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Tag: examiner expectations

Nathan

An Invitation

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Your examiners are invited to be at your viva. Like most invitations they can decline if they need to or want to.

A viva is a much bigger commitment than the hours on the day for an examiner. If they accept and attend it’s because, more than anything, they find the invitation to be compelling. There is something about your work as it’s been presented that makes them think it will be a good use of their time.

Reflect on what your examiners might be seeing in your work. Focus on that as part of your preparations. How can you share your research with them? What do you need to do to be prepared? And how can you make sure that the invitation they’ve said yes to results in a good experience for them?

When you have ideas for that question you’ll also have ideas for what will help the viva to be a good experience for you too.

Nathan

Your Questions

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The viva is a discussion but as your work and capability is being assessed most of the questions will flow from your examiners. Their questions will prompt response and the discussion that follows.

You have the opportunity to ask questions though: if there are things you want to discuss, opinions you want to check or ideas you want to explore then take the time to ask.

In preparation for the viva take some time to think about what you might ask. What opinions would you really value? What aspects of your work do you want to talk about? And as this is a limited opportunity, which questions would you prioritise asking?

Nathan

Exploring Objections

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It’s reasonable to expect that examiners might object to something in a thesis.

In all the many words you’ve written – the ideas, results and conclusions, and the chapters, methods and formatting – in all of this there’s a chance there’s something they might object to.

Does an objection mean there is something “wrong”? Does it mean you need to make changes? Does it mean you need to apologise?

No, not necessarily; it would be rare for something to need an apology!

An objection needs to be understood first. You might need to ask questions if the comment or point isn’t clear. You might need to think. You might need to read or check something in your thesis. And it’s possible that you can’t simply give a short, quick response to an objection.

You need to understand what the objection is, then respond to it.

And that could be it. That could be all you need to do. It could be that you need to add a sentence to your thesis. It could be that you just need to explain your thoughts because they weren’t clear on the page.

Objections: understand, then respond.

Nathan

Preparing For Examiners

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When you know who your examiners will be, start your preparations for meeting them by reflecting on three questions:

  • Why have these people been chosen?
  • How does your work connect with what they do?
  • What do you need to do to prepare now?

Reflect and make notes on who your examiners are and what they do, then think about what you need to do to get ready for them.

Nathan

Aware, Not Expert

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It’s good to know about what your examiners do but you don’t have to know all about them to be prepared.

At a minimum, if you don’t know much about them you can read a few of their recent papers in the weeks leading up to the viva. Then you can get a sense of who they are, what they do and what they spend their research time on.

It could be you already know this before you submit your thesis. If their work has been part of the background for your research then you might be more familiar than I’ve outlined above – and of course that’s fine too!

And similarly, it’s enough for them to be familiar with your area of research if it doesn’t correspond to everything they know and do – your examiners don’t need to be experts in your thesis focus in order to be good examiners for you.

Nathan

Motivations & Questions

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There are three things your examiners have to do in your viva:

  • Explore your significant original contribution;
  • Unpick the hows and whys of your research;
  • Examine your capability as a researcher.

They have to do this. There’s a lot to talk about and a lot that could be brought up through the discussion, but as a starting point, consider how you would respond to these three questions:

  • Why would someone value your research?
  • How did you solve a difficult problem in your PhD journey?
  • What can you recognise as an area of growth in your ability?

Each question corresponds to a point from above; there’s more to ask, more to say and these are just starting points. But what would you say?

Nathan

Reflecting On Your Research

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What are the best parts of your work?

What are you most proud of?

What was a challenge that you overcame?

And what do you like to share with others about your research?

The viva is not a platform for you to simply proclaim the greatness of your research and writing, but it helps to go there with ideas of what really matters. Reflecting on your research before the viva helps to boost your confidence for talking about it with your examiners.

Your examiners don’t expect you to have all the answers. They don’t want you to read from a script or parrot sentences you’ve learned. They want to hear your most considered thoughts.

Take a little time in your viva preparations to consider what your work means and what you can share about it. What do you want to emphasise to your examiners? What matters?

Nathan

Look For Connections

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A small part of viva prep is to make sure you have a little familiarity with your examiners’ work.

You might read that and think, “Of course I know about my examiners! I cited them ten times!” That’s not always the case. It may be that your examiners have been chosen for other reasons. Perhaps they are in the same field but you didn’t need to know about their work to do your research.

As you prepare, make sure you know about their work. Just a little. Look at their last two or three papers. Get a sense of what they do, what they know and what they have focused on recently as researchers.

In particular, look for connections between their work and yours. What are the common methods? What are the common themes or interests? When you reflect more on this, what is it likely that they would be familiar with as they come to read your thesis? Is there anything you need to know more about them and their work to feel ready for your viva?

You don’t need to be an expert in your examiners and their research. A little work to explore the connections between you and them will be enough to help you be ready for your viva.

Nathan

No Understatement

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Before your viva, reflect on the best of your work, your results and your thesis.

How can you communicate the value of what you’ve done?

What are the words that will share how good your thesis is?

Write summaries, capture keywords and rehearse talking about your work. Don’t leave it to the viva and don’t be too humble.Don’t bluster or over-exaggerate the outcomes of your work, but also don’t focus on the might-have-beens and if-onlys of the pandemic.

If you need to talk about the impact of problems and obstacles then do so, but leave no room for doubt that your work is valuable and that you are capable.

Nathan

Apologise Or Acknowledge?

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Your thesis isn’t perfect. It’s almost certain you have typos or passages to correct. There are likely other approaches you could take in your methods. Your recollection or knowledge might have gaps. And you can’t have done every possible thing even with years to complete your PhD.

So should you apologise to your examiners?

Or simply acknowledge?

  • Yes, there’s a typo and I can correct that.
  • No I didn’t do that and here’s why…
  • I’m not sure about what would happen, but perhaps…
  • Can you tell me more so I can understand…

I don’t know if there are no circumstances where it might be good to apologise to your examiners, but I think for the most part acknowledging and discussing the point is a better course of action.

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