Ripped up vacuous exam over a rhetorical question (7)
I believe the answer is:
erotema
'rhetorical question' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'ripped up vacuous exam over a' is the wordplay.
'ripped' becomes 'tore' (I've seen this before).
'up' says the letters should be written in reverse (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'vacuous' means to remove the middle letters.
'over' says to put letters next to each other.
'exam' with its middle taken out is 'em'.
'tore' written backwards gives 'erot'.
'erot'+'em'+'a'='EROTEMA'
(Another definition for erotema that I've seen is " Rhetorical question".)