Abstract

A final year nutrition assessment (37 students) using oral viva was compared to the previous year’s written paper. 14 students were asked to provide feedback on their experience of the oral viva. There appears to be no statistically significant difference between the mean marks of each assessment. Students expressed a range of views on the experience of the oral viva, but focussed on two main themes which are then briefly explored: oral viva would serve well in employment because of its 'real life' nature and oral viva is more anxiety provoking than a paper - based assessment.

Key words: Oral examination, oral communication, oral assessment, oral viva, nutritional assessment.