> Anyone with oral exams was privileged.

No, they really weren't. These were state school's in 1970's eastern Europe. No tuition, and neither parent was from a privileged background.

Privileged enough to have a place at a university, sure.

That didn't universally equate to privilege in a class or wealth sense for a number of countries.

eg: https://www.whitlam.org/whitlam-legacy-education

was the system I was educated under, when I took orals it was a result of being a scruffy kid that wore no shoes but passed general high school and math talent exams better than all but three others my age in the state.

( For interest, the three that ramked higher than myself that year in Tertiary admissions exams were all educated in expensive private schools in the capital city- I got by on School of the Air, a bunch of books and a few years at a smallish remote high school in far north W.Australia

* https://www.aades.edu.au/members/wa

1970's ham radio running off truck batteries - pre internet for that area, although we did experiment with text over phone line and packet radio.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestel

)