Well might an eminent confrère exclaim one day:
"Is not all this printed and published to discourage the study of French?"
I once heard an examiner ask a dear little fellow, aged eleven, the following poser:
"Give me the derivations of all the words of the French sentence you have just read aloud."
Poor little boy! He took the examiner for a wonderful man.
So he was.
English examinations consist of so many papers to be taken up; the "viva voce" does not play an important part in England, as it does in France.
A "viva voce" examination very often gives the examiner a better idea of the candidate's abilities and knowledge than a written one, but it has many drawbacks. It favors babblers and the self-assured, and does not enable the timid to show themselves at their best.