The examination of the testing mode effect has received increased attention as higher education has shifted to remote testing during the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe the testing mode effect consists of four components: the ability to physically write on the test, the method of answer recording, the proctoring/testing environment, and the effect testing mode has on instructor question selection. This paper examines the first component, the ability to write on the test, which we believe is a neglected area of study. Using a normalization technique to control for student aptitude and instructor bias, we find that removing the ability of students to physically write on the test significantly lowers student performance. This finding holds across multiple question types classified by difficulty level, Bloom's taxonomy, and on figure/graph-based questions, and has implications for testing in both face-to-face and online environments.