Prepare for an oral exam
Professional structure: role, context, objective, details, steps, format, criteria and self-check. Designed for better results, not guaranteed ones: always review the answer.
Never use real personal data. If you need to, run it through the data cleaner.
## Role Act as a demanding but fair examiner. ## Context I have an oral exam or a viva and want to practise the questions. ## Objective Simulate the exam and get feedback on my answers. ## Details (fill in what is in square brackets) - [topic or syllabus] - [duration and format of the exam] - [level] ## Step-by-step instructions 1. Ask me one question at a time and wait for my answer. 2. After each answer, assess content, clarity and accuracy. 3. Ask a follow-up if my answer is incomplete. 4. At the end, summarise strengths and topics to review. ## Output format Turn-by-turn conversation and a final report with strengths and weak topics. ## Quality criteria - Questions move from general to specific. - Feedback is specific. - It does not give the answer before I reply. ## Self-check Before answering, check every quality criterion. If information is missing, ask me instead of making it up, and at the end state what you have assumed.
Objective
Simulate the exam and get feedback on my answers.
When to use it
This prompt is ideal when you need to shake off the nerves of defending your ideas under pressure, whether you are preparing for a postgraduate viva, an undergraduate oral defence, or a professional accreditation panel. It helps you test your academic argument flow and spot gaps in your knowledge in real time. However, it is far less helpful if you haven't reviewed your core reading yet, as you will merely end up guessing rather than refining your articulate reasoning.
Worked example: input (fictional data)
Worked example: full response
Variants
Rapid-fire cross-examination
Drop the extended introductory remarks. Fire five sharp, consecutive questions targeting the weakest assumptions in my abstract, limiting my response time to sixty seconds per answer. Provide concise, bulleted feedback at the very end rather than after each individual question.
Undergraduate finals defence
Calibrate the tone for an undergraduate final-year panel. Focus on conceptual definitions, core literature engagement, and how well I explain theoretical frameworks, offering encouraging but rigorous constructive feedback to help build my speaking confidence.
Hostile external examiner
Adopt the persona of a highly sceptical external examiner who actively challenges my research methodology and data sources. Ask persistent follow-up queries that force me to defend my analytical choices and acknowledge research limitations rigorously.
Common mistakes
- Practising only in writing for an oral exam: use voice mode.
- Asking it for the answers instead of practising.
- Ramble endlessly to fill silence instead of structuring a concise and direct initial response. How to avoid it: Pause for three seconds to organise your thoughts, state your main thesis upfront, and support it with two clear points.
- Defend flawed methodology aggressively rather than acknowledging legitimate research boundaries and project constraints. How to avoid it: Show academic maturity by acknowledging limitations openly, explaining why choices were made, and suggesting how future work could address them.
- Recite rehearsed paragraphs verbatim rather than engaging directly with the examiner's specific prompt. How to avoid it: Listen carefully to the exact question asked, reframe it briefly in your opening sentence, and adapt your knowledge dynamically.
- Neglect the specific assessment criteria and grading rubric used by your examining board. How to avoid it: Input your university's explicit marking bands into the prompt context so the simulated feedback matches real expectations.
Related guide
General and assistant-specific tips
Tips by assistant
- ChatGPT: save the role and format in a project or in custom instructions so you do not have to repeat them.
Getting the most out of it
- Paste the prompt as is and only replace what is in [brackets].
- If the answer does not fit, do not start over: ask for “shorter”, “more formal” or “as a table”.
- Always review the result before using it: AI can get facts, dates or names wrong.
Before you paste it: quick checklist
- State your starting level: “I know nothing” or “I know the basics”.
- Ask for everyday examples and a review question at the end.
- If something isn’t clear, ask it to “explain it another way”.
- Check dates, figures and definitions against a reliable source.
How to adapt it to your assistant
The template works the same in ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or Claude because it only uses plain language. If your assistant supports fixed instructions (custom instructions, Gems or projects), you can store your preferred tone and format there and paste only the variable part. On a free plan, split long requests into two or three shorter messages.