Sorry, I should have explained. I didn't give them a list of tasks at the start; the format was more conversational and I verbally walked them through the list.

Sorry, I should have explained. I didn't give them a list of tasks at the start; the format was more conversational and I verbally walked them through the list. The reason I did it that way was to give several easy "warm up" questions at the beginning to get them comfortable. I like your idea of combining several of the first steps together though -- I may try that and see if that's more or less stressful for the candidate.