> For example, if person decided to go to math/physics, it was required to pass 4 exams (2 for math, written and spoken) and 2 for physics.
I don't mean to derail, but what is a "spoken" math exam like? It sounds like my nightmare and I graduated with a STEM degree in a competitive program.
There were printed tickets that contains different question (typically 3) from all math coursed tough in school.
A person randomly picks the ticket (that were present, and questions unknow before you pick it) and was given time to answer the questions.
After that he sit face to face with person who take the exam (typically if was the professor form university) and explain him your answer, while examiner can ask you additional questions related to your answer, etc. Based on your answer he grades you.
In this system you cannot cheat the exam, since examiner will quickly realize if your answer were from cheat or you knew the subject.
Going by the experience of the Russian chemist that mentored me as a kid...
You stand in front of a few adults as a middle schooler. You have a chalkboard and chalk. They ask you to prove that n^2+1 is never divisible by 3. You do so with aplomb.
Decades later you ask an American middle schooler to do the same. He covers a ream of paper with attempts to find the right answer, and stares at you in confusion. You wonder if escaping the Soviet Union was worth dealing with lazy fools who can't already do calculus at 13.
I took oral math exams in Germany 15 years back when studying there for a year. In many ways I actually preferred it to written. A nice thing about oral exams is that it allows the professor to quite effectively determine your skills very quickly. If you're stuck at small parts, they can give you a hint. If you then just start rolling, you clearly knew the subject matter. Or if you don't understand an area very well, the professor can switch to another area. Maybe you happen to know other parts of the course very well, but the first thing the professor asks is in one of your weak areas. The professor can also drill down into specific subjects you understand well and give you more and more difficult and detailed questions that you've maybe never even thought about at all and help you through them.
I think the system is great. The main downside is that one-on-one tests just don't scale. But other than that, I wish they would be more common in undergraduate studies in the US.
Not familiar with old Russian system but there are oral exams for math in France when you apply to "École d'ingénieurs" (engineering school), and it still exists today:
It's basically like a coding whiteboard interview, but instead of being asked to invert a binary tree, you're asked a math question (proof of something, etc)
Like coding interviews in whiteboards for programmers... questions about math/physics/etc... and you have to answer them, and then write in the blackboard your solution. You get graded by solution + the way you explained things.
Written, are just like that, written tests, usually not multiple choice, (that is an american invention), but you have to show the work you did to get the result of the problem.
They can be easy or brutal, it very depends on how hard is the teach doing the 'interrogation' on you....
I don't mean to derail, but what is a "spoken" math exam like? It sounds like my nightmare and I graduated with a STEM degree in a competitive program.