Guidelines for the Administration of Oral Examinations: Review and Opinion

Practical oral examinations are important and are frequently a difficult part of medical school and board examinations. They represent an accurate and direct mean of assessing the student’s interaction with patients and their clinical and technical skills. This paper reviews an outline for the administration of oral examinations. The review is based on the medical literature, detailed discussions with many senior examiners from different medical systems, and the author’s personal experience. In summary, although the examiner’s judgment is crucial, some general rules remain important for fair and consistent evaluation of students. Firstly, the examiner’s attitude should be as friendly as possible and his or her objectives are to assess the student’s medical competence and practical safety and does not help them pass or fails them. Secondly, scoring should be based on a model answer or well-accepted medical practices for a consistent rating. Finally, each examiner should give an independent score before discussing the final rating with the other examiners.