Another viva post from me but now I have my date (6 weeks), I want to make sure I do the best job I can. I have been reading one of the books recommended by someone one here (thanks) (Tinkler & Jackson - The Doctoral Examination Process), but obviously I need to do my own preparation.

Is it too early too start? I am not sure. It seems that there is lots I could do in terms of writing summaries, thinking of tricky questions, checking for typos/errors in my thesis etc, checking my undestanding of key models I have discussed etc. I don't want to over prepare and simply increase the anxiety but on the other hand I don't want to go in feeling underprepared. I know you can never guess all that will be asked but it is good to have done some prep work.

My supervisor will be giving me a mock viva so that will be great (well, good practice, scary experience!) Would you start now in my position? I should also say that I am teaching, so do have other things to focus on (plus some writing up of papers if I get the chance).

It depends on the individual e.g. how confident you are feeling, how long ago you submitted, whether in the interim you've been working on similar stuff. I had a 12 week gap between submission and viva. I actually had my thesis date brought forward by a month which was alarming! I reckon I did about 3 weeks intensive (i.e. very long days, weekends) 'revision' i.e. re-reading thesis, re-reading key references in full and making notes, reading abstracts only of less important papers, revising key pharmacological processes, mathematical theories etc. It actually didn't feel like I'd given myself long enough but clearly I did (passed no corrections) and I don't think I would ever have felt that I'd prepared enough. Definitely, I think that mock viva(s) are the very best way to prepare. Good luck!!!

Thanks Ann, your reply is realy helpful. I submitted on 5th Feb, so very recently.

Congrats on the pass without corrections, that is fantastic! According to the person conducting the viva workshop I went to last week, approx only 1.5% people get no corrections at all.

Really? Well, obviously I'm only human and I did have typos in my thesis which I corrected for the final bound version but the examiners didn't stipulate any changes, hence it was considered a straight pass. I do remember the woman from our postgrad office saying she'd never seen a straight pass on an examiners report form before, lol!

Well I did half a days preparation, not because I thought I could just sail through it, its because I was really ill the weeks running up to it and just felt too rotten to'revise'. In end passsed, minor corrections, but a friend in academia gave me a mock viva the night before which really helped

Can't agree more about a mock viva (great advice from Ann!) My supervisors did one for me about 5 days before the real thing. It was enough time to address any issues that needed refining, but not long enough to forget things - it stayed fresh in my mind. It also gave me the opportunity to discuss how best to answer a question (we kept switching between "viva" and "discussion" mode if that makes sense)and about 3 questions came up in the real thing!
I started reading through my thesis thoroughly about 2 weeks before... once through is enough. I made my own list of typos, did a "key word" document so I knew what was where, and checked out some of my external's work (I hadn't referenced him in the thesis). I passed with minor corrections, I was VERY nervous before my viva and kept building it up to being something terrible that in reality really wasn't that bad. But I know how bad the nerves can get, so please feel free to talk if you need to

Ann, I hope you will still be writing to the forum when my time comes for viva. Great advice as usual.

I know Ann! You rule!

You are all so helpful, thanks Ann, Krondile and Djwickid.

It's really helpful to hear of your experiences. No doubt, I will be posting more about viva panic in the near future!

Aw, thanks guys!