Daily viva help for PhDs
Candidates don’t choose examiners. For all the good ideas you might have about this person or that person to examine your thesis and you in the viva, you don’t choose them outright. Your supervisors choose your examiners. They might ask...
A simple plea for a Saturday: always, always read the regulations for thesis examination at your institution. Read the rules for the viva at your university. They might be a little dull in places, but you will get confirmation about...
A map can show you all of an area, but to use it well you need either a compass or to have sight of some landmarks. The map won’t show every detail, but can show things that you can’t otherwise...
Is the viva unfair? It might help if you knew what your examiners thought about your thesis before the viva. You could benefit by knowing what questions would be asked, or how long it was going to take. You might...
There are many qualities you might look for in examiners – their expertise, their reputation, their experience – but simply knowing that they are a real person (not just a name on a journal article) can be comforting when it...
Your viva, in a nutshell. A unique exam, arising in response to a unique thesis, written by a unique candidate. There has never been a viva the same as yours before; there will never be another the same again. But...
Most vivas go well, but there’s always a chance that something could go wrong a little. With the move towards remote vivas, over Skype or Zoom, there’s that little extra room for doubt and worry that something might go wrong....
Three words that need to be on every candidate’s to-do list for the viva. The Regulations page I put together – a list of every uni in the UK’s thesis examination regulations – might be a good starting point for...
…or Informally Formal? How do we classify the viva? Are there regulations that spell out that the viva is relaxed and has a format which allows for variation? Or is there an understanding among everyone involved that this is serious,...
What might the outcomes for your viva be? Maybe: No corrections, minor corrections, major corrections, fail? Or: pass without amendments, minor amendments, resubmission, re-viva, no award? It’s never simply “pass or fail”. Different institutions have different formal terminology. They can...