If You Must Know

There are lots of tools and processes you can use to help your memory at the viva:

• You can add bookmarks or sticky notes to your thesis;
• You can annotate the margins;
• You can create summaries to help you think ahead of time;
• You can read your thesis beforehand to refresh your memory;
• You can read your thesis in the viva to check details;
• You can rehearse for your viva to give you more confidence.

There are many practical things you can do to help your memory – but don’t forget that you don’t need to remember everything. The viva is not a test of photographic recall of thousands of hours of work, hundreds of papers and the many, many pages of your thesis.

You need to know your stuff but you don’t need to know everything. You can take care of small worries with simple viva prep.