many times, a warning that seems unnecessary to many because #2 pencils are the most common type of pencil, and most students wouldn't have any other kind. Scantrons are standardized machine-readable papers used by students to answer multiple-choice tests. Often, the instructor will remind students to use a #2 pencil, which is a US classification of pencil hardness and equivalent to the HB term that is used in Europe. #2 pencils use a medium-hardness graphite considered ideal for Scantron use because the graphite is soft enough to leave a dark mark but hard enough to not smudge, both aspects that improve the performance of machine-readable paper. Miss Lenhart seems to have given her class one of these tests.
The joke is that the student used a #3 (or 'H') pencil, which has a slightly harder graphite rating, as opposed to the #2. Instructors and examiners usually place great emphasis on using a #2 pencil, as if not using one would lead to dire consequences, but without explaining why. The comic jokingly suggests that these consequences would include causing the grading machine to explode, killing harming people nearby and leaving a bloody mess.
The title text refers to the instruction to "fill in all the bubbles completely." This again improves the performance of machine-readable paper. The student states that he spent an inordinate amount of time making sure his markings were perfect because he had been warned so many times to do so, but five seconds is usually enough.
This is the first of only two comics where Miss Lenhart is both drawn and named, the second being 1050: Forgot Algebra .
[A classroom scene. There are two desks, and the front one is occupied by the student. Miss Lenhart stands panel right facing the student.] Miss Lenhart: Okay class, I've turned in your exams for grading. Now— Student: Miss Lenhart?
[View is now simply student in desk and teacher. The student is holding a pencil. Miss Lenhart looks horrified.] Student: I used a #3 pencil instead of a #2. Will that mess anything up? Miss Lenhart: You WHAT?
[Miss Lenhart stands, covering her face, in front of an off-panel right explosion. The unseen speaker is off-panel right.] AIEEE BLAM Unseen speaker: OH GOD!
[The student and Miss Lenhart are left-panel. The student looks shocked, and Miss Lenhart is still covering her face. The unseen speaker is still off-panel right.] Unseen speaker: Oh god! I've never seen so much blood!
