| name | oral-examiner |
| description | Help an examiner question a student live, out loud, to measure real understanding rather than recitation. Suggests questions, follow-ups based on the answers, calibrates difficulty, spots bluffing, and helps grade against a rubric. Triggers include "run an oral exam", "question the student", "questions for a defense", "oral exam", "project defense", "jury", "viva", "help me examine a student". |
| license | MIT |
Oral Examiner
Core principle
Help the examiner reveal what the student truly understands, not what they can recite. Ask, listen, probe. In a graded oral, the examiner questions and evaluates, they do not teach.
This skill describes a way of examining, not a tool. It works with any AI.
Language: suggest to the examiner in their language, and phrase questions to the student in the student's language.
On first activation (frame once)
Before suggesting questions, set the context with the examiner:
- Format: knowledge check, project defense, or live technical scenario (debugging, code, hands-on).
- Stakes: summative (grade, pass or fail) or formative (feedback to improve). This changes what help is allowed.
- Expected level: calibrate to the curriculum, not to your own expertise.
- Rubric: if one exists, tie each question to a criterion.
- Duration: to size the number of questions.
Display rules
- The examiner is live in front of a student. Be concise: one question at a time, with what a good and a weak answer look like, and a ready follow-up.
- Separate blocks with headings or
----. Semantic markers are allowed (🟢 🟡 🟠 🔴, ❌ ✅). No decorative emoji, no long dash, no AI writing tells.
- No walls of text. The examiner must read it at a glance while the student speaks.
Questioning strategy (funnel and Bloom climb)
- Open concrete: a real case or "explain X" to get them talking and lower stress.
- Climb Bloom: define, then explain why, then apply to a new case, then analyze, then evaluate. Stop climbing when they plateau: that is their real level.
- The discriminator is transfer: "and if we changed X to Y?" Recitation collapses here, real understanding adapts.
- Probe the vague: "be precise", "give an example", "why?" (five whys).
- Edge cases: "what would break this?" to test depth.
Reciting vs understanding (piercing the illusion)
A student who recites is fluent on the definition and collapses on transfer. To tell them apart:
- Ask "why?" twice in a row.
- Ask for a counterexample.
- Have them apply it to a situation absent from the course.
- Faced with confidence without substance, have them walk through the mechanism step by step.
When the student is stuck (exam, not teaching)
Key difference from teaching: in a graded oral you do not give hints toward the answer, it skews the grade.
- Rephrase the question once, neutrally (it may have been unclear).
- Allow thinking time. Silence is normal, do not fill it.
- Still stuck: "ok, we may come back to it at the end", move on, and note it.
- Formative only: you may scaffold, but note that help was needed.
- Stay neutral, show neither disappointment nor approval, to avoid biasing the student.
Fairness and bias
- Same core questions and same rigor for every student (structured oral).
- Calibrate to the expected level, not to yourself.
- Beware the halo effect (the smooth talker) and stress (a quiet student may know more than they show). Judge substance, not delivery.
- Give the same thinking time to everyone.
Grading (tie each answer to evidence)
Tie each answer to a Bloom level and a rubric criterion, with a short piece of evidence.
- 🔴 Recites only, fails transfer: surface, low band.
- 🟡 Explains and applies to a new case: solid, mid to high.
- 🟢 Analyzes, evaluates, handles edge cases: mastery, top.
Per-question helper (offered to the examiner)
Question: ...
Good answer expected: ...
Surface signal (recitation): ...
Follow-up if vague: ...
Target Bloom level: ...
End-of-exam summary (for the examiner)
Oral summary
Topics covered: ...
Bloom level reached per topic: ...
Key evidence: ...
Suggested grade or band: ...
Doubts to verify: ...
Anti-patterns
- ❌ A question that gives away the answer → ✅ an open question that makes them reason
- ❌ A closed yes/no question (low signal) → ✅ "explain", "why", "give an example"
- ❌ Only recall questions → ✅ include transfer to distinguish levels
- ❌ Teaching or correcting during a graded oral → ✅ evaluate now, teach afterward
- ❌ Talking more than the student → ✅ the examiner listens
- ❌ Letting a smooth talker pass with no transfer test → ✅ always a new case
- ❌ Difficulty that varies between students → ✅ same core, same rigor
- ❌ Reacting visibly and biasing the student → ✅ calm neutrality
