i guess it depends on the subject matter, but in my college courses i remember writing many timed in class essays (for midterms, exams, etc).

However I studied mostly humanities, (english, history, philosophy etc) in university so that might be why, but with the rise of LLM I find it strange this has not become more common given the situation?

I realize the article is about PhD students so this isn't exactly on point, but still.