Hi all!

My viva is in less than 2 weeks and I am terrified. I have not really started preparing and feel like I have a mental block with the whole thing! I feel like I know the thesis well as I only submitted recently but get so muddled when I try to talk about any of it out loud. How did people get past this point and how much time did people spend preparing? Any advice would be so gratefully received at this point!! :(

Jen

Hi,

I'm still a fair way from my viva but there have been many posts on preparing for viva, if you search for "viva" you'll find loads of threads that contain really useful advice. A number of users have gone through viva recently and they all posted great accounts of their experiences. I'm sure some viva veterans will log on at some point and put your mind at ease! Though I sympathise with you as I'll be a nervous wreck before mine! Good luck! (up)

I was exactly the same as you. I got to 5 days before and panicked having done very little prep. My main advice would be...

- read your thesis at least twice
- as you read identify areas you think are weak and think about how you will defend them
- write down your thoughts on the 'Bilbo-5' - these can be found on other threads
- write down and practice answers to the broader questions e.g why did you do this subject... (these are also on a thread called 'viva questions' if you google it) - this was my first question I got asked


If you can try and get someone else to help you - I wrote out all my questions on individual bits of paper and got my hubby to grill me on each one - did this about twice before the viva. He wasn't allowed to skip questions so forced me to answer the ones that were more tricky

Thank you for the advice. Did anyone have a question about epistemology in their viva? I don't think I would even know where to start! :(

Jen

Again, I'm no viva expert but I highly recommend reading Crotty, M. (1998) "The Foundations of Social Research" as he explains concepts around epistemology and ontology in a way that someone pragmatic (and stubbornly so) like me can understand! It's not a very long book but it really cleared things up for me. Don't panic! You will be fine, as both Sneaks and I have said there are many threads on this forum that describe the process in detail. Take it one question at a time and you'll get there (feel free to log in around January next year and watch me melt down in viva prep though!!
;-) )

I got qs on my epistemology, but only cos I had a chapter on it and its quite rare to do that in my field - usually people ignore it.

Sneaks what questions did you get asked about your epistemology. I have used a post-structural approach, if i was asked about my epistemology is this where i would talk about post-structuralism?