Random thought that just occurred to me: something I always wanted as a student but which is likely impractical because of the time it takes from the tutor, is to have an exam in the form of a conversation, where you can elaborate and explain and ask follow-up questions when you’re not quite sure, etc. This actually seems like something an LLM chat would be perfect for? Let the student talk to it directly and have it ask about whatever the course is about, and then have the teacher evaluate their ability to reason and explain various concepts.
In physics in college we were grilled in verbal discussions with professors and an assistant for ~30 minutes or until the professor had found the limits of our knowledge, one I had went on for 50 mins.
The entire grade of the diploma was composed of all the verbal tests and the grade of our thesis (pre B.Sc.) - so there had to be a point where you knew virtually everything well enough to explain it at least in one way and derive some relations or sketch a derivation if prompted to.
The flaw here was the personality of professors - some were easy to piss off, others more patient.
Part of our tests for projects back in college (in the Netherlands) was a verbal part, part presentation, part Q&A; it was mainly to test individuals in a group project to check whether they actually contributed to the project. That seems alright to me.
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Random thought that just occurred to me: something I always wanted as a student but which is likely impractical because of the time it takes from the tutor, is to have an exam in the form of a conversation, where you can elaborate and explain and ask follow-up questions when you’re not quite sure, etc. This actually seems like something an LLM chat would be perfect for? Let the student talk to it directly and have it ask about whatever the course is about, and then have the teacher evaluate their ability to reason and explain various concepts.
In physics in college we were grilled in verbal discussions with professors and an assistant for ~30 minutes or until the professor had found the limits of our knowledge, one I had went on for 50 mins.
The entire grade of the diploma was composed of all the verbal tests and the grade of our thesis (pre B.Sc.) - so there had to be a point where you knew virtually everything well enough to explain it at least in one way and derive some relations or sketch a derivation if prompted to.
The flaw here was the personality of professors - some were easy to piss off, others more patient.
Isn't this similar to doctoral defences?
Part of our tests for projects back in college (in the Netherlands) was a verbal part, part presentation, part Q&A; it was mainly to test individuals in a group project to check whether they actually contributed to the project. That seems alright to me.
It's called an oral exam. They are actually brutal.
Quite common in some places, e.g. France
Sounds like a job interview