In The Spotlight
In preparation for the viva you can reflect on possible questions, talk with friends or have a mock viva – but don’t forget that you’re not the only one in the spotlight on the big day! Your thesis is centre-stage...
Daily viva help for PhDs
In preparation for the viva you can reflect on possible questions, talk with friends or have a mock viva – but don’t forget that you’re not the only one in the spotlight on the big day! Your thesis is centre-stage...
It’s not a good idea to have a script for the viva. You can’t take such detailed notes in that you are effectively quoting pre-prepared responses. Besides, there are so many possible questions and variations of questions that to even...
It’s necessary to read your thesis in preparation for the viva. You don’t need to memorise your work, but it helps to have a good recall of the flow of your thesis to make using it in the viva easier....
Your thesis is not written for your examiners. You have to write it for your PhD and your examiners have to read it to examine you. It’s not written for them – the goal is to make a contribution to...
Annotating your thesis as part of viva prep can help create a more useful resource. Making things easier to find or easier to see can help your viva run smoothly. There are so many options open to you: bookmarks, Post-it...
I’m curious about outtakes in movies – the scenes that didn’t make it in or alternate versions of scenes that did. Sometimes outtakes are shown as bloopers: the moments when things went wrong or when someone laughed. It’s helpful to...
Yes and no. Every chapter in your thesis will be read by your examiners. Everything will be considered. In reading it though, examiners may find things they particularly want to focus on in their thinking and then in the viva....
I believe it’s worth reflecting on this a little before the viva. What have you forgotten? Perhaps you can’t know for sure. You’ve had to edit out papers, ideas and references that didn’t fit. You forgot them, to concentrate on...
A question from a nervous candidate, “What should I wear for the viva? I want to make the right first impression on my examiners!” Except that’s not the first impression. Your examiners’ first impression is your thesis. They get their...
Whatever else your thesis has – ideas, opinions, theories, hypotheses, results, conclusions – it has implications. What might someone else do with your work? How might they be inspired? What questions do we now know to ask? What questions do...