Hi everyone,

This is my first thread in here. I actually have an enquiry about the VIVA presentation.

What is the ideal number of slides to include in my presentation and what should I highlight?

I guess I would present the background of the research in a slide. The research objectives and questions in another. A third slide about the literature and the gap. A fourth one about the Methodology. Then a number of slides about data collection, analysis, and the findings of the study, what do you think pals?

How long the presentation should last?


Looking forward to your suggestions.

Did they not tell you a time limit?

No, they didn't. I am the first PhD students for my supervisor. She asked me to talk to the department. I went several times but the Dean and the head of the program were off duty. So I wonder how long and what is the conventional structure of the presentation?

Although this may not be very useful since you don't know how long the presentation is supposed to be, a good rule of thumb for number of slides in 1 per minute of presentation.

It would be worth checking if the university's study skills/research training department run courses on how to prepare for a viva, might also be worth speaking to the postgrad secretary in your dept, they seem to know or to know how to find out most things.

Ah ok.

I your case I would prepare a ~10min presentation on your project.

And your layout seems pretty good.
A layout does anyway always rely on the audience, I think. The people your presenting to won't know the topic, so you have to introduce the topic first, then adress the hypothesis and finally go into the results and sum up the whole thing.

But I hope you find out how long it should be.

Good luck!

Thank you. I will try to contact the people in charge as soon as possible to know the given time for the presentation. I was thinking about 20 or 25 minutes presentation. I will check that out.