ORAL EXAMINER GUIDE
Original adaptable template accompanying Designing and administering oral exams.
These materials are not a validated instrument or institutional policy.

BEFORE EXAMINATION
Confirm outcomes, required coverage, approved grade rule, pass standard, and resits.
Review task cards, acceptable alternatives, probes, and permitted assistance.
Practice independent rating on common responses, then resolve unclear standards.
Confirm accommodations, student instructions, schedule, breaks, and reserve slots.
Confirm identity procedure, recording or second assessor, approved storage,
access, retention, appeal holds, and the person responsible for each action.

OPENING
You will answer four questions about interpretation, method choice, evidence,
and application. You may pause to think, ask me to repeat a question, or correct
an answer. I may ask a follow-up to clarify your reasoning. I will make notes
against the published criteria. We will explain your result through the
course's published feedback procedure.
Adapt this script to the actual exam. Add the approved recording notice and
accommodation arrangements. Do not promise scoring conditions you cannot meet.

DURING EXAMINATION
Use the assigned task sequence and the agreed timing and follow-up conventions.
Distinguish clarification, extension, and supplied assistance in the notes.
Record concrete response evidence, material help, task variants, and incidents.
Give each student the planned opportunity to demonstrate every required outcome.
Record technical failure and missing opportunity separately from an insufficient answer.

AFTER EACH APPOINTMENT
Complete ratings before consulting the second examiner's scores.
Retain independent ratings and reasons for moderation.
Apply the approved decision and conversion rules. The article's 0-to-3 scale
has no automatic conversion to a course grade and no automatic pass threshold.
Give criterion-based feedback and the established inspection or review route.
File student records in approved institutional storage, outside public site folders.

AFTER THE SERIES
Review coverage, independent agreement, pass-boundary disagreements, incidents,
accommodation delivery, examiner patterns, student feedback, and actual staff hours.
Include all scheduled candidates and distinguish completed, missed, interrupted,
and rescheduled appointments. Report denominators and uncertainty.
Document changes for the next version and carry out approved retention procedures.

BMS LOCAL CHECK
Verify the current applicable EER, programme rules, and assessment plan.
The May 28, 2026 BMS protocol describes recording or a second assessor,
advance Canvas notice, assessment forms, restricted P-drive storage,
a maximum two-month recording retention after grade publication unless an
appeal remains ongoing, and the two-year assessment-form archiving procedure.
It is guidance; obtain local confirmation where the applicable rules differ.