Any Questions

It’s possible to make well-educated guesses about the questions you’ll get at your viva. You know a lot of the material your examiners will want to talk about. Even if you can’t speculate on specific questions you can have a good understanding of themes that might come up.

Any question at the viva is being asked for a purpose: your examiners might want to know more, understand something more clearly, explore around a topic, check your thinking or generally move the discussion forward.

Any question at the viva is being asked with the expectation that you will respond. You listen, pause, breathe, maybe check your thesis, maybe make a note, think a bit and then talk. You need to add to the discussion. Give more evidence that you are a capable researcher.

And don’t forget that you can ask questions at the viva too. Any question you have for your examiners is fine. Seek their opinion, ask for clarity and explore what you need to – but keep in mind that your priority has to be making sure that you engage with what they are asking.