National Computation Pad, 5 x 5 Quad Ruling and Unruled, 8.5" x 11", 200 Sheets (42389), Green

*** BACKGROUND ***I teach math review classes for nursing students (I myself am in nursing school.) I needed to find a clear and professional way to "show my work" in my own handwriting to give students in my quiz review packets.I didn't want the typical graph paper since after photocopying it, it was very difficult to read as the grids were sold dark, blending in with the numbers I was writing. I didn't want the typical college ruled notepaper as again, the lines were interfering with showing my work for a problem because of the very pronounced lines during photocopying.After much research, I stumbled across this product and after reading what others had to say, both here and elsewhere on the web, I felt this was the best choice and it has proven to be just that,I immediately ordered one pad and had it over-nighted as I needed it the next day to do my lesson plan and quiz review packets. I then ordered another two with the free two-day shipping option. I was pretty annoyed when they both arrived the same day since I essentially spent $3.99 on shipping for no reason, but regardless, I had the paper and began using it.*** EXPERIENCE IN USING THE PRODUCT ***I was impressed right from the beginning. The graph paper on the back just slightly shows through on the front making it easy to keep your work professionally aligned, without showing up on photocopies or scans. The borders around the edges are nice so I can leave comments on the student's work, have a spot for them to leave their name, class name, date, and so forth,As others have said, the paper is green, it's on the thinner side (as you would expect from engineering paper... it has to be in order for the grid on the back side to show through on the front.) It works AMAZING for my purposes and I am not an engineer.*** CONCLUSION ***The lesson I learned here and what I hope you take away from this is, this pad is obviously excellent for engineers, especially when compared to the cheap Ampad brand which apparently has uneven graph lines and is generally inferior to this product. More importantly is that this paper has so many more uses than for engineers only. Math and science teachers, medical and nursing school students, and many others can benefit from what this paper offers.Somebody complained that the tablet is too thick at 200 sheets and is hard to write on. I agree, but as someone else mentioned, there is a very simple solution: separate the pad into two 100-page tabs and use one at a time... problem solved. I tear off individual sheets as I use them so this isn't and won't be an issue for me or many others. If that solution doesn't work for you, feel free to order the 100-sheet version but you'll pay more per sheet doing it that way.*** I hope this review was in some way helpful to you... if it was, please let me know! I would really appreciate it lets me know that I'm at least helping a few people make an informed decision before purchasing! ***

The media could not be loaded. I am a 3rd year mechanical engineering student and have been involved in drafting and design projects for many years even before pursuing my degree. When you use a product/item every day, multiple times a day you eventually pick up on even the smallest irritabilities. Yes some of the other brands might be a dollar or two cheaper, and if you are just using the paper every once in a while it's probably ok. If you use it all the time, it is well worth the extra for the quality of life improvements. The cheaper pads generally are bound with either extremely heavy glue that rips your pages, or the polar opposite weak glue and the pages just fall out. When writing on a pad you want it to have a firm backing so it dont feel like you are writing on a pillow but also not so hard that your paper rips. National hits that sweet middle spot in both of these. The grids show through nicely without being intrusive. Finally, when you write on the pad (with moderate pressure) there is no indent left on the underlying pages. Feel free to try the cheap brands first, they might work for you, Or save yourself the time and money and just get the best.

I am a little bit a stickler for perfection. I have been using National Brand for the past 4 months for every fragment of writing for college. I use it for lectures, outlines, homework, recitation hw, and a weekly planner. National Brand is much better than AMPAD or TOPS. For those who buy it for personal use, the prices are pretty similar, I dont mind spending a few extra dollars for quality. Ampad and TOPS seemed a bit porous, my pens would sometimes bleed through the paper, especially a sharpie. The thickness of the paper for the different brands are similar, Ampad is a little more translucent then National Brand. The lines on national brand are about the same darkness but little more narrow. I use sharpie fine point for all of my writing and this paper makes my notes crisp, attractive, and organized. I included some photos to show the note taking paper/ vs some of my line work in Orgo II.I give this product 5 stars because its the best brand to buy, it has had its imperfections tho. The first time I bought it, the whole pad had a creese on the bottom left corner. It was annoying for the first 50 pages but less noticeable as I got farther into the pad. The past two times I had to re-up, the pads were about 3 days old when the backing came off. I ended up just using the backing and my clipboard to sandwich the pad together when I put it back into my backpack. Hopefully this doesnt keep happening (could be my fault for having a big a** school bag). Overall, try these out, youll end up switching brands !

So for a quick review, this is great quality paper for engineers. One of my favorite things about it is that its durable, and it is more of an off yellow green, so it stands out completely among thousands of engineering students homework stacks. I can very easily grab a stack, flip through until I hit the yellow (green) pages and grab em. It's also structured very well for paper, so I like it.The cons of this, which is actually a pretty big deal, is that it doesn't erase very well. Make a mistake, and you can erase for quite awhile and never get your pencil marks out. It feels like there is a sheen to the paper, which somehow gets the lead to stick very well. Some might see this as a plus, but for an engineering student it isn't fun.I hated the erasing thing so much that when I ran out of this paper I just ordered another book of paper from a different company. I haven't even used one page of the new book I ordered, I found out I liked this stuff a lot better. So I'll stick with it for now.