Sounds like you're doing great with all those publications :-)

I know it's going to sound really unbelievable and it's pretty pointless me saying it, but really try not to worry. I was really nervous about my viva. I was meant to have a mock viva 2 weeks before the actual thing, and I was so terrified that I couldn't even turn up. I couldn't even manage to send an e-mail to my supervisors saying "I'm really scared and I don't think I can do it, can we have a chat about it please". They weren't overly happy with me about that one.

I'm in biological sciences too, and when I asked people about their viva preparation I got responses ranging from "so-and -so read loads of papers for theirs" to "I read half my thesis and got pissed off so I gave up". I ended up somehwere in between - I started reading it and writing down questions, but it was so time consuming that I gave up on it pretty soon.

My viva started with the examiners asking a few general questions - they said my thesis was well written and easy to follow, and then asked me to summarise my work, what I did, why and how, and what I found. They then asked me several questions about my introduction, it was around 50 pages long and they asked questions for what seemed like an eternity :p I remember saying "I don't know" a lot. At one point I was getting quite upset that I didn't know anything (or at least that was what it felt like). At which point my external said "It's ok if you don't know", and we moved onto something else. A few times they had to coax the answers out of me, I'm someone who won't say the answer if they're only 99% sure that it's right :$. These were questions like "Do you know what kind of reaction happens here", or "how does this part of the pathway work", or "do you know any other proteins that do this". Or "I think this section is a bit out of date, in your corrections I'd like you to update this section, I can guide you with some references if needed" (though that bit never turned up in my corrections ;-) )

We then moved onto the methods section, and they asked me on several points to clarify what I did, with questions such as "why did you count the cells in this experiment?", or "so how exactly did you set up this experiment when you're actually doing it?", "do you have standard curve for this? If so, we would like you to put it in", or "what was the flow rate for this?". Just little bits where I left out some detail, or just helping them picture the set up.

Everything after that is a bit blurry - I remember a discussion about stats (I used wrong tests in one of my chapters), and a dicussion about why one of my experiments might not have worked.

After 3 hours they let me go (it felt nothing like 3 hours). They spoke for a few minutes and then called me back in and awarded me a pass with minor defiencies - a few spelling mistakes, some stats to redo, a few extra paragraphs here and there, some more details in part of the methods.

It really wasn't a gruelling experience, some of it was sort of enjoyable in fact. With hindsight I can appreciate that someone's actually read my thesis enough to ask questions about it :p

Hey Claudia,

Thank you for your post. :-)

Well, i've been getting similar responses too like: "erm... every viva is different" to "oh i breezed through it" to "you just won't know until you go in there". So, what really worked me up was the thought of failure because i'd read a few posts where, people had said "there was a really intelligent girl in my dept and she failed" to " Got awarded a phd". This has got me so worked up. I suffer from bad nerves anyway and the past 2 weeks i have been reading my thesis everyday, memorizing bits but, i think i've done it to the point where my brain is overloading. :-( Also, just, i was reading through my materials and methods and i've left out half of the IHC protocol, i've not added the running gels protocol. I've not included bits. And so, it starts again....

Its really reassuring that, you said i don't know quite alot and your external was really nice. I don't know what mine will be like. :-(
I've made myself so ill over this, i discovered i was bleeding yesterday which, freaked me out. :-(

I just hope i have it in me to perform on the day and not get too nervous.

Well, my first author paper has results from 1st chapter and second chapter.
second paper has, 2 figures from last chapter
and third paper is unrelated to my phd, i ran a blot for my sup and it got published...

I'm going over it again today, but, i'm just losing will now. I hope i can go in on tuesday and perform. :-(

A question for you, if you say i dont know about your work, if you have mental block due to nerves do they doubt that, either you didn't write the thesis or didn't do the work?

Hi Pink Fluff I really do hope you are feeling much better today - just think by tomorrow evening it will be behind you! If it helps my friend told me the other day that they had been on a viva course and someone who had been an examiner said a large proportion of people start by crying because of the nerves and it really doesn't matter - they are given time to calm down and the examiners try to relax them. Plus on a course I went on we were told you if your thesis is okay, to fail the viva you would have to literally not be able to answer anything - even if you do mostly not too good you will still just get corrections if your thesis is worthy of a PhD which I sure yours is if you have published from it. If you feel incredibly wound up at the beginning of it I would say to them that you suffer with anxiety generally and have found the build up to this very traumatic and can they take it slowly?

I am sure you will do great - please do let us know how it goes and good luck!

Hi Pink fluff.

Just wanted to reassure you like everyone else here and say that I am 100% sure you will be fine! I am also in Biological Sciences and have never heard of anyone with papers published from their thesis failing as it has already been proved that your thesis contains publishable material.
Don't worry about being nervous either. I think everyone is going to be nervous. I was very very nervous so my supervisor told me that he had once been an examiner for a girl who had started crying every time they asked her a question and the viva took ages, but she still passed, which made me slightly less worried.
I couldn't answer a lot of the questions they asked me during the viva (the chemical reactions catalyzed by one of the main proteins in my study had completely left my head and I was sure I was going to fail as I should have remembered it), but I was also amazed at how much I actually knew that I didn't think I did. A lot of the questions were explaining how I had done things which is easy because you just tell them what you did.

I had also left out a whole assay from my materials and methods and was panicking about that beforehand, but the examiners didn't even mention it, so I just added it when I did my corrections.

Also I get the impression it is much harder to fail someone doing a PhD in biological sciences rather than humanities or social science, because if you have results it is very obvious and easy to point out what the contribution to knowledge is.

Just remember to breathe on the day and you will do just fine (up)

All the best!!

Aaaw, thank you Littlemiss worry and Littlestar..

Well, it's the big day tomorrow... and i was feeling sick before i read your posts..

I feel a bit better now... :-)

Its midday tomorrow, so i'll most likely be agonising all morning, i wish it was at 9 so then, i could have just gone in and not had time to think about it, at all...

WOW, crying at the beginning of the viva, well, i've been crying alot so hopefully i won't cry tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Aaaaww, thats given me some confidence because, i can't remember 3 pathways and i was just going through them now. I hope my examiners are nice and understand that i'm really very nervous.

I'm glad you are feeling a bit better.

I have constant butterflies and mine is not until Friday! I have a kind of mock viva tomorrow with quite a few people from my dept at the same time! Not sure why I volunteered for that but thought if I could get through it would help with the nerves for Friday!

Little Star is right though - most of the questions will be clarifying what you have done and you know that simply because you did it. Make sure you have the evening off and do something distracting like watch a film. Good Luck (up)

Thanks Littlemissworry...

I'll let you know the verdict tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a good one!

Good luck Pink_Fluff, I really hope you have some very understanding examiners. Let us know how it goes.

Dear Dunni,
Thank you very much for your encouragement.
i keep on finding things in my thesis. I have around 3 or 4 pages that are in the exact wording like journals or websites and also some result headings that are in the same wording like my internal`s PhD Student, also there is a table were I have messed up the percentages.
i am so scared and I dont know what to do.

Good luck - hope it all works out well for you :-)

The very best of luck Pink_fluff - I know you're very nervous but you're almost there.

Thinking about you tomorrow, I hope it goes really well for you (up).

Got mine tomorrow too - we can panic together!

Thanks for the support everyone....

This time tomorrow it will all be over.

Re Hypothesis: Best of luck to you.

Good luck! I'll be thinking of you today :-)

Knock 'em out Pink_fluff! (up)