A 5 page essay probably wouldn't be written by hand (to make sure everyone wrote a consistent 5 pages), but in-person tests certainly are. In college/high schoo

A 5 page essay probably wouldn't be written by hand (to make sure everyone wrote a consistent 5 pages), but in-person tests certainly are. In college/high school I remember having to write 2 essays in two hours long-hand for multiple tests in the last decade. We just use block letters. People in my generation find cursive illegible and clumsy, but with practice writing block letters can be plenty fast.