Hi everyone!
I know there have been a good few posts on books to prepare for your viva, I have put Tinklers Doctoral Examination process and Rowena Murray's How to Survive your viva in my amazon basket for now, does anyone have advice on whether I should buy both or just Tinklers?

I know Bilbo, you have said Tinklers book is great, and I will get this one, but just wondered if it is worth getting both, or whether they cover the same things, and having two different view points might freak me out! :)

Thanks, AL

They're a bit different. I think Tinklers is the better for the overview, and based on many hundreds of viva experiences. But Murray's is better if you want to think more in detail about the large variety of questions you might face, and try to prepare for them. Tinkler's takes a higher-level approach to the questions, which helped me a lot cos I can only remember so much :)

I'd honestly recommend getting both, for a different perspective.

Hi AL, Bilbo,

based on a previous posting / Bilbo's views I had bought Tinkler's book and think it is very good. It is written clearly, easy to read and provides a good overview on the viva.

I have no bought or read Murray's book, but based on the above it seems wise first to read Tinkler's and then to move on to Murray's book, if you feel you need more in depth knowledge regarding the viva.:-)

Are these books good for scientists as well as social scientists? :-)

Tinkler's certainly is good for all subjects. I used to be a science PhD student, and then restarted again and became a humanities PhD student. So I have perspectives of both sides :)

Hey all, thank you for your responses. I will definitely get Tinkler's and may well just by other one too. However, I don't want to freak out due to multitude of possible questions, like you Bilbo, I think i'm better with gaining help on the higher understanding and overview of how to answer the questions than actually trying to answer lists of questions that more than likely most of which will not come my way!!!

Maybe I shall just get Tinkler's first and have a look and see if I then want more. It's amazon after all, so can probably order and get it in no time at all!!

I'm a scientist!

AL

Alpacalover, have sent you a PM.