For what it's worth, I'm nowhere near as bright as Terence (which puts me in copious company, of course) but notes of my comprehensive exams would have looked k

For what it's worth, I'm nowhere near as bright as Terence (which puts me in copious company, of course) but notes of my comprehensive exams would have looked kind of similar in tone if not content. Having given oral exams as well - often you are trying to find the boundary where certainty breaks down to "on the fly" thinking for the candidate. You can get a pretty accurate view of how well someone knows the material quite quickly this way, but you certainly have to account for "nerves" also. I remember being asked a question and just having no idea how to answer it - another examiner jumped in with a `different' question which I answered, then the 1st came back with "can you show how that is equivalent to what I asked" and it took me two seconds to realize they were basically the same question. That stuff can really throw you off.