Valued Discourse in Oral Examinations for Medical Physicists

Abstract

Oral exams are commonly used as formative assessment for graduate programs and medical specialty certification and claim to assess problem-solving, probe depth of knowledge, recognize safe and competent clinicians, and assess professionalism and ethics. This is the first known study of medical physics oral examinations. For this study, we investigated the types of question examiners ask, the types of responses provided by candidates, and how examiners assign grades to candidates to see if existing theories can extend to medical physics. This study explores discourse between examiners and candidates during oral examinations to understand how these exchanges during the exam are related to the outcomes of the candidates.