Interview assessment as compressed judgement: how evidence becomes recognisable under interactional constraint

Assessment judgement research recognises evaluative decisions as interpretive and situated, yet has paid less attention to how evidential sufficiency becomes recognisable when judgement is enacted in real time. This paper examines interview-based assessment as an assessment instrument whose significance lies in the judgement logic it operationalises. Drawing on reflexive thematic analysis of qualitative interviews with staff and students on an undergraduate programme employing assessed interviews, the study examines how evidence is organised, stabilised, and recognised under conditions of temporal and interactional constraint. It shows how interview questions function as pre-authorising devices that delimit what can count as legitimate evidence in advance, how evidential adequacy is produced interactionally rather than accumulated, and how student preparation becomes oriented towards recognisability under compression. These dynamics are explored as compressed judgement: a form of assessment judgement oriented towards decision-readiness within a bounded and irreversible encounter.