4 ms·

> move to live oral exams. Written long-form essays. Yes. The application of principles, concepts and information is not terribly difficult to test in either a

> move to live oral exams. Written long-form essays. Yes. The application of principles, concepts and information is not terribly difficult to test in either a timed or take home setting.

thaumasiotes 6y ago
Live oral exams can be an effective method of assessment. They can also be confounded by the testee's charisma. (See: any discussion of programming interviews, which are live oral exams.[1]) They do have the advantage of degrading fairly gracefully from in-person examination to remote examination. They're also tremendously expensive compared to a test given en masse. [1] Oral exams in a school setting would feel much fairer to people than programming interviews do, mainly because you know what to expect on an exam in a class you just took.
- mercurialshark 6y ago
  > They can also be confounded by the testee's charisma. Agreed, but I don't think oral exams are the only type of effective live testing. Nor are live/timed exercises the only way to demonstrate knowledge. Case studies, short/long form writing and creative exercises are all viable options. The primary concern seems regarding scaling grading and review, which with a little effort and ingenuity is solvable.
- bigger_cheese 6y ago
  My Engineering Thesis had an oral component it was legitimately of the most nerve-wracking things I ever went through. I had to spend about half an hour in a room with 3 professors getting absolutely grilled over everything from basic theoretical knowledge to detailed technical nuances specific to my experiment. At times it felt like they were deliberately trying to trip me up by asking leading questions and trying to steer me in the wrong direction. It would be very, very hard to bluff your way through something like this with Charisma alone. You have to be damn sure you know your topic in and out. For once off exams before graduation I think it is acceptable but I'd pity students who had to go through a grilling like this every couple of months.

> move to live oral exams. Written long-form essays. Yes. The application of principles, concepts and information is not terribly difficult to test in either a timed or take home setting.

thaumasiotes 6y ago

Live oral exams can be an effective method of assessment. They can also be confounded by the testee's charisma. (See: any discussion of programming interviews, which are live oral exams.[1]) They do have the advantage of degrading fairly gracefully from in-person examination to remote examination. They're also tremendously expensive compared to a test given en masse. [1] Oral exams in a school setting would feel much fairer to people than programming interviews do, mainly because you know what to expect on an exam in a class you just took.

mercurialshark 6y ago
> They can also be confounded by the testee's charisma. Agreed, but I don't think oral exams are the only type of effective live testing. Nor are live/timed exercises the only way to demonstrate knowledge. Case studies, short/long form writing and creative exercises are all viable options. The primary concern seems regarding scaling grading and review, which with a little effort and ingenuity is solvable.
bigger_cheese 6y ago
My Engineering Thesis had an oral component it was legitimately of the most nerve-wracking things I ever went through. I had to spend about half an hour in a room with 3 professors getting absolutely grilled over everything from basic theoretical knowledge to detailed technical nuances specific to my experiment. At times it felt like they were deliberately trying to trip me up by asking leading questions and trying to steer me in the wrong direction. It would be very, very hard to bluff your way through something like this with Charisma alone. You have to be damn sure you know your topic in and out. For once off exams before graduation I think it is acceptable but I'd pity students who had to go through a grilling like this every couple of months.