Are you allowed to take notes in that aren't in your thesis?

I.e. a few a4 pages of notes separately?

I did but have to say that I never looked at them at all! Neither did I open the thesis though I had brought that with me too!

Well I'm writing out questions (With bullet point answers) for each chapter - each chapter will have 2-3 a4 pages, which I'll prob print 2-to-a-side and hopefully take in with me in case my mind goes completely blank!

I had my viva Q notes in the back of my experimental workbooks so they were with me in my briefcase if required. There were also copies of key references in there aswell. I also put post-it notes in my thesis at key points with bullet point notes for me to remember if questioned on that page. That said, I didn't refer to any of those notes at all during my viva. I did refer to some of the pages in my thesis when asked about diagram 4.3 on pg 87 (for example) or to highlight where I had included something that they thought I had omitted. The references only came out when I was asked whether I had read 'Smith, 2011' which I promptly provided from my case lol. Fortunately, it was one I had included at last minute prior to submission!

Take whatever makes you feel comfortable. I had on the table my thesis, notepad, pen and my water, but had my case open for easy access to workbooks and articles.

see, I've put a little page marker for each chapter - as I've heard otherwise you can fumble and get panicked if trying to find a chapter section. But I can't think of the life of me what I'd put on post it notes

Yes, getting panicked in trying to find things in my thesis was a big, big problem for me in viva and you do feel the pressure at these points because you are aware the examiners are waiting. Best advice I can give is try not to panic and remember to go to your contents page or pages first before fumbling through your thesis. I didn't bring post it notes and while I think it could be helpful to have stuff documented on them it wouldn't have helped me due to the type of questions I was asked.

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I've constantly been double posting on the forum recently and can't understand why - sorry!

I put a post it marker for the beginnig of each chapter but as I say, never looked at the thesis at all. One of the examiners did occasionally refer to specific page numbers but I knew the bit that was being referred to and didn't think it was necessary to open my copy of the thesis - wondering if I should have now :$

Hi Sneaks,

I do not think one needs extra notes. I went there without anything and I was glad that I did. The examiners had my thesis and hardly looked into it. I was a bit nervous, and if I would have had all kind of paper with me and had to try and look for an answer, it would only have looked very unprofessional, especially if one is a bit shaky.

You have written the thesis and will know it better than anyone else, the examiners are not there to trick you out, more to assure that you did the work. I think you can do it just with (or without) the thesis. Good luck!