Oral Exams

Teacher Protocol

I. What is an Oral Mid-term Exam?

An Oral Mid-term Exam is a cumulative oral test given in the middle of the academic period, which
can include any of the contents covered in the first part of the course. The Oral Mid-term Exam is
administered to in pairs or groups of three and it consists of two parts described in point IV.
NOTE: The Oral Mid-term Exam will generally take two modules.

II. What is the Oral Final Exam?

The Oral Final Exam is a cumulative oral test given at the end of the academic period, which can
include any of the material covered during the course. The Final Oral Exam is administered to in pairs
or groups of three. It consists of two parts described in point IV.

III. How do Oral Exams work logistically?

Each student answers one individual prompt and participates in two discussion prompts. Ideally,
students can have 1.5 minutes per individual prompt and 2 minutes per interaction.
Pairs –or triads, depending on the total number of students –should be assigned by teachers before
the exam takes place. Teachers should also inform students of their groups and their time slot the
day before via email.
It is estimated that, at most, you will need a slot of 20 minutes per pair, to ensure a timely rotation.
Please, make sure that these time slots are not exceeded.

IV. Who designs the Oral Final Exam?

Level tests are built by EUC’s test creation team. They will be found on the “Assessment” folder in
SharePoint.

V. Can teachers modify the Oral Exams?

Yes. Teachers can modify up to 10% of the Oral Exams in case some critical contents haven’t been
covered by the exam week. When doing so, they must let the Academic Programs Coordinator know
about these changes in case more adjustments are needed.

VI. What do the teacher and students do during an Oral Exam?

On the one hand, the teacher will give each student the corresponding set of questions, which
includes 1) the individual questions and 2) the discussion prompts; i.e the “Student’s view”. On the
other hand, the teacher will have the full set of questions which contains 1) the individual questions
per student plus 2) the discussion prompts with the corresponding target structures; i.e.: the
“Teacher’s view”.

For the individual part, students have approximately 15 seconds to think before giving an answer.
This procedure is repeated for each student. If students need clarification because they did not
understand the question the teacher can provide an explanation three times at most. For the
interactive part students have 30 seconds to read and think, before interacting. This procedure is
repeated for each prompt.

The teacher should listen to each response and write down a list of relevant and consistent deviations
considering the target expected structures in the covered units. The teacher should also write
comments on the student’s strengths.
After students leave, the teacher will look at the passing band of the rubric and determine if the
linguistic behavior is higher or lower than that and up to what extent it is. This needs to be done for
each marking criterion. Then assign a score for each area of evaluation.

After all scores are averaged, use the conversion chart to obtain the grade of the exam.

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 Oral Exams
Teacher Protocol

The teacher has 5 working days for the Midterm Oral and 3 working days for the Final Oral, to
complete and deliver the Feedback Form to each students, according to what is specified in point
VII.

NOTE: Please ask students to correlate their feedback form with the rubric so that they can obtain
information on their actual performance during the exam.
VII. Who grades the Oral Exams?

Each teacher is responsible for grading the Oral Exam of each student they teach.
Please bear in mind that achievement should be measure according to the students’ performance
regarding the use of the target linguistic features.

VIII. Where do I record the results of the Oral Exams?

Record the results in in the class records as well as in “Escritorio del profesor”, following the procedure
below:
1. Go to link http://www.educacioncontinua.uc.cl
2. Click on “Intranet” at the top right side of the screen and then, on “Intranet profesores”
3. Input your RUT. The password is the first four digits of your RUT number.
4. Click on your class and
5. Select “Notas”, at the left side of the screen.
6. Go to “Ingresar notas”
7. From the drop down list, select the correspondent grade item
8. Input the grades in each student’s box.
9. Finally, click on the Save button

IX. How do I grade the Oral Exam?

Each teacher must use the English UC Language Center Oral Exam Rubric that corresponds to the
level they are evaluating for grading. This rubric takes into account four areas: Grammar (30%),
Semantics (Vocabulary & pronunciation) (30%), Fluency (30%), and Content (10%). We have
designed an Oral Exam Feedback Form in Excel format, available on Google Docs. Teachers should
fill out one of these forms per student evaluated. This form allows the teacher to assign a percentage
of achievement for each area, and automatically calculates the weighted grade and includes the
description of the band they are in. Students’ overall mark in each evaluation area should take into
account their overall performance in both the individual and interactional components of the
evaluation.

There is an area for comments as well, which should be used to provide students with explanations
of their relevant and consistent deviations including examples, suggestions for improvement, and
congratulations on achievements.

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NOTE: Although it is natural to lose some objectivity when evaluating your own students,
please keep in mind that students must demonstrate control over the target structures, and
the minimum language skills to succeed in the following level in case of the Final Exam. It is
a disservice to pass a student who cannot perform at the proper linguistic level. Focus on
your written record of your students’ evaluation performance and you will be more likely to
make objective grading decisions.

X. How do I communicate to my students the results of their Oral Final Exam?

Once teachers have filled out and saved the Feedback Form, they have to send them to each
student’s personal email accounts, using your UC email account. It is important to mention that the
file should be shared in a PDF format.
In case you still don’t have Access to your UC email account, please use the email you have shared
with EUC staff.

How to get students’ emails?

1. Go to link http://www.educacioncontinua.uc.cl
2. Click on “Intranet” at the top right side of the screen and then, on “Intranet profesores”
3. Input your RUT. The password is the first four digits of your RUT number.
4. Click on your class and
5. Select “Información curso”, at the left side of the screen.
6. Go to “Alumnos”
7. A list will appear with the corresponding emails for each student.

XI. How many days do I have to grade and communicate the results to my students?

The teacher needs to assign a percentage of achievement for each assessed area, immediately
following the exam, to preserve grade reliability. After that, teachers have five working days for the
Midterm Oral and three working days for the Final Oral, to send each student their Feedback Form
according to what was specified in point VII.

XII. What happens if my student misses an Oral Exam?

After the exams are over, send an email to the absent students saying that they must follow the
Justification Procedure explained in the Program, i.e. send a copy of Official Justification Document
to Werner Baltra, webaltra@uc.cl, within 3 working days of the missed evaluation. After that, the
student is authorized to take a Recuperative Exam pending EUC staff instructions as seen in point
XII.

XIII. What can I tell my students about Recuperative Exams?

After the document is received, Werner will send the student an email, blind copying the teacher,
confirming that he/she can take the Recuperation Exam.
For corporate students, the exam date and time will also be informed by email. For open massive
courses, dates will be shared in the course calendar at the beginning of the academic period.
Until the student does the Recuperative Exam, mark the student with a 1.0

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