Professional speed date : a new method for efficient oral examination

Abstract

Oral exams have great potential in improving oral communication skills of the students and they also test different kinds of skills than traditional written exams. One major obstacle preventing wider use of oral exams is that evaluation of the performance may be affected by the relationship between the student and teacher, and even for some inappropriate reasons such as the sex or appearance of the student. To avoid these possible biases, oral exams will need the presence of more than one teacher. This, however, means that oral exams will be very laborious. Here we present a new kind of oral exam, namely the Professional speed date which, to great extent, solves the above mentioned problems related to oral exams. Professional speed date is easy to organize, fast to pursue and due to its peer-evaluation system, minimally affected by personal relationships between teacher and the students. The exam is most likely especially useful in pre-course or mid-term exams where the purpose is to test the general knowledge level of a large group of students. Our own experiences using the exam have been positive, and none of the students involved have reported any major problems with the procedure. Most students have informed that compared to the traditional written exam they prefer this innovative type of testing their knowledge level.