Why Colleges Are Turning to Oral Exams to Combat AI

A growing number of college professors are turning to oral exams to address concerns about AI-assisted academic work. As generative AI tools become more sophisticated, educators are finding that traditional take-home assignments often yield perfect responses that students cannot explain when questioned directly.

Chris Schaffer, a biomedical engineering professor at Cornell University, introduced oral defenses in his class last semester. “You won’t be able to AI your way through an oral exam,” Schaffer said. The assignment requires students to speak directly to an instructor without laptops, chatbots, pens, or paper—relying solely on verbal explanation to demonstrate understanding.

At the University of Pennsylvania, Emily Hammer, an associate professor of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, now pairs oral exams with written papers in her seminar classes. Hammer emphasizes that the goal is not merely to prevent cheating but to address a deeper concern: students are losing cognitive capacity and creativity as they increasingly rely on AI to do their thinking for them.

Oral assessment, known historically as viva voce, has roots stretching back over 2,000 years to ancient Greek philosophical traditions. It was later adopted in medieval Islamic scholarship and European universities, including Oxford, where it remains in apply today. While written exams became dominant in the 1700s, oral exams are seeing a revival as educators seek authentic ways to evaluate student knowledge in the AI era.

These assessments offer integrity that is tough to compromise with AI, as they require real-time thinking and articulation. Educators view them not just as anti-cheating measures but as essential tools for preserving critical thinking skills in an age of increasingly powerful artificial intelligence.