One of the eternal dilemmas in education is how to evaluate the amount of knowledge transferred during the teaching process. Today it is more common for a timed written test to form an important component of assessment, but perhaps the oldest form is the oral (or viva voce) examination (Huxham, Campbell, & Westward, 2012). There are still oral exams for doctoral thesis, moot court, and many postgraduate medical programs (Joughin 2007). In tertiary level mathematics service units, students expect that assessment may consist of written tests and/or assignments, online quizzes and a final examination. In my experience as an educator, I have observed students spend many hours wondering and predicting their final grade. They review previous tests/exams to ascertain the choice of questions to answer, the content of test/exam notes allowed, and use a myriad of mathematical ideas to predict the final grade. Students in different disciplines are required to possess a certain degree of mathematical thinking and knowledge which they will later apply in their chosen field. Since most mathematics service units are positioned in the first year, the relevance to their degree program is not easily appreciated. Students with non-mathematical majors require broad knowledge rather than a deep theoretical understanding of mathematics. The written solution can hide the author's true intention as faulty reasoning or misunderstanding can be masked by a correct answer (Mitchell & Horne, 2011). The spoken word leaves room for these clarifications. This exploratory paper will examine the provision of oral presentations in tutorials as part of assessment in mathematics service units. As mentioned above...... half of the paper ......mathematics: an alternative assessment technique, Primus: Problems, Resources and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies, 16(3), 243-256. Rettig, M. (2005) Using the multiple intelligences to enhance education for young children and young children with disabilities, Early Childhood Education Journal, 132 (4 ), 255-259. Szirony, GM, Pearson, LC, Burgin, JS, Murray, GC and Elrod, LM (2007) Cerebral hemisphere dominance and career preference: a preliminary analysis, Work, 29(4), 323-9. Warren, J . (2008) How does the brain process music?, Clinical Medicine, 8(1), 32-36. Downloaded February 26, 2008 from the Health & Medical Complete database.White, A. (2004) Impact of student motivation on teaching and learning, The Agricultural Education Magazine, 76(4), 14.Wilde, O. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Isobel Murray (ed.).all authors.