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Hi all!

I browsed this forum quite often, after submitting my thesis, to try and find some advice on how to prepare for my viva.... which I passed a few days ago, just before Christmas. So, thanks for all the help and by way of giving something back I thought I'd share my experience and what I made of the whole situation.

First off, I'm not a great fan of the whole viva method of assessment. In my opinion, too much rides on the event of a single assessment. I was pretty nervous for my viva... the day before, I felt like I'd forgotten everything and nothing I was reading seemed to be sticking. I didn't get a good nights sleep either and got up still feeling exhausted.... however, I had a morning viva and as soon as I entered the examination room, the adrenaline started pumping and I was ok!

My viva lasted approximately 2 hours and 30 mins. The first 45 minutes were dedicated to general questions. What was your PhD about, what were your main aims, what were your achievements, what were your contributions to the science/why do you deserve a PhD? What would you have done differently if you had your time again? What were your mistakes, and what was the biggest set back you had to deal with, and how did you deal with it?

The best advice I could give someone currently working towards their viva, would be to prepare model answers for these type of general questions. From my scouring of these forums, it would appear that 90% of the time, these sorts of questions tend to crop up.

The last hour and 45 mins was entirely dedicated to going through the thesis, from start to finish. My internal and external had placed, what seemed like hundreds of post-it notes throughout my thesis at various points. These were basically flagging up points they wanted to clarify, didn't quite understand or wanted me to elaborate upon. Also, they suggested loads minor aesthetic stuff I needed to change for my final copy. The last 45 minutes was actually quite enjoyable... I was totally relaxed and conversation and discussion was flowing. I expected my viva to be a horrific experience – but for me it was actually quite the opposite – I found it very rewarding.

My external had a reputation for being very thorough but fair.... and so it proved. I basically knew i was going to pass after the first 45 minutes. I'd prepared model answers for some of the general questions I outlined above - so i was able to rattle off word perfect answers and it couldn't have gone any better! I could tell by the tone of the questioning when they were going through my thesis, that they were basically just highlighting the stuff I needed to change for my final submission. When the time came for them to send me out of the room while they were deliberating, I was 100% sure the verdict would be positive..... [Part II to follow]

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....another interesting point was that my internal was quite a good pal of mine.... a young (~35 years old) assistant prof.... when I got the letter through, saying he'd been appointed, I was quite apprehensive. I knew I was going to be nervous and didn't want the extra pressure of trying impress/not look stupid in front of a friend......

I didn’t really ask him too much prior to the exam it’s self... as I didn’t want to put him in an awkward position... but he did tell me he thought my thesis was good and he was pretty happy with it, although he hadn’t had a chance to speak to my external about it. In the pub afterwards (the party went on till the wee small hours... even my external attended for a few drinks!) I quizzed him on the whole situation – which was quite an interesting insight....

...basically, the internal turned up an hour or so before the exam... they had a discussion for about 45 minutes, then I was called to the examination room. Apparently, my external was of the opinion that my thesis needed a lot of work – which my internal was quite surprised about! however, as it transpired this was pretty much exclusively consigned to aesthetic changes, typos and grammar. The most satisfying thing about my viva was that my external did not disagree, or have a problem with any of my science!!! My internal also said that while no formal decision had been made before I entered the room, he felt confident that the external was of the opinion that I’d pass as long as I didn’t completely bomb the viva. As I said, I felt I could tell from the tone of his questioning, that he’d made a decision after 45 minutes.

I passed with, what you might term “major minors” I have three months to make the changes, but they should only take me a few weeks. I wasn’t disappointed with outcome at all. The only person who’d actually read the first draft of my thesis was my supervision – and his feedback consisted of a single phone, suggesting a few things I might want to change. He’s a busy guy and I knew he wouldn’t have gone through my thesis in much detail... so this made me nervous and I knew I’d at least have heaps of typos, issues with formatting, grammar and other random mistakes, to sort out.

Interestingly, I later found out that my internal had to fail another guy from our department only a few days before my exam (a rare occurrence - only the second time that anyone has been failed since I started - the other guy was failed for plagiarising large chunks of his thesis)! I’m glad I hadn’t heard about that... otherwise I’d have been even more nervous! I felt bad for the guy, but I think his supervisor let him down badly... my internal told me his thesis was very poor – like a bad masters thesis. They had decided that they’d give him a year to rewrite and resubmit, with a new viva... but apparently he performed so badly in the viva that they had no other alternative. He could hardly answer a question and was taking ages reading through his thesis while answering questions. Also, when asked to explain a point he’d made he gave the answer, “because my supervisor told me...”

A final point... the external was wondering why I didn’t reference the paper I had published within my thesis... for some reason, I had it in my mind that I wasn’t allowed to do this!

Hope this helps a few people. If anyone has any more specific questions I will do my best to answer them.

Merry Christmas and good luck to anyone with a viva in the New Year... I feel so lucky to have mine done before Christmas! Today is the first chance I’ve had to sit down, chill out and reflect...

Congratulations! :-) What a great Christmas present. (tree) (gift) I'm only a few months into my PhD and at the moment I can't imagine ever getting as far as the Viva! It must be a great feeling to have completed your PhD. :-)

Thanks MoonBlue.... you will get there in the end. It can be a battle of wills though... I always felt like I was a million miles away from finishing. In my firs couple of years I felt like I still had so much left to do, it felt overwhelming.... then when I finished my experiments, I had the spectre of writing-up to deal with. Incidentally, the writing up period was by far the most horrible experience of my Ph.D.... you put yourself under so much pressure anyway, without the added worry of your funding running out, or having to get job, at the back of your mind.

I found my Ph.D to be a battle of mental toughness more than anything else. The work was no more complex than anything I'd done previously in my Masters or Bachelors... it was just difficult looking after and managing my own project - particularly when it came to quantity and quality control.

There are so many tough time when you do a Ph.D... so many highs and lows... you just have to battle through them, and try not to rest back on your laurels when things are going well, but also not become to stressed out during the bad times.

It's been a character building experience for me.