Oral examinations used to be fairly common, back when the student/examiner ratio was low enough. There's a legend that the Cambridge "Tripos" examination gets i

Oral examinations used to be fairly common, back when the student/examiner ratio was low enough. There's a legend that the Cambridge "Tripos" examination gets its name from the tripod that candidates sat on during that examination: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripos#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripos#Etymology