ORAL EXAMS

After the teachers' lockout in April, we are in the midst of the exam season here in Denmark. As a Brit, I am used to a single form of exam; long (usually three hours), written, and using a pen (no computer). I completed an English law degree some years ago, and can still recall the pain in my wrist from writing nine 3-hour exams in Copenhagen by hand. It's not particularly modern, and technologically primitive.

Danish children take both written and oral exams. The written ones are a bit different, in that you can use a computer (nearly all do), and have access to all of your textbooks and other sources. But it is the oral ones that are most different. In maths, where I teach a bit, the students come in in pairs, and randomly choose one set from a group of a dozen or so "scenarios" prepared by me. These are all real-life situations, which are interwoven with mathematical problems. A sailor is out in a boat and has to find her way; a rainbow has a curved shape; she bought the boat with a loan which she has to repay; she has a part-time job and pays tax; should she take a rain jacket, given the chances of rain? Etc etc. Over the course of the next two hours or so the students discuss and solve the problems, highlight their limitations, perhaps extend them in new directions, and generally show their mathematical skills. I and an external censor, a teacher from a neighbouring school, circulate from time to time and chat about what they have come up with. At the end of all that, they get a grade. If I and the censor disagree, then it is the censor's view that prevails, so that I can't favour my own students.

The structure undoubtedly puts a premium on verbal skills and reasoning, which is unusual in the British environment. And sure enough, those students with the gift of the gab did rather better. It's undoubtedly true that their gab has to be mathematically correct. However, with that caveat, it gives a chance to (say) the pupil who finds it hard to sit still and concentrate, but has lots to say. All in all, a very interesting experience.      

Walter Blotscher