The great oral examination face-off! Psychological warfare at its best: The examiner's goal is to rattle the student, while the victim coolly counterattacks. Both should wear dark glasses

From the standpoint of each individual examiner, the basic purposes of the oral examination are few and simple: to make the examiner appear smarter and trickier than either the examinee or the other examiners, thereby preserving his or her self-esteem, and to crush the examinee, thereby avoiding the messy and time-wasting problem of postexamination judgment and decision.