• In traditional animation, a preliminary version of the final animated scene. The pencil drawings are quickly photographed or scanned and synced with the necessary soundtracks. This allows the animation to be reviewed and improved upon before passing the work on to his assistant animators, who will go add details and some of the missing frames in the scene. In European studios, the pencil test is called the "line test", because it happens before the cels get their colour.
• An informal test for determining if a woman needs to wear a bra. A pencil is placed in the fold beneath the breast and chest. If the pencil doesn't fall, the woman has "failed the pencil test" and needs to wear a bra. Diane Brill provides her own version of the pencil test; she instructs women to wear their best corset or sexiest bra, then stick a pencil vertically into the cleavage. If it doesn't fall, the cleavage is perfect.
  • In the film Breast Men, the pencil test was demonstrated by a female performer as a method of determining the desirability of having breast augmentation or breast implants. If, when placed under the breast against the skin of the abdomen, a pencil doesn't fall to the ground (for example the pencil held in place by weight of the breast against the skin of the abdomen; that is, the normal positioning of the breast), such breasts are suitable for surgery.
• The BBC used the term pencil test to describe a game of drawing straws (External Link)
• An informal name for the vertical line test or a hands-on approach to this test. A person places a pencil vertically on a graph, then moves it horizontally across the portion of the graph depicted on the paper. If at any point the pencil intersects the graph in two or more points, it's an indication that it isn't a function.
• A type of test used by authorities during the apartheid era in South Africa to "ascertain" a person's race (see Coloured and Passing (racial identity).) In the absence of any centralized method, this and other subjective tests were used in various places across South Africa as part of the Population Registration Act of 1950. A pencil would be placed in a person's hair, if it fell through they were classified as "White" (or "Coloured", depending on other subjective classification considerations); if the pencil didn't fall through, they were classified differently ("Coloured" or "Black", also depending on other subjective classification considerations). Members of the same family who had different hair textures would find themselves in different race groups as a result of this test. This presented serious consequences for many families (see Population Registration Act, Pass Law, Group Areas Act, District Six). (External Link) (External Link)(External Link) (External Link)

Get more info on 'Pencil Test'.