In some ways as a student I liked blue book exams, because I couldn't really procrastinate myself into a corner. There was just the space where I did the thing. But I'm an outlier in that, probably. (And my sympathies to people struggling through handwriting. Mine is tidy, but it's also half line height on college rule, and my belated apologies to my professors and TAs for having to squint at my itty bitty letters.)