Hello guys, I have been lurking and reading posts in this forum and I have decided to come out and share with you on my experience on my viva voce that happened last Monday.

I am a MA by Research student in one of the universities in UK, social science student, from a respectable Institute. Going into the programme was scary because my senior (the last one who did a MA by Res) received a referral for his thesis. There were those horror stories on how the examiners will come after you like wolves when they find a loophole.

Besides the point, so the viva lasted for about 1.5 hours. The external examiner has a PhD in sociology and did ask questions on the theoretical tension that existed in my thesis. He kind of criticised my work as something that is way too "safe", as I kind of misled him with an exciting literature review with promises of findings that are kind of exciting. He went off at that for quite a while, I did for a while try to divert the topic but to no avail. So don't ever do that, he will come back questioning again and again.

In total there were two contention points to my thesis, one on the theories and the other on the a discourse I used on my methodology. He asked questions on what I would do again if I had a chance to re-do the entire research. I had to defend my methodology chosen. I think the biggest point here to make is that everyone should articulate on the considerations on the methodology chosen, on the loopholes and what are the advantages and disadvantages of this particular methodology. My internal examiner raised questions on conceptualisation of certain concepts and make sure you know your work well, cite examples from the literature that you have talked about in your literature review.

Be very confident, stay calm, and inject some sense of humour in between the viva if you can to show that you are defending your work, you are the expert in the field you are researching. They are really not out to get you.

After 3-5 minutes of deliberation, they passed me with NO corrections. I have made history, 2nd one in my department for the past 5 years.

To everyone out there, I understand your pain and stay strong, keep calm and carry on.

With love,
Jabs