Oral exams are --- at least partial -- a thing since "ever" in the german school system. Details matter, over here schooling belongs to culture, and the culture

Oral exams are --- at least partial -- a thing since "ever" in the german school system. Details matter, over here schooling belongs to culture, and the culture sector is in the hands of the 16 federal german states, so things vary a bit from e.g. Hessen to Bayern to Sachsen. * you are in school and your marks are between two marks, e.g. between 1 and 2. You can voluntarily take the oral exam to swing the tide towards the 1 ... this is even a case for apprenticeship exams, not just normal school. * you are at the risk of not getting into the next class year. Often here the oral exam is mandatory. Personally, I think this is great. Some people are better orally. But some have trouble, e.g. social anxieties. And some people are better theoretical, with a piece of paper. But other struggle with an "empty white paper". And since we don't want to test the difficulties of people, but their domain knowledge of e.g. mathematics, politics or electronic scheme design (again: think that this is also for apprenticeships), that we do both is IMHO a good thing.