Your Role
At the viva you have to engage with the questions and comments of your examiners. You have to be a good participant in the discussion that rises from your thesis, the questions and what unfolds naturally. That’s it. You don’t...
pause think respond
The Pauses
There are no bad reasons for taking a pause during your viva. A pause to check you’ve heard your examiners correctly. A pause to get your thoughts in order is helpful. Checking a detail from your thesis is a useful...
One, Two, Three
A short pause between hearing your examiner’s question and responding. A little break to check you understand and think things through. A simple beat to get things right in the viva. Your examiners don’t expect you to rapid-fire responses to...
Taking Your Time
There’s a time frame for completing your PhD, for preparing for the viva and for engaging with it on the day. Each is measured differently of course! Years for a PhD, weeks for preparation, hours for the viva. You might...
Tricky or Trivial
Describing the viva’s conversation and questions isn’t as simple as picking an extreme. Questions can be tricky because of the standard of the work being talked about. Responding could be trivial because of the work that you, as a postgraduate...
Your Turn To Speak
The viva is a conversation between you and your examiners. They use questions to facilitate a discussion about you, your research and your thesis. They’re looking for you to demonstrate your capability as a researcher and the contribution in your...
An Unexpected Question
You can’t know exactly what questions your examiners will ask, but you can have a good idea of the topics they’ll want to talk about in the viva. You can’t have a response ready and waiting for every topic, but...
Tell Them
In my earliest academic days I was given the following advice for structuring a presentation: tell them what you’re going to tell them; tell them; tell them what you told them. “Them” in this case was the audience. Over the years...
Out Of Options?
I don’t think there’s ever a situation in the viva where you can do nothing. I can’t think of a question that could be asked that a candidate couldn’t respond to. Questions from examiners are asked to prompt discussion. They’re...
Evidence
Whenever you respond to a question in the viva, remember that you need to offer evidence. A question might be seeking information; you need to provide it. A question might ask if you are correct; you can’t simply say yes....