In an ongoing experiment in the basic public speaking course at Miami University (Ohio), an attempt has been made to devise a testing approach that preserves the viability of the evaluation process and, at the same time, is efficient to administer and acceptable to students as a measure of what they have learned while performing. The alteration of the traditional multiple choice mid-term and final examinations was based on a pilot project in which students in one section viewed three 2-4 minute videotaped speeches and answered 50 multiple-choice questions about what they had seen. Essentially this exam covered the same theoretical material as did the departmental exam, but did so in a more clearly applied manner. Student evaluations of the videotape exam indicated a significantly higher level of satisfaction with this exam than with the traditional departmental exam. Implementing the project on a department-wide basis required three broad steps: developing a pool of videotaped speeches representing a variety of speech types, generating a pool of questions based on theoretical material taught in the course for each form of public address, and testing the examination in a pilot classroom. Problems posed by this approach include the time required for conversion to a videotape exam format, scheduling around a limited number of videotape players, and the suitability of this approach to other universities. The advantages include student satisfaction, increased understanding of the process nature of communication, the energy saved by speech instructors and other faculty subjects with a practical orientation, and the long-term retention and higher levels of cognitive learning tapped through a visual teaching technique. (HTH)