Hey! Well...the dreaded upgrade presentation is upon me, I am giving my presentation to my department tomorrow and then my upgrade viva will be after it.

Am not majorly worried about it now, my supervisor said that he was sure that I would pass. Just wondering if anyone has any last minute tips? I am practicing my presentation loads, but not sure what I can do to prepare for the upgrade viva and any questions I may have from my department about my presentation!

Good luck! I am not sure how well you can prepare for questions, in my upgrade one of my panel members asked me some really obscure questions, not necessarily hard ones but ones that I wouldn't have expected to have come up. One thing to make sure is that you know the limitations and pitfalls of any techniques/methods that you do as I had questions on that so you have to be able to justify why you are using them over other techniques.

Hope it all goes well! 8-)

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Be ready for the unimaginative but frequently posed qu's:

-Describe your PhD to a lay person

- Describe you PhD in less than 2 mins

- Sum up your PhD in 20 words or less

And other irritating generic questions posed by panel members who haven't bothered reading your work.

Be enthusiastic! I know its hard when you are nervous but if you are enthusiastic about what you are doing they will feel that enthusiasm! Enliven people with your topic.

Not much to add really, except be enthusiastic (confidence rubs off on others) and be open to suggestions rather than defensive, even if they criticise something you've done. They're not your supervisors so you don't have to actually listen to their suggestions if you (and your supervisors) don't want to.

But I'd agree with missspacey - they might not have read your report very thoroughly in which case, don't be disappointed - it's just a formality to some people, it doesn't mean they're not interested to hear what you're doing.

Don't forget to let us know how it goes :-)

Hello just thought I would update you on the upgrade situation- I passed!! (up) Wayhey! Don't know what I was worried about now! There are a few bits and pieces to work on but overall it was a success. My presnentation went really well, I wasn't nervous at all!! Thanks for all the comments too- they really helped!

CONGRATULATIONS - thats great

Fabulous! Remember to write down what the positives were for future encouragement!

Oh well done! Mine's next friday, I have a feeling I'm going to collapse and die before the title slide :-(