I passed my viva last week!
It is only just sinking in! In the run up to my viva I have found it very helpful to read posts on here about people's vivas and how they prepared etc so wanted to do the same for others.
First I just wanted to say that my PhD has been such a roller coaster and I did quite a bit of it part time so seems to have taken forever and really has been the hardest thing I've ever done. I thought about quitting many times and really struggled with my self confidence in my ability to do it so hope this can inspire people who are also struggling to keep going and you will get there!
My viva was about 3 months after I submitted and I started doing bits to prepare about 5 weeks before (I work full time). To prepare I did the following: read a book about the viva, read a few articles of my external (I had already read and referenced quite a few others), read some of my internals, wrote about 20 specific questions they could ask and answers to them and 20 general ones with answers, went on a half day viva course, wrote a summary in bullet points of the first chapter, read the thesis, read about 5 of my key articles. This is probably quite over the top to what other people do and part of me thinks I'm not sure it was really that helpful but I'm sure all the preparation did give me things to say to various questions and I think it's just down to personal choice of how much you want to do.
As well as this I had 3 friends ask me questions to practice and then I had a session with some of my research group for nearly 2 hours which went really well.
This is what happened in the viva: I went in and they asked if I was nervous and just to try to relax and they were going to just have a discussion about my work but would also obviously need to test me. they said it was good and they had enjoyed reading it. They asked me to give a summary of my thesis and then asked for weaknesses and strengths. They then said they were going to start with quite general questions and this went on for an hour and I can't really remember much apart from finding it really hard! Then they asked if I wanted a 5 minute break which I did. When I came back they said they would now be asking specific questions and so we started going through my thesis chapter by chapter and this went on for another 2 hours!!! I found it pretty stressful and didn't think I was doing very well. My internal walked me back down the corridor and told me I had done very well at which point I didn't believe him! I then had a bit of a cry in my office as think I was totally overwhelmed and about 45 mins later got called back in with my sups and told I had minor corrections! I was really pleased but it was a very weird feeling I kept thinking about the answers I didn't think I had done very well with actually couldn't remember the ones I did well with until 2 days later! We then all went to the pub were my sup bought everyone champagne and toasted me which was very nice and my external told me I had done very well and said sorry he had gone on so long but he was enjoying himself! I spent the weekend completely exhausted and think it is only just sinking in now.
Well done on passing your viva Dr!
You must have been so chuffed after spending so long on your PhD. I am part-time and am about to submit, so I am looking forward to getting the viva done. I shall take note of your prep for when I do mine, thank you. How did the viva go? I am very nervous about this lol.
