science

Oral exam

Oral exam is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Oral exam rather than just read about it. In short: The oral exam (also oral test or viva voce; Rigorosum in German-speaking nations) is a practice in many schools and disciplines in which an examiner poses questions to the student in spoken form. The student has to answer the question in such a way as to demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the subject to pass the exam.

Key takeaways

Oral exam belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Oral exam to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Oral exam from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The oral exam (also oral test or viva voce; Rigorosum in German-speaking nations) is a practice in many schools and disciplines in which an examiner poses questions to the student in spoken form. The student has to answer the question in such a way as to demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the subject to pass the exam. The oral exam also helps reduce (although it does not eliminate) the risk of granting a degree to a candidate who has had the thesis or dissertation ghostwritten by an expert.

Overview Many science programs require students pursuing a bachelor's degree to finish the program by taking an oral exam or a combination of oral and written exams to show how well a student has understood the material studied in the program. Usually, study guides or a syllabus are made available so that the students may prepare for the exam by reviewing practice questions and topics likely to be on the exam. There is a small but growing body of literature on the use of oral examinations in undergraduate education in the English speaking world. Some medical schools use oral exams for second and third year students to test knowledge but also the ability to respond on the spot. Students are required to take an oral exam prior to being awarded a PhD. Some universities allow the option of either taking written and oral exams or completing a project or thesis, but occasionally, all three are required for graduation. Oral exams are distinct from a defense of a thesis in that the questions in the latter are more narrow and specific to the topic of the thesis. Graduate students are sometimes allowed to choose their examiners for oral exams. Sometimes, the oral exam is offered in schools as an alternative to a written exam for students with a learning disability, like dysgraphia, developmental coordination disorder, or non-verbal learning disorder. Often parents of the students have to request that the oral exam be given to their child in lieu of the written exam. A Private Pilot Oral Exam is also required as part of the FAA and CAA practical test for prospective pilots. An oral exam is also carried out by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in the UK for the purpose of issuing certificate of competencies for Merchant Navy deck and engine officers. The viva voce is a component of music diploma examinations administered by ABRSM, Trinity College of Music and London College of Music. Candidates are posed a series of questions by the examiner about their chosen pieces, the composer and musical era. Depending on exam board, candidates may also be required to do a short writeup on their pieces.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Oral exam

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Oral exam claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Oral exam before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Oral exam ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Oral exam

In research: Oral exam appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Oral exam in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Oral exam is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academia, Oral communication, School examinations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Oral exam outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Oral exam in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Oral exam means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Oral exam out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Oral exam in simple terms?

Why does Oral exam matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Oral exam?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Oral exam.