“What You Should Do”

Let’s assume that any viva advice you’re given is well-intentioned.

Let’s go a step further and assume that the content of the advice is also fairly sound and reasonable.

So when your supervisor, a friend, a video, an LLM-service or me(!) tells you something to help with your viva they’re doing it with good reason and they sincerely hope it will help…

…still you have to stop and think, “Is this right?”

When you get a piece of viva advice:

• Check the regulations for your institution if it’s relevant.
• Check with another source to see if there is similar advice, say, for a prep idea.
• Then compare it with your particular situation to see it still seems good.

Generally, expectations and advice are broad and cover many circumstances. Your case might be different from the typical “should”. That doesn’t mean anything is wrong but you might have to think more about how you apply things to you.

Be careful with viva advice that says what you “should” do.