Whirley you are so right--you need to pick the words carefully for criticism but the examining situation is different because you are debriefing a complete skills check and there can be so many areas to criticise or comment on. Trying to get this into a sim or aircraft slot can be difficult when you have a potential mega excuse maker.
Kwachon--I do not annouce the result first because i may need to qualify a few points before coming to a decison. I also need to see if the student can make comments like, "Yes I know I should have done so and so" rather than the types that says, " well I did do that".
I prefer to give the benifit of the doubt in some situations but if the candidates wants to argue the point it may well lead to a fail or my reccomendation for further training. (one of my unofficial and preffered types of fail)