Oral Exams

Oral Exams

HOW TO GIVE AN ORAL EXAM



By Edgar Pearlstein,

University of Nebraska,
Department of Physics.

A. Preparations

  1. The room should be as large as possible, and the examiners should sit at opposite corners, to facilitate ping-pong questioning.
  2. The blackboard should be full of writing; there must be no erasers and no piece of chalk longer than one centimeter.
  3. Examiners should be equipped with dark glasses, since inscrutability is so important.
B. How to start
  1. First tell the examinee to wait outside the door while the examiners have a meeting. It is then the duty of the person in charge to tell a joke funny enough to elicit loud guffaws. As the laughter subsides, SHOUT for the examinee to enter.
  2. Very quietly, while looking down at the floor, ask for the examinee's name, and how to spell it. (Very effective if the examinee is already well-known to everyone.) This might provide your first opportunity to shout "speak up".
C. The main part
  1. Always look down when asking a question, and most of the time when the examinee is talking (see item A3 on inscrutability). But occasionally look up suddenly and thrust out your neck, with your mouth agape. Or look at the other examiners and wink.
  2. It's good to have a magazine to read, and a pad of paper on which to calculate. If you have a laptop computer, bring it.
  3. Be sure to complain about illegible writing on the blackboard. (See item A2, above.)
  4. Interrupt often with hints, and don't let the examinee get too far with a hint before suggesting another. If it appears that the examinee is getting on the right track, immediately ask a side-issue question.
  5. If the examinee claims complete ignorance about a question, don't accept that, but continue to ask variations on the same question.
  6. Once in a while an examinee will say something correct. That represents a failure on the part of one or more examiners, which can be partly mitigated by mumbling "trivial", or asking: "Can't you do it more elegantly?" In an extreme case, show everyone the centerfold of the magazine, you're reading.
D. The conclusion
  1. When the time is up, lower your head more than usual (tying your shoelace is a good idea) and quietly and rapidly say: "That's all. Close the door behind you."
  2. In a really well-concluded exam, the instant the door closes, someone will say a phrase, which reminds the others of the guffaw-producing joke.
Modified by Flemming Stassen on 22 May 1997     stassen@imm.dtu.dk