======= Date Modified 03 33 2010 13:33:52 =======
Hi Everyone,
My viva is coming up soon, for people who have done their viva, how long did it last? At the start did you do a summary discussion of your thesis - how long did you talk about your thesis for? Where you asked about anything not in your thesis? What kind of generic questions were you asked? Any tips for a student waiting on their viva? :-)

For people like me who are waiting on their viva, how long have you spent on your revision? How are you preparing yourself? Are you having a mock viva? I'm not having a mock viva because I think it will worry me more. Thanks Everyone :-)
(turkey)

My viva lasted almost exactly an hour, all in, though it would have gone on for longer if I hadn't been told the result at the start, and had been kicked out while they deliberated at the end.

I didn't do a summary discussion of my thesis, and wasnt asked to. My first question was "Why did you choose this research topic" which is a good gentle ice-breaker.

I think all my viva questions were based either on my thesis, or in my research area. Some I had to say I hadn't looked at, or explain in more detail my views based on instinct/experience rather than direct research findings, but they were all related to my research area/topic.

The hardest question I found was the one where I was asked if I had to choose just one conclusion from my research, which would it be. I'd pondered this in the weeks in advance and hadn't made my mind up then. I ended up saying can I give an answer with sub-facets? :)

My viva preparation involved reading a viva preparation book (Tinkler and Jackson) to demystify the process, rereading and summarising my thesis to familiarise myself with it and spot typos (I took a list into the viva on the day and handed it out - all examiners/convenor were very grateful), and thinking about and memorising my answers to 5 key questions: originality of my thesis, contribution to knowledge, methodology, weaknesses/gaps/mistakes, and what would I do differently if starting again.

Good luck!

Oh and forgot to mention but I didn't have a mock viva either. It wasn't offered to me, and I agreed with you that it would have worried me more, so I didn't ask for one. Rather just deal with 1 viva I decided: the big one!

Thanks BB, the question what I would do differently might be a problem for me because If I get asked this I will most probably answer it in such a way that it will look at my work in a negative way. The questions why didnt you do it this way, what is your contribution to knowledge might get me into trouble too. Even at this stage I don't know what my contribution is, I probably wont need to use my research again, so I never thought about how someone else might. My only answer at this would be "building on the theories of others to make their findings more concrete." Would this be a suitable answer?

What if they ask something you can't answer? This is something I will ask my supervisor anyway, but has anyone experienced this at all? I have given talks in conferences where I have been asked questions phrased in a certain way, that I couldn't answer, but I did know the answer :$

Hi Lilbo,

It's ok to answer in a negative way initially, but good if you can turn it around into a positive, even if that is explaining why you choose to take the approach you did.

The contribution to knowledge question is particularly important, because ultimately that's why anyone should be awarded a PhD. So have a fresh think about that. What is new as a result of your research? It can be facts, methodologies, etc. I was lucky because I'd been aware of this question when I wrote my abstract, before submission, so wrote my abstract to stress my contribution. So maybe I didn't get quizzed about it as much as I might have been. Your answer sounds good for starters, but have a think if there is anything else you could say. For example what do you mean by building? Is it experimental, or theoretical, or what? I know this should be obvious from your thesis, but spell it out for the examiners.

If you can't answer a question that's perfectly ok. You could just say it is a very interesting question, but you'd need to think about it more before you could give a proper answer. And maybe thank them for raising the issue :)

Bilbo

Thanks BB! these suggestions are a great help, I've been finding quite hard to prepare for this, it's as much work as writing the thesis itself.

Congrats again for passing :-)

Hi guys...

I need to start viva prep soon so reading about your experience BB has been really useful! Thanks!!

I think I am going to do a mock viva... mainly because I'm not the most confident speaker, and find it easier to articulate in writing, so think it'll be helpful for me to practice what I want to say.

In addition to this, and preparing for the 5 main outcomes of a PhD (originality, contribution to knowledge, etc), I'm going to read up and prepare on theories and methods I didn't use. My examiners are very theoretical and I'm not so I worry they might ask questions I'm totally clueless about so want to be prepared for that. Other than that, I think summarising the key findings from the research is a good idea... I went to see a very knowledgeable professor a few weeks ago about some funding opportunities and he asked me to sum up my findings and I found it really challenging but useful, so will do some prep on that.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I'd appreciate the tips.

When is your viva lilbopeep?

I'm also awaiting my viva, I've got another 2 months to wait and I'm a little nervous I'll forget everything I've written in my thesis. The guys in my office - who have all survived the viva process and gone onto postdoc's have given me the how to survive your viva book by Murray. That has helped de-mystify stuff a little bit.
I'm not going to have a mock viva - mostly because I think I'll just start seeing holes in what I've written that may not even come up in the real thing. Also I'm due to start a new job away from my university so I doubt I'll have time to run things through with my supervisors. Little nervous but I'm sure when it comes to it I'll just go for it and defend my work. fingers crossed. :-)

I'm not doing a mock viva because I am not the best speaker in the world and if my supervisor asks me something I can't answer it will destroy my confidence for it. I think I know my thesis well enough, I just dont think there is enough material in it, and it is full of major typos, these are my main worries and I'm stressing too much about it. I'm going to go in with a list of corrections and hope they wont go too hard on me. My viva is the end of next week :-(

I took in my list of corrections and handed it out at the start of my viva. My examiners were very grateful. So think positive thoughts.

Good luck with your viva next week!