My lords and ladies,

It is but a mere week before I have that most dreaded occurrence - my VIVA.

Please, please, please, shower me with any advice you may have. Anything. I want to know everything you wish you knew.

I think my thesis is okay, but not much more... I'm kind of worried but don't know if I should be or if it's just natural panic. My supervisors seem pretty chipper and I've received no emails yet saying that the examiners have decided the whole thing is too horrible to contemplate (though it has been the Christmas holidays).

I also hear there is a Tinkler book of some sort that is helpful....?

Anyway, please, anything you could tell me, I'd be grateful to hear. I am full of terror and anxiety. I have a mock planned for the day before the real thing, and am seeing my supervisor tomorrow for some last minute advice.

Thank you all!:-x

My viva preparation involved reading a viva preparation book (Tinkler and Jackson) to demystify the process, rereading and summarising my thesis to familiarise myself with it and spot typos (I took a list into the viva on the day and handed it out - all examiners/convenor were very grateful), and thinking about and memorising my answers to 5 key questions: originality of my thesis, contribution to knowledge, methodology, weaknesses/gaps/mistakes, and what would I do differently if starting again.

You don't have much time left now, but if you could get hold of that book it's readable very quickly. And those core 5 questions/areas can be prepared for very quickly too.

I didn't have a mock viva. I only wanted to go through the horrible process once!

For anxiety I found focusing on it all being over soon really helped. By that I mean the viva. I was prepared for any result from failure upwards! But the viva itself would be over soon.

Good luck.