Business exam's verbal and physical (8)
I believe the answer is:
corporal
'physical' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'business exam's' is the wordplay.
'business' becomes 'corp' ().
'exam' becomes 'oral' (spoken academic test).
'corp'+'oral'='CORPORAL'
'verbal and' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for corporal that I've seen before include "Of the body, say punishment" , "NCO rank below sergeant" , "Poor Carl (anag)" , "Like old-fashioned punishment" , "characterising a body" .)