I have my viva for my DBA..... doctorate in business admin this week..... I'm panicking..... I hear that's normal.....

It's been 8 months since I submitted my final thesis and reading it back there feels like so many holes. I can't find ANY advice on doing a viva for DBA. Will the examiners already have decided to pass/ fail me?

Any last minute advice on preparing? I have reRead my work, including my first 4 documents which I passed but in theory do not count towards the viva. I have worked out what my 'contribution' in and why my work is original.

Anything else?

I'm not sure how helpful this will be, but some other questions I thought about before my viva (which was in literature, so not a DBA, but some of these general points will be relevant to all doctorates I would have thought):

- If you were to restart this project from the beginning, what would you do differently?
- How would you take your research forward (publications, future projects, applying it to business situations, etc.)?
- Since you talk about 'holes', it might be worth having some idea of what you might say should the examiners bring them up. How could they be resolved?

And try to have at least some time to relax. I found my viva to be a shockingly enjoyable experience - it's not often you get eminent academics in your field to chat to you about your research ;)

Best of luck!

Thank you for the really good advice...... One more day to prepare........ Then my mock before the real thing in a few days. I just can't get over the fact that they have already decided my work isn't good enough.

If anyone is interested... I passed my viva with amendments today. Horrible experience really..... None of the holes I predicted really came up. There are 3 areas to amend, one of which is that my literature should have included a look at x, which feels a bit unfair, but just relieved that it wasn't a referral. Especially as the internal examiner started off the feedback talking about revisions rather than amends and after the clear horror on my face had to be told it still meant pass by the chair......

Yeah well done you. Tsk tsk tsk internal examiner!!! When you look back in a few months when everything done and dusted you can have a proper celebration. :D