The Right Way
One of the things I love about summertime is it feels right to treat yourself with a scone.
But it has to be a scone with jam and clotted cream. Scone cut open, jam first then clotted cream on top. Amazing! Best summertime treat ever. This is the right way to have a scone (even better with a very thin layer of salted butter before you put the jam on).
At least, I think it’s the right way.
Some people would say this way is heresy. You’re supposed to have clotted cream first, then jam. And it’s not proper unless the scone has fruit in. Or is warm from the oven.
Everyone has their right way of having a scone in summertime.
Every candidate will have a picture of the right way to have a viva. Every institution will have regulations which goven the right way to run a viva. Every supervisor will have experience they could share which helps them to think about the right circumstances. Every pair of examiners will have ideas about the right way to examine a candidate.
There are lots of people and ideas connected to the right way for a viva to happen. It’s worth listening to all of these ideas, including your own intuition; see how they all compare and contrast, and find a set of useful expectations.
There are lots of things we might think of as wrong for the viva, and lots of good things we could reasonably expect. There’s no single right way though.
Unlike a scone with jam and clotted cream. Then there really is only one, right way.