Examination of oar to be repaired beside lake (4)
I believe the answer is:
oral
'examination' is the definition.
(oral is a kind of examination)
'oar to be repaired beside lake' is the wordplay.
'to be repaired' indicates an anagram.
'beside' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'lake' becomes 'l'.
'oar' is an anagram of 'ora'.
'ora'+'l'='ORAL'
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for oral that I've seen before include "Spoken, of the mouth" , "Like some tradition" , "Kind of exam" , "Viva voce" , "Verbal" .)