No pen!

I am taking neet PG for the first time and since INICET provides a pen, I just assume it was standard across all major PG entrance exams. Turn out it's not.

As someone who relies heavily on scribbling, diagramming to recall plus solving numericals, how are we supposed to do this?

Is this a new rule introduced this time or has it always been this way? If it's been the all time thumb rule, I honestly had no idea.