Yeah, I don't get why some test centers say "NO, DO NOT TAKE THE PENCIL!" I've taken my pencil every time. But it's never been an issue, nobody could care less whether you could take it or not, it was just like, turn in your exam and leave the room... nobody said a thing about the pencils and like Kfox said, there was nothing in the NCEES instructions that said anything about exams being invalidated. That said, this last time, for the PS, I actually did ask the proctor out of courtesy since there were so few of us in the room and I didn't want to do anything wrong. She just nodded and said, "yeah, that's fine".