Defending Your Work
In the viva it means supporting your thesis. It means restating what you did, or replying to a question about a related aspect. It could be listening to another point of view and reconciling it with your work. It could...
Daily viva help for PhDs
In the viva it means supporting your thesis. It means restating what you did, or replying to a question about a related aspect. It could be listening to another point of view and reconciling it with your work. It could...
You have to expect your examiners might have criticisms. You can also expect they will be fair in the way they communicate them to you. You don’t need to be particularly thick-skinned to take any critical comments – but you...
Your thesis has to contain a significant, original contribution to knowledge. When I work with researchers I tend to focus on “significant” a lot, but originality is a useful concept to dig into before the viva. I get the sense...
Your examiner can not like something in your thesis. Maybe they don’t get it. Maybe they believe there was a better approach, or a different way to understand something. They’re allowed to have a different opinion; if they share it...
No questions, no viva, no PhD. That’s fundamental, but there are many reasons for particular questions in the viva. Your examiners might ask you that question because they need you to make something clearer. Maybe there is a typo and...
It’s not every day you sit down to talk with two examiners about your thesis, the end point of years of study and research. Not every day you get to find out what they think. Not every day – there...
Interdisciplinary researchers produce fascinating theses. I enjoy listening to the amazing ways disciplines collide. I’m no longer surprised though when interdisciplinary researchers tell me they have concerns about their viva. An examiner might be highly capable in one field of...
A couple of thoughts… The question might not have an “Answer”. Your response might be, “I don’t know.” The only answer anyone could give might be, “I don’t know.” Your response could be a hunch, a theory, an idea, a...
Listen to any comments, especially in the viva. There might be a question underneath. The question might be in the comment. It could be a challenge, but that challenge might be a small thing that only needs a small response....
A little structure is a great way to start reflection, and Three Whats is a really neat little structure. It’s really flexible and can be applied to a lot of the areas that are worth thinking about towards the end...