Utterly OT: Viva tips?

SpaceBadger

Soooo...any of you delightfully well informed chaps and chapesses done one of these PhD viva things?

Got my own in less than two weeks :shock: , and need all the help and advice I can get! :?

(What do you mean I should stop browsing a bike forum and do some work?!)

jonginge

Erm depends a lot on the subject I guess. Mine was 2 examiners: one from the same dept, one from another uni in the same field

Calm down. Know the basics of your field; be able to talk through your research and the decisions you made along the way.

Bear in mind that if you've got this far your thesis+research can't be that bad It looks very bad on the department if a PhD gets failed. Your supervisor shouldn't have let it get that far. Normally you'll get amendments to do which'll take a few weeks

Station

I think the best thing you can do is relax and just be yourself rather than worry too much.

Having only ever done the one my experience could be totally unrepresentative, but for mine (13 years ago now), it was more like a friendly discussion between experts on that one particular subject and the impression I got was that it was more at the level of testing whether I could talk intelligently & knowledgeably about the subject at theat level rather than an oral examination if you see what I mean.

By this stage, there are probably very few people anywhere who know as much about specifically whatever it is you know about as you do (what is it BTW?) so you can afford to be a little confident 8)

Good Luck !!

rjsterry

Not done a PhD, but my PgDip - Architectural professional qualifications - had a similar interview at the end, and I'd echo what JG said. You must have half an idea what your doing or you wouldn't have got that far. They are hoping to confirm what they have already read, rather than trying to catch you out.

SpaceBadger

Cheers for the advice, all good stuff. The set up is exactly as you describe JG, my external examiner will (weather permitting) be coming across from Sheffield.

My research looks at the effects of food promotion on children's food preferences and choices, having lived and breathed it for over three years I'm hoping to be able to have a good conversation about it. It's just a weird situation to be in I think, am re-reading stuff to prepare but given that they could ask absolutely anything it's very difficult to figure out what preparation is best.

Given my location, I guess the "calm down" message is particularly apt

cee

as said...you need to know what you wrote.....go over your thesis....

try to identify any areas where when you read it back, you think that actually, you could have said more, or explained differently...be prepared for them to find areas where they can question you further on your research...

good luck

Burleybob

Gosh, it seems so long ago when I got viva'd I'm sure the periodic table was earth, air, fire and water. OK, maybe 1994 wasn't that long ago.

Anyway, they should really only examine on what's between the covers of your lovingly bound thesis so read those all important references (not like a friend of mine who was asked by an examiner if he'd read a particular reference in his thesis on cardiac physiology, only to be told the paper was written in French....and he couldn't speak/read French).

Has anybody published anything (or is there anything in press) refuting/validating your thesis in the time between submission and examination? Pretty obvious, but it's been known to happen.

I shamelessly read up on papers published by my external examiner. When introducing myself she asked me if I knew of a previous student from my research group who now worked with her. My answer was "No but didn't he write that paperwith you published in Journal XYZ proving the mechanism of ....etc?" In the end it the internal examiner who gave me the roughest ride.

Finally, as other posters have said, you are an expert having a discussion with your peers. Relax and the best of British to you ......Dr SB!!

SpaceBadger

Thanks for the replies!

Got minor corrections, so am now Dr SB 8) :P

jonginge

Excellent. Many congratulations. Aaaaaaaaand relax

cee

Whats up Doc?

dhope

SpaceBadger wrote:

Thanks for the replies!

Got minor corrections, so am now Dr SB 8) :P

Congrats! To you and my cousin (Dr Walden, as of Tuesday)

singlespeedexplosif

congratulations My office buddy has his on Monday so is going through the process of 'shit yourself one minute, remind yourself that nobody knows as much on this topic as you do the next minute' process as we speak.


Now then. How many of us pronounce the word correctly? Drives me mad, it does, people wandering around preparing for their 'Vy-va'.