Dear colleagues,

As I am in the process of viva preparation - I wonder how do you suppose to answer those generic viva questions like the impact of your work, the choice of the theory, or the case selection criteria.

In replying to them, can you basically quote your own text from the thesis, since these issues are usually well covered in the dissertation? Or paraphrase yourself? Or are you perhaps expected to produce a somewhat broader answer?

Thank in advance!

Hi ae7 (again),

I sat my viva last month so have some recent insight...

Most of the questions are not going to be particularly generic and any such that they do ask, they will probably throw at you to relax you and allow you to answer in your own way. A possible (nay likely) first question will be "what do you think the most significant aspects of your work are"? Or words to that effect. So make sure you have an answer. They actually asked me how I got where I am now (i.e. born in ....., brought up....., + education & career!).

Most of the theory you've used should be articulated in your thesis, so unless you have an examiner who's done something close and outright rejected the theory you've used, I doubt they're going to dilly-dally too much on that. There's little point in asking you questions that are answered directly in your thesis.

What they want is to see that you can defend how you've gone about your work. e.g. Why did you use this case type? Did you consider x form of data analysis over the one you used? They will almost certainly pick up little niggles and pitfalls but if you know the weaknesses in your work and have an answer, there shouldn't be a problem. You will have doubtless spent a lot of time deliberating over case selection criteria and all manner of other aspects of your work, so will have very specific answers to all these points. Just make sure they're fresh in your mind.

Bottom line: the main point of the PhD viva is for you to demonstrate that YOU are the one who did the work and wrote the thesis and not someone else (as has happened in the past). If your finished product is good enough (and your supervisors SHOULD have ensured it was pre-submission) and has enough in it and you did it, YOU WILL PASS!

Good luck!