The Ideals
What’s the ideal time for you to do viva prep?
Who are your ideal examiners?
What’s the ideal date and time for your viva?
What would be your ideal opening question?
These questions and others can be interesting to reflect on but take care. Thinking about ideal situations, questions and people bring together needs and preferences under one grouping and they are quite different.
- You could prefer Dr A over Professor B for your external examiner but you won’t need one or the other.
- You might need a specific date or location for your viva due to your circumstances.
- You might prefer your examiners to ask about a specific topic to start the viva but you need to understand that they’ll follow their experience and plans.
- You could need certain requirements to help you have a fair and accessible viva – it’s not what you prefer but what you must have.
When you recognise a need or preference you might have work to do. If the ideal examiner will help you feel better then you can communicate that to your supervisors and see who they ultimately select. If they’re not available then you have to work to feel better about whoever is appointed.
If the ideal viva situation means you can have a fair viva then you need to make sure that the right people know about your needs. Who do you contact? What do you do?
PS: I’ll be talking about all of these topics and more at my live 3-hour Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026. You’ll also get four-week access to a recording of the session and follow-up materials too. There’s more information at the link but please get in touch if you have any questions or want to know more. Thanks for reading!