Edward, If we could just sit and chat with a student and determine, "yeah, they got it it", or "wow, they really missed the point here", that'd be just as satisfactory as some formalized examination. Unfortunately due to time limitations, questions of objectivity and fairness, and our educational system's legal formalities, assessing learning by questioning seems not to be favored much these days. But it could. Much of clinical instruction in medicine still occurs this way. So I'd say, if it works for physicians, it out to work in other areas (end of Barry's rant!). Barry Westling