The difference between European & North American exams

[@RiverTechJess]

Had such a great time filming! Come back soon:)

[@abdusabdud8218]

Good bye to all of you

[@yeahyeah54]

I'm italian, in our universities a lot exams ( at least 80%) are divided in two part, the first part is written, if you have at least a score of 18/30 you can do the second part that is an oral in which they ask something theoretical of the course and professors want the proof of anything.

[@killua9369]

That is totally crazy, studies are difficult in italy and students are usually nervous 😓

[@antoniomantovani3147]

No not so much nervous if prepared

[@HAbarneyWK]

Same in Hungary(at least in computer sciences)

[@littlebird965]

A friend of mine got asked horrendous questions in his QM1 oral exam. (Stuff from QM2 and a little bit from QFT) Afterward the prof said... You dont really have to know that. I just wanted to see how far your knowledge reaches.

[@mike4ty4]

Does it affect your grade at all if you cannot produce any valid answer to that stuff?

[@Avdbz]

mike4ty4 they usually ask these question if you aced all the others. I ve had professors who would do this because out of principle dont give perfect score. So they keep asking asking until you make a slight mistake and then give you perfect minus one score haha

[@pastramiking]

I did my masters and PhD at ETH after coming from the US system. I was more shocked by the fact that exams are after the vacation period so that you have no choice but to worry the whole break or study. There are no excuses when you have 1-2 months to study. You also don't enjoy vacations...

[@sin3358]

My country is in Europe and true, we have our exams after our breaks but then we get another break again which lasts like an entire month. So that's nice :D

[@MrBaldenegro]

Thank you for making these videos, Tibees. They are really important to have for the next generation of scientists!

[@mohammedsalmanali01]

14:25 is a really needed 'but', because I've seen in our undergraduate exams that we're forced to memorise some equations, theories and grading is done for 'perfect' answers, while the guy who really get the concept is not able to express in his own words. Lack of questions which really challenge the conceptual understanding of one person is probably making the bookish guy topper in the 'safe zone', oral exams are better if the professors are really challenging your understanding.

[@maxsimes]

Yes.. Eth isnt counted as one of the best for nothing

[@alexv5581]

I agree, I felt many times that I understood a concept better than a person who got a good grade on a exam. Than when I have a conversation with that person, they can't even explain to me the concepts. Which can be annoying. A written test stricts a creative mind.

[@elvioprefumo7942]

🌺🍀🍀🌺

[@nateo200]

Maybe this is related maybe not but I feel like sometimes the "choose the best answer" questions screw me the hardest. I was lucky in my most recent history class in that I could pick an answer that was "wrong" but take a notepad and write why I felt it was the best answer and pretty soon the whole class did this. Obviously not as common when dealing with basic math vs history but still worth mentioning.

[@toonsoffun5733]

If you can't write it you don't understand it properly imo.

[@majhnicudovitisvet]

i always love the oral exams more than writting. Because it feels so much free and you need to think more about the concept, not just regurgutating the info learned.

[@sin3358]

Oral make me stressed tbh..I'm the opposite. I prefer written exams over oral. I always performed better in written exams anyway. I was stressed a lot during HS in which the main method was oral. I remember getting 100 on tests while in oral I'd mess up because I was too worried about not having enough time to think about the right answers

[@Mic_Glow]

Depends on the examinator(s). During a purely written exam the questions are set in stone, no wiggle room for both the one answering and asking questions, but you can answer easy stuff first and then spend remaining time thinking. Meanwhile during oral exam they can drill one topic (dig deep enough and eventually you will find missing knowledge), ask tricky/ misleading questions (as a test) or hand you a piece of paper and then you have a written exam but with added benefit of the professor looking at your every pen movement. That's how my first exam was, and it was painful. Barely passed. Second one 5 years later was talking about my job and cracking (work related) jokes over a cup of tea and biscuits. Examination board members were old friends of one of my employers.

[@honkhonk8009]

Yea. Wish we had oral exams. Im genuinely horrible with tests. I got ADHD so I always end up without enough time for alot of the tests.

[@toomanyhobbies2011]

The typical "average" American undergraduate exam is written. At the really good American schools like CalTech, it's not unusual to have an oral exam component as well. I sat in on a CalTech oral physics exam. The professor asked probing questions that not only tested his students understanding, but also taught them beyond what they knew. Wonderful! Oh yeah, the take-home exams in graduate physics were very tough. I recall hours spent in the library learning beyond the classroom and our textbook, some of the best education I ever had.

[@NPCNo-xm2li]

There's nothing quite as reassuring like the crying of the people walking out of the exam room right before you're supposed to go in.

[@HansImWald]

I am not studying physics, but medicine and I alaways loved oral exams because they get you more towards your job in reality since patients ask questions and it is the same with physics or engeneering. You ll get asked questions while working.

[@derbigpr500]

In Croatian universities most colleges have a rule that every class with more than 1.5 ECTS points needs to have a final oral exam, which you can access only if you pass the written exam first. So it's always written + oral, and mid terms are more often oral than written. Not to mention oral exams are something very normal in high schools and even elementary schools. I had no idea that in NA they don't do oral exams.

[@hbm293]

I confirm this observation, this is what happens here at the university of Zagreb.

[@kaca2903]

@@user-yr4vp1jk7j Some simple subjects carry only 1ECTS.

[@97wito]

Polytechnic of Milan Aerospace, Engineering thermodynamics. Oral examination, the prof questioning a fellow students tells him "If you are satisfied I can give you 27/30 (pass is 18/30), otherwise I can make you another question, but if you don't answer correctly I will lower your grade." Student with great relief and emphasis: "Thank you very much, I'll take the grade". The prof with a smile "Ahh then I suppose you've got some skeleton in the closet" and he ask him the question anyway... In italy it's very similar to the situation you described

[@ArjanvanVught]

Having studied at Eindhoven University of Technology it was great to see this video and learn about the differences. Thank you!

[@kaca2903]

Would you say your experience was closer to the European described one or the American described one? UTwente here but have studied at UoBelgrade, and it seems to me like NL is leaning more towards the USA way of examination.

[@bruceblosser2040]

imagine two women having this conversation 50 years ago! This is so wonderful!

[@drabnail777]

The same conversation as they are today These two women are far from the average woman

[@Max-cs1dn]

Omg, this really blows me away. I've been so sick of the fact that most university exams are done in written form (100% here in Aussie). For numerical-based studies, there is no way to differentiate those who rigorously comprehend the contents from those who simply know the shallow from that mere couple of hours, static, predetermined exam paper if you don't challenge them by asking why, why and why. I've known and met a great deal of 'top students' who barely understand the deep meanings and concepts of their course nor the literal and practical grounds such as the historical development and applications of the knowledge. Rather, they rote-learn the contents and ace the unit by swiftly copying down the correct equations and references from their memories in the correct order that they practised. I thought it is only an issue in the Eastern world such as in China, South Korea, Singapore... until I came to Australia. Indeed, it is an efficient way of marking for lecturers and reaping grades/credits for students, seemingly win-win. Nevertheless, that's probably the reason why so many lecturers and professors struggle to explain what they teach. They've been through the same process. Their minds are inadequately challenged. Most of them did the same thing during their study - do what is told. The overall education system is corrupt and gruesome, adding the fact that most universities are utter money-grinding machines.

[@dbuc4671]

ok

[@sin3358]

Depends on the people. I prefer written exams because I manage to calm my nerves down instead of stressing nonstop about what question may come next. For a thing, you're quite correct that many people will just memorize rather than actually learn. I admit to being part of that group as well when it comes to specific subjects. Ngl it's draining to learn logically everything, especially if you don't like the subjects. And some of them aren't even that useful (I have chemistry while majoring in computer engineering and I'll tell you I'll never have any real purpose for knowing and understanding chemistry) so I don't think it's a big deal to have a couple of subjects like that. I know some students do better in oral exams and would prefer them. This is why I think that's the education system is flawed, because it's only made to fit the needs of the lucky few who can benefit from it. I think it should be mandatory to be options about how we'd prefer the tests, either oral or written. But I understand that'd be too much work

[@Josh-wb7ii]

Currently going through maths honours, your videos are great for reminding me that students don't have to be perfect.. I got the first 4 I've had in years for one of my assignments and it killed me haha

[@Saidor570]

I'm quite surprised that the concept of 'oral exam' is more frequently used in Europe than in North America. Oral and written exams present their advantages and drawbacks. The former can be considered as the 'honest way' to interrogate a student, since it constitutes a discussion with the teacher, and he checks if you really understand the course instead of having learned it 'by heart'. But oral exam relies also on 'chance", because you have less questions and you are thus more likely to be questioned on a chapter you master less, whereas the written exam covers in principle all chapter, as said in the video. Another aspect of oral exam is the long debate between students to decide at which time each of them want to pass... Or, at least, this is the case in our university ^^'

[@l.1244]

It wasn't represented the right way. Those oral exams are almost exclusively reserved for master studies, where you often dont take many classical lectures anymore but rather research seminars or group projects. So the only way to assess the performance is through oral exams.

[@mehill00]

I’m getting anxious just hearing your stories. I’m so glad I’m way past my exam taking years. Cheers.

[@happyman_smiling]

Victorian mathematics is like One gentleman + One gentlewoman = One polite child

[@secredeath]

Tibees voice is like an angel talking to me 😍

[@secredeath]

*Toby

[@Poth94]

right?

[@usmanullah6523]

y€ she is different

[@TheDagda1000]

Great ambassadors for women in Engineering. Well done!

[@anirbanghosh9230]

Digressing from the topic your voice is so calming sort of stress reliever

[@varieedeventualii]

I found your channel by pure chance, and it has been a pleasant discovery. I gave up on maths in my second year of junior high, I really didn't like my teachers (that didn't change in highschool), it was a perfectly concious choice, and never looked back, focusing more on humanities and languages (being from Italy these things are highly regarded anyway). I kid you not, your soothing voice, warm smile and overall love for what you do, made me question my teenager decision about maths for the first time... I can't start that path again now (i'm 34) but if I met someone like you in my uni time, at the very least, I would've dusted off my math books from highschool to have some approaching topics in the uni cafeteria :P

[@bobbwc7011]

In Germany most of my oral exams lasted far longer than 30 minutes, 1-3 hours: The Prof would divide the "Matrikel" = all of his students who previously filed (!) their application (!) to be examed in a certain subject, into groups of 2-3. You would go there, you would take a seat in a comfortable area, you would get a cup of nice coffee, he would sit on the other side of an old oak wood table, he then handed you 1 pencil and 1 sheet of A4 or A3 paper, and then you would have a "scientific colloquium" for 2 hours. Very psychologic, very thorough, very random. Imagine the dynamics when 3 scientists-in-training, each with a cup of coffee, a pencil and a sheet of paper, try to answer questions in a professional way but its all a "cool", "laid-back" discussion yet your counterpart may turn into the fiercest dentist of all time at any second...immediately drilling down into a cavity once it presented itself. ("Wait, what do you mean by that? Please explain." -- FUUUUUUUUUCK) Yes, sometimes this could be the greatest nightmare if the Prof had a bad personality or was in a bad mood. Then the exam was, as Germans say, "Spießrutenlaufen", referring to the brutal punishment in the military of Prussia. But most of the time the Profs were professional and weren't out for blood, as long as you did not appear to be totally unprepared or completely stupid. Many times it was a relaxed yet academic atmosphere. Either way, oral exams are way harder than written exams. I remember an oral exam on a big engineering project in my 4th year (out of 6); my supervisor (Prof's assistant, a PhD/Dr.-Ing.) read it and accepted it (= the treatise was a pass) and then, to get my grade and actually pass the entire course, my personal moment at Circus Maximus came: The Prof had not read the project treatise beforehand, a 70 pager with a large first part on the theoretical design followed by a large second part on the FEM simulations and proof of the validity of the design. He literally started to go through it during the exam, on the fly. He glanced over it, flipped through the pages, and whenever something spotted his attention he would ask a question and I had to explain my treatise. "Why did you simplify the solution to this equation like you did and why did you use those material parameters?", "Why did you decide to choose these values for your geometry? How does that affect general cooling? Did you take a look into a different geometry?", "This result seems odd. Why is the field intensity so low? How did you achieve this and why do you think it is beneficial to do it this way?", "Can you please take the pencil and the piece of paper and demonstrate the calculations which got you from your formula 4.11 to your formula 4.12?", "What will happen to this if you increased voltage and reduced the thickness of the dielectric in this area?", "I would expect problems with this quantity in this area...you obviously don't? Why not?" Very comprehensive and one of my toughest 1-hour oral exams before the final exams in my 6th year. However, I always liked oral exams so much more because there is no bullshitting, there is no cramming and bharfing out shit which hopefully fits the test; you can actually shine presenting proper insights to your subject and you can appear as a complex personality with social skills, and not being an anonymised number in a dull written exam. However, whenever I tell one of those European university stories to my US-American co-workers they turn pale and question the purpose of such "supercrazy" exams. :P

[@AsaNole]

Thanks a lot for this video!!! For me, it has been very helpful. You have no idea! In about 10 days I will be taking my first oral exams. I'm an undergrad freshman at a Russian university and it'll be my first time taking oral exams. What's worse is that they'll be in Russian, which I don't speak very well. English is my native language but the program is in Russian (I studied the Russian language for about 7 months before I got enrolled). I was really worried and had no concrete idea of how to prepare for them but now I have some new perspectives from someone that has been in a similar situation! I hope I'll make it. Wish I could ask Jess a few more questions about these oral exams. Thanks again for this awesome video!

[@bobrdobr3734]

Hey, how are your exams going? I'm just curious wich university are you study at? I also study in Russia, only i lived there my entire life, so there is no particular problem with exams for me. You see, there are plenty of chinise students (espesially in MSU), but I've never encountered english native speaker

[@tombufford136]

I was searching for Toby's video on the Putnam Exam and could not find it. I was going to go over the Mod (3) factors on the solution to the first question. Nice two to watch, wish I could be there with you !

[@urdouchbag]

In India we have something called 'viva voce' which is an oral exam. However it's seldomly based on the books you use for studying, just lab experiments and lab work.

[@monkeypatron9746]

Get your ETH masters degree and become a real master of ceremony...

[@tan3092]

ahahHAHAHA

[@ytravi]

I was never good in written exams so I always prayed for Oral Exams in German university. Surprisingly my grades in Oral Exams are significantly better than written ones.

[@rajarshichatterjee3281]

Hey hi... which german university did you study in ? Am also going to Germany for my masters in mathematics.

[@ioeuropaganymedkallisto7204]

Tibees wow everytime when I have watched your videos I thought about it as seeing a person that is many thousand kilometers away from me, as if you were someone making videos from another planet. I could not imagine that you would make a video just a few kilometers away from my home town. The world is smaller than we think sometimes. 😅

[@maye5307]

Welcome to Switzerland!!!!!

[@MrWertz8]

Wellcome to Switzerland Tibees . Im studying at ETH too :)

[@dellagopez5729]

Hey, I actually am really curious as to how it works there. Are classes in swiss-german? I don't know the language but I look forward to studying there. The language barrier is intimidating.

[@MikkoRantalainen]

I did my MSc in Finland and here we have pretty much written exams only, too. The method explained here for oral examination sounds really good because it measures your skills very well. To better test skills similar required in actual jobs they should submit the initial questions to you e.g. 24 hours before the exam and you can take any notes you like. This would be needed not to test your ability to just remember stuff but to understand it. Overall, "testing to failure" is the best method because if you're really good, this kind of testing finds your real limits much much faster than any written examination.

[@sarupyabhattacharya7921]

This was Einstein's institute

[@fermibubbles9375]

that secondary category tibees... the one who cares about the physics more than the grade.... gotta love her

[@apartphilosopher1062]

That's interesting, I study Physics in Germany and my exams are almost all written exams with the structure she described the Canadian exams have. An exam usually consists of 5 or 6 problems you have to solve in 2-3 hours. But I don't know anything about what an engineer's exam looks like in Germany. Nice video!

[@aagrahagnihotri9507]

Entertaining and educational...had a lot of fun watching this video. Also Can you make a video on what intrigued you in bio physics and interesting problems in the field.

[@AlyenaMango]

That moment when you are procrastinating from studying for your exams and you end up on a video about the exams at your university..... 😒

[@xploit811]

Tibeee your expressions when your friend is speaking, its awkward but in a very delightful and cute way.

[@tntdogs6910]

Bro why do you say this?

[@kaca2903]

Thanks for this video, very interesting! I feel like I've noticed the same differences when switching from studying in Serbia to studying in the Netherlands (which feels like it's more similar to America).

[@fishermikoaj6578]

I study physics in Poland and we had few oral exams even at undergraduate level. They are generally from broad knowledge for example nuclear physics, or thermodynamics.

[@JagjivanSinghCheema]

Valuable discussion👍

[@tibees]

:)

[@Fiel1911]

europe is not a single country, it makes no sens to compare european exams and na exams since its different for almost each country inside europe

[@TileBitan]

I think they are talking about university exams, which in europe are very similar because of things like the European Union and the Erasmus program, things that force universities to evaluate in a similar way. Bolonia plan, look at it.

[@thorsten8790]

Europe is Starting to be seen as a country and individual nations matter less and less, sad but true

[@TileBitan]

@@thorsten8790 i think it's great. We must move towards a unified civilization and leave "tribal" fights behind, the more things are like this, the more are our chances of surviving in the vast universe

[@sowmyag5142]

@@TileBitan yes

[@derbigpr500]

Except it's not, Bologna plan applies to entire EU. Pretty much everything you study has oral + written exams.

[@dbforster6020]

Thank you, that was a really good video. I only had one oral for my BSc. Eng. (EE); it was about 30m and worth almost the complete course mark but I somehow remember that the Prof. had a good way about him as far as easing the immediate anxiety (though the pre-exam anxiety was very real).

[@altrario]

Hahaha! Hey! Ive been following your vids for a while now and I study for a MSc. in theoretical physics at ETH 😂 such a coincidence! Keep up the good work! (Ps: oral exams suck 😜)

[@beactivebehappy9894]

Just by listening to it I have my palms and feet oozing sweat drops 💦 ...

[@raviprakash345]

Merry Christmas to you Toby 🤗😊

[@tibees]

Merry Christmas :)

[@erkinalp]

@@tibees are you religious?

[@hbm293]

@@erkinalp lol

[@rfldss89]

oof we even have oral exams at the end of high school. Not sure if I prefer them or not though. On the one they're shorter, and you can always correct yourself/justify your answer more easily than in a written exam, but at the same time, I absolutely despise the hours leading up to it. Always such a stressful time, just thinking about has me shivering with tummy aches...

[@dibujodecroquis1684]

11:57- Engineers use many tables, while physicists don't. That's a huge difference between both areas of knowledge.

[@a0flj0]

It's not about knowledge. It's about understanding. You could take a written exam by memorizing a lot and understanding just a little. That doesn't make you good, or even passable. You actually have to understand what you're doing. Also, ETH is a great place to study.

[@somnathdash4428]

Zurich! Einstein!

[@daedraq]

Einstein actually lived and discovered relativity in Bern.

[@Michallo50]

Einstein were actually Jewish.

[@somnathdash4428]

@@daedraq he went to Zurich Polytechnic for his education

[@his-story.]

Once again LOVE from INDIA,🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳

[@stardaggerrihannsu2363]

India is another place that people can get a real education!

[@sumandhan1657]

It's called Ratta maar education, with no values as such😂

[@krollpeter]

@@stardaggerrihannsu2363 Such as how to get diplomas with no knowledge. Or how to avoid visiting a university except matriculation :)

[@stardaggerrihannsu2363]

@@krollpeter There are crappy unis there, there are Great ones there. YMMV!

[@aBirdbyBrancusi]

I like your channel. Very informative. Thanks!

[@pajamasflannel]

Try the low sugar ice cream, Evolution. The plainer flavors are best but, really, you can’t go wrong!

[@jaimeduncan6167]

The problem of the oral exams like that is basically an engine of discrimination. The teachers can, and will go soft on the people of the proper profile and nuts on the ones that they don’t like or don’t want to help. It’s whatever the teacher wants m.

[@ommaercool]

Both in high school (2 last years), gymnasium (the three years which at the end is almost university level), and this is in the Faroe Islands, more than half of exams were oral, the rest written (but never multiple choice). At University if Copenhagen, I would say that there were quite few oral exams in bachelor, but during the master’s more were oral. The thesis could either be written or written + defended (in article form, fewer pages than if you choose the entirely written one, but it is a lot more “compact”. I preferred the written + oral exam, and my thesis that was written in article form, was subsequently published in a prestigious international neuroscience journal, so yeah, I did alright. I would say that the gymnasium structure I went through in the Faroe Islands, which hadn’t been amended since 1992, a lot more hardcore and oral oriented than what the younger generations go through (the updated danish structure), was really good for me academically, because it forces you to not focus on reciting your memory of written books, and makes you focus more on actually understanding the concepts in a more fundamental way. I guess the reason the world tilts more and more towards written exams is due to economics - it’s a lot cheaper and the logistics/organizing the exams is simple (put a bunch of people in a room with paper and a pencil). But I think (since I am teaching now as a my part of my phd) students are at a lower level than what had been previously. Extremely nervous to present for 10 minutes in front of a class (whereas I mostly teach for an hour and a half), since they have had so few oral exams. I noticed that they studied in a way to just memorise facts rather than understanding the underlying theory), not a great idea since my class ended with an oral exam), but it is not the student’s fault. The have adapted to the newer gymnasium structure where grades are to a large extent based on memorization/reciting, but as soon as they come to the University, they are really poorly prepared, despite being top grade students (my discipline required among the highest average exam scores). I really prefer the oral oriented examination and having it a high degree is academically healthier in my humble opinion.

[@punmije]

my entire studies consisted of written and oral exams haha. It is stressful I can confirm. If you haven't prepared yourself well, you better not go for the oral exam. Most of the time written tests are the requirements for the oral ones. You have to pass both. Cheers from Europe! :D

[@yazgaroth]

I had such exam. Every word of my answer was questioned, and every word of every answer was questioned, etc. Just like recursion in an infinite loop. After an hour (it was the evening), my brain was like "I don't care if you have an exam tomorrow morning, you need to sleep, RIGHT NOW"

[@harshachitti1903]

Your videos are amazing...you are so good at explaining.

[@gauravrathi8675]

I myself is a mechanical engineer and can definitely relate to the oral exam cases that we face 😂😂

[@ArunKumar-yb2jn]

I, me and myself.

[@milly4543]

As someone who's pretty shy, I would hate to have done oral exams. There's no perfect examination method but oral exams favour a specific type of personality imo

[@arnolddalby5552]

In the 20th century we had oral exams for English and French. My English oral exam subject was astronomy especially the solar system. It was a 5 minute talk and I was chosen to give my talk twice. The second time in front of the examiners which I did and it was a good experience and the examiners asked me a couple of questions that challenged my knowledge at the time which was limited. I remember having to say that one of their questions was outside the scope of my current knowledge. I passed the English exam much to the delight of my teacher as it wasn't my best subject as I preferred science and mathematics. I think more emphasis should be placed on memory techniques for remembering knowledge which frees up the mind to analyse that knowledge. Just a thought. Haha.

[@HugoHabicht12]

Anyway, grades from written exams mostly do not tell a lot about how good a student understands things. I know students they are able to learn a lot by heart and get a perfect grade but after a few month nothing is left. It is true that you need in oral exams different ability’s, I would say the better ones (from a german prof point of view :). In the end the best way of leaning something is without exams at all.

[@danielc4267]

Wow, oral exam sounds great

[@unnamedchannel2202]

The idea about oral exams is very simple. You can't explain what you haven't got your head around. Then it is about your ability to deal with things you don't know. Engineering is all about new problems. Mediocre engineers can solve known problems. Real engineers aren't afraid of new problems. Just throw your knowledge at them and observe where it gets you.

[@munchkinationLOL72]

In Uruguay, for a Bachelor's degree in Physics or Astronomy, basically every course has an obligatory exam. Most are written (problem-solving) *and* oral (theoretical). You can exonerate the problem-solving part of the exam if you pass the course with a high enough grade, but every course has an obligatory theoretical exam. The written exam consists of three or four problems, similar to the tests throughout the semester. The oral exam can last 15-60 minutes, where they can ask basically anything they want to. In some oral exams they give you 15 minutes to prepare, while in others you start answering questions immediately. It really sucks when you're not good at speaking in front of other people or if you're not the best at rambling on or bluffing or if you just go blank. Sometimes the theoretical exam is written, but usually only for first year courses.

[@gene9230]

Directly after my oral quantum mechanics exam I thought I failed, but I got an 1.0 and the Prof. offered me a job, but I did not take the job. ^^

[@SHAURYA181]

As a fellow Mechanical engineer hearing word mechanical engineering gives me deja vu

[@prudhviraj_k]

Knowing world better..tq Toby 😊👍

[@Kni90270]

I really like your content :)

[@bonfiliodazzlevgyula3165]

YAY IM EARLY,, love from Indonesia!

[@h00sha]

It almost sounds like oral exams put the student in the role of the teacher. Very cool. Scary, but cool!

[@newton1000]

Happy Holiday to you :)

[@tibees]

Happy holiday :)

[@dbuc4671]

This is regarding university entrance exams, not university exams themselves. In Canada, in my province of British Columbia, all high school students in grades 10-12 take "numerical" and "literacy" grade 10, 11 and 12 exams and they are required to graduate. its literally nowhere as close to difficult as asian or european exams lol. while you definitely are not allowed electronic devices or aiding materials such as textbooks, they do not check to make you don't have those on you, they simply warn people that they will get in trouble if caught with those things and let people go put them away. If you are late they do not lock the doors or stare daggers at you when you start doing the exam. you are allowed calculators though. You get a score of 1-4, 1 meaning not proficient and 4 meaning exceedingly proficient. If you are not satisfied with the score you got you can retake it twice more. im pretty sure only the more prestigious universities in the country pay attention to score you get on it, like University of BC, University of Toronto, McGill, etc. my parents are chinese immigrants and i definitely know about the gaokao. i sometimes feel as if I'm taking this pressure lifted off me for granted, but thats not to say that my parents aren't strict about my education and performance lol

[@abdullasulfikkar5282]

Hi Toby,love your contents

[@hpekristiansen]

An American have an experience in one European country and immediately concludes that that is way it is in all the European countries. How is it possible that so many are completely blind about the huge diversity within Europe - to the point that they speak about it like it was one small place with the same people, culture and laws.

[@tripp8833]

fascinating how, while criticizing Americans for generalizing europeans, you then generalize Americans... talk about irony...

[@derbigpr500]

Because all European universities work under the Bologna plan, and are very, very similar. Pretty much anywhere you study, you'll have 90% of the same classes, study 90% of the same things and the classes, grades and finals will be structured very similarly.

[@hpekristiansen]

@@tripp8833 Sure let us say that all Americans are like this.

[@mrbrainbob5320]

In America we have presentations which is basically a combination of oral and written.

[@ichigolistl4307]

It’s really interesting how ETH works, especially engineering courses in English is something unusual for mechanical engineering in Germany 😅🙈 However , i would disagree with respect to engineering degrees in Germany or at least at TUM in Munich. Almost all of our exams in mechanical engineering are written this is also due to the sizes of the courses It’s quite normal to begin the program with 500-600 people and around 75% stick around until the end. Therefore, oral exams are not an option for us, at least not for Bachelor exams. Small master courses sometimes have oral exams.

[@TomLeg]

My real-time Operating Systems final exam asked to explain the sequence of calls and returns into the OS kernel resulting from the first instruction of the OS we had written. When I finished, I realized I had used up 5 pages and well over an hour ... so scrambled for the other questions ... I DID pass the course

[@zzhu8192]

" We are not there to find out what you don't know" ... "That's a lie ..." 🤣🤣🤣

[@diegohidafl]

Oh my god, for studying I sat just next from where you were. I recognise the wall and chairs. Weird that I did not see you. Surely I had class or something at that time.

[@tuffymartinez]

I just ran into your channel...GREAT!!!!...but....I am old...have spent my entire successful life as a manual tooling machinist. I never use math at all in my work. I can't do it. My brain just clicks out, really..I learned early on to just formulate my thinking to create solutions in a machine shop by just conceptualizing the problem than using raw stock to build the tool that will produce results...all without math...Three dimensional work in my mind alone is easy but if I have to show or prove my ideas before building a solution, impossible!!!....Love your style of presentation/patience but I am way too old for change to learn a new way to do what I successfully have taught myself to do all without math....tm

[@sowmyag5142]

Hiiii toby, Could you pls make video about your journey to MIT? Or your phd story ? Pl plsplsplspls I also wannabe a physicist? Pls help me. I am confused😥😥 Pls like this so that toby will see it

[@tibees]

I did not go to MIT. The exam video you might have seen, I mention that the exam just came from their website. I might make a video about my PhD situation soon

[@sowmyag5142]

@@tibees ooh Thank you so much toby.😀😀

[@theA731N]

quantum world if you want a good chance to go to MIT and you’re American, in high school, I recommend especially if you are 9th or 10th you should enroll into Excel high school. It’s online school and it can really raise your chances as your GPA will definitely go up. You have to buy books in physics and start from the basics. If you need help with something KZbin can help but you need it so you know the criteria.

[@sowmyag5142]

@@theA731N thank you. But I am an Indian. I am in 12th grade.

[@56shauryasingh33]

@@sowmyag5142 its not even worth trying for indians.....even if you clear the SAT and have international level NSO and IMO medals..still its hard to get in so study for JEE

[@nouvilas42]

I have a master's in theoretical physics, done in Spain (the physics undergraduate too), and I have never had an oral exam. I did have many presentations during the master's, that served as the whole mark of a course, instead of having a traditional exam. I guess the particular culture of the country influences it (from what I've seen in the comments oral exams seem more common in central/east Europe.

[@wamxfl1p653]

OMG I was sitting just there today, when did you film this?

[@derkommentator4191]

same, mathematic bsc student here

[@Generalbrus]

I don't think ETHZ exams are a good example of typical European exams. In other universities it's common to have fewer questions and quite enough time to go through everything without rushing.

[@lokeshreddy94]

nice video & merry christmas

[@tibees]

Thanks & merry Christmas

[@tejasdeshpande485]

In my undergrad , the oral exam is like two students are tested simultaneously .

[@Newtonissac6]

I am doing my masters in France and while we don't have an oral exam for each subject, we have something like a viva for a specific topic or thesis we have been preparing for months. During my undergraduate lab exams, we used to have oral and I used to suck at those.

[@angelvalentynn]

the dude who screamed the f word after the exam is a mood

[@sabart5]

I wouldn't say that oral exams are the norm in Europe. When I did my Chemistry degree in Barcelona all exams were written. I got an oral exam once but that was after a regular written exam; the point being to give me a second chance as I had narrowly failed the written one. But, as I have said, that wasn't the norm.

[@rikke7098]

In Italy most of my undergraduate exams were oral too :)

[@killua9369]

I hate Italian exams of Politecnico di Milano, they make it very difficult! They tend to fail students and scare them by their exams!

[@Blox117]

at the dentist's office most of my exams were oral too

[@barath187]

Love 💕 from India 🇮🇳

[@elijah1110]

“PROF”

[@derivativecovariant2341]

There's a website called rate ur prof

[@hasanalbeaik3535]

How many books do you have to study for each exam (written/oral)? And do you have time to study for all your classes throughout the semester and then just have a quick review before the exams?

[@yougonasorryschannel3518]

with such a title i was sure the comment section would be all over the place... im surprised...

[@fatpanda3305]

There is no such thing as "European exams", European countries differ vastly in how they teach. Go to Poland and you'll get one education system. Go to Sweden, a 1 hour flight away, and you get a completely different education system. Go to Finland, another 1-2 hour flight away, and you get yet another completely different education system.

[@mothernature5237]

in swedish high school we have oral exams for math , swedish, english, other langauges, physcis

[@Lululu77368]

OMFG I love every video you make. 😎😎😎 literally watch you when I'm meant to be revising 😌

[@richiegrey5377]

What do you call an elf who sings? A wrapper!