Sorry folks I have more questions about viva....

Do you generally find the "specific questions" that relates to your thesis are easier to answer or the general questions?

Are those specific questions similar with what you have prepared or they have turned out to be very different?

It's really rare for one to pass without correction, you are truly brilliant!!

Waiting for your story!

Can you contact the internal examiner directly?

In my dept/uni, the internal examiner is in charging of viva date. I previously had similar problem, contacted postgraduate administrator & chair of graduate board, and they ask me to contact the internal examiner directly.

Same as Hazyjane, "I kind of regard myself as a poorly paid research assistant".

I hate age discrimination too!!! Does she has a second advisor? It's better not to tell her now, but if she does not receive enough support from her supervisor [i.e. because her supervisor think there's no point to give her sufficient support since he think she is unlikely to follow an academic career], perhaps you should speak to someone much higher about the conversation that you have heard.

Thanks a lot, people!! This is really helpful!!

Cheers!

Hi

Unfortunately you have to study full time in order to be granted with student visa, there is no other way I am afraid.
Studying part time with student visa generally is not allowed, but you should always check with the UKBA for the latest requirement.

======= Date Modified 30 Oct 2012 10:44:31 =======
======= Date Modified 30 Oct 2012 09:56:00 =======
Hi

I have read a couple viva preparation materials, and some of the advice has not been very consistent.
Can I ask whether I can

1. Look at my prepared notes if the examiner's questions happened to be something that I have prepared?

2. Should I always refer back to my thesis when the "answer" is actually in the thesis? For example, if the examiner ask "why did you choose this approach"? Can I say refer to my thesis and said something, "as explained in my thesis page xxx, I chose this approach because it...."

Or is it better I should remember most things in my head and able to answer them without keep referring to the thesis?
Or it's better to keep referring to the thesis?

3. How to answer viva question on the motivation of the research - "What made you do this piece of research? Why did you choose this topic? Why do you think it's important"

I am a funded student, and therefore my research topic was not originally from me. My supervisor had the research idea, applied for funding, and hired me to do the research.

How do I answer this question when the motivation was not originally from me? Should I be honest and said I was hired to do this research? Or should I make it sound like it was originally my idea as I saw the need of doing this?

4. How to answer "how far do you think you can generalise from your work" or "How do your contributions generalise?"
Can someone enlighten me what does this question mean? Does it mean how my work is applicable to general population? or does it mean whether my result/sample is generalised (large enough) to make a conclusion of what's happening in the real world?


Any advice is appreciated!

======= Date Modified 25 Oct 2012 12:31:25 =======
Hi

For those who have passed viva or are currently preparing for viva, what is your supervisor role during the preparation?

From what I have read from the forums and other viva preparation materials, it seems that supervisor plays rather important role to help their students on preparing some of the possible viva questions- I suppose this is to ensure that the students' answers are "correct"?

I have prepared some questions and answers and asked my supervisor whether I can go through this with him, but he asked me to prepare this on my own and practise them with my friends, and that I should only meet him if I have "additional questions".

I need to point out that me and my supervisor had previous issue, I reported it to the department and he received warning about it. Since then, he is a lot better than he's used to be, but the relationship between us is not as close as it's used to be (i.e. we don't communicate to each other unless really necessary).

I am not sure whether he is kind of refusing to help me "because this is indeed to be my job, and that I shouldn't drag him into this unless super necessary".

Or he's just giving lots of excuse not to help me.

I read some forums and materials where the supervisors are being super helpful to run mock viva etc (he is the only person who has read the entire thesis after all), so I am rather surprise my supervisor make it sound like "it's solely my job to prepare it".

Anyone has similar experience?


Another question is regarding viva date/location/time- when did you receive the confirmation of this information? Although I have been given a provisional date of the viva, but the time and location is not confirmed. My provisional viva date is about 2 week later, should I worry about this or should I make sure the department/supervisor confirm about the date/time/location of the viva?

Thanks

Thanks Catalinbond & Dalmation for your suggestions!! That's really helpful!

I am at the same boat as you, Swetchha! Terrifying at the moment!

Keep us posted after 2 weeks how you get one with your viva!

You would need to speak to the postgraduate chair or head of department about this. If the new topic is still somehow related to the original supervisor, the department might assign a second supervisor for you- which you can keep the original supervisor and have a second supervisor who is more familiar with your topic.

In any case, most university does not "question" when a student want to change his/her supervisor. In your case, it's perfectly normal because your supervisor might not have sufficient knowledge in the new topic.

Hope you can sort this out soon!

Did you choose your own supervisor or the department arranged one for you?

You should be able to change supervisor/topic if your studentship is not based on a certain topic of research.

Dear all

Can I ask who own the ownership of phd thesis? the student, supervisor or the funding body?

I have just submitted my thesis, and now awaiting for my viva. For some reason, my supervisor keep pushing me to send all the data files that I used for my thesis- He insisted that I have to send to him BEFORE the viva.

I feel rather suspicious about this, it seems like he wants to publish my data all by himself when I finish the PhD. Can he actually do that?

Me and supervisor had previous "history", he treated me badly (i.e. super controlled with every aspects of my thesis, attempted to cut my funding when I voiced my opinion on research, being rude to me and etc). I reported these issues to the head of department, and he received warning from the department about his attitude. Anyway, I was not allowed to change supervisor (I was already in my 3rd year when I reported this), so I am still stuck to him now.

It's not that I refused to send the data to him, but I plan to do it after my viva only (when I have more time to make the data ready and presentable). When he insisted to send him everything now, I feel rather suspicious about it. Once he told me he own everything of my research (because he got the funding for my phd, and that the topic of my Phd was originally his idea, i.e. he insisted to be the first author when I publish materials for my thesis).

I have a feeling he intends to publish the materials of my thesis as his own research once I complete my PhD.

Can he actually do that? Although it's true that my phd was based on funding/research proposal that he secured, but I have been doing experiments, analysis all by myself.

I always thought I can't publish the material of my thesis as the sole author, neither could my supervisor.

Is there any guidelines for this?

wow!! well done! sounded quite intense but you did very well!!

Was there a point where you couldn't simply answer the question? I am actually quite worry about this part [when I get nervous, I forgot everything and I can't talk :-S ].

I too have found many typos and errors on my script, quite worry about those as well :-S

I assume you didn't hand out your "error" in advance? I saw some people do that....

All in all, well done!!!

OK, I found quite a few mistakes when I read through my thesis again, some of them are quite minor such as typo, spelling or punctuation, in some cases, the mistakes are rather big, e.g., wrong sample size, means :-S

I am rather worried now, are these mistakes going to have major impact on my viva (for example, major correction or fail?)

Should I start correcting it myself now, or should I wait until I receive a proper correction verdict? I heard that some examiners require "track change" in the script when doing correction. If it's better to do correction now than later, should I turn on the track change as well?

Do we need to put these mistakes in document and give it to the examiner during the viva?