my viva is on Wednesday this week. I've done some preparation for it, but i'm struggling to find any motivation to really get stuck into it. i know there is lots i could (should) be doing, but i can't be arsed. i feel like i should be obsessed with it, but i'm struggling to get into that mind set. i'm feeling guilty and worried about being so casual about it...not guilty enough to actually do any work mind...

don't know why i posted this really, just rambling...

I don't think it's necessary to do a massive amount of preparation, or spend a long time on it. So if you wanted to do some stuff you'd still have time.

Rereading the thesis is a good idea, but only if you still have time!

Otherwise my main viva tips - which are really easy and quick to tackle - are thinking about and memorising 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.

My viva preparation was very minimal. And I passed.

Good luck!

Hi Sim and BB.

Sim .. are you confident you'll pass ?  I suspect you'd be arsed if you were panic stricken so I reckon you'll sail through - why feel guilty that you're not an emotional wreck. Are you nervous, looking forward to it ?    Would you like us to make you nervous - I'm sure we'd enjoy that :-) :p

BB  - can i ask a question please, how did you answer the what would i do differently question?  Its a puzzling one if there's nothing obvious .. is it a case of identifying something that could have worked but you didn't think it be as good as the action you chose ?  A case of setting up a small negative to finish on a positive ?

All the best with your viva Sim .. come back and tell us all about it..

Chuff 

Cheers BB, good tips.

Thanks Chuff.  i think it's touch and go if i'll pass. A lot of my lab work failed, so i had to write great chunks of it up as to say: "if anyone were to repeat this experiment, here is what they should do..."   So the novel contribution to knowledge is open to interpretation. There's some good things in there (i made some nice cartoons), so hopefully the good stuff will outweigh the bad stuff. 

There are aspects of my project i do not (and will never) understand (e.g. some of the statistical methods), so if i get asked the wrong questions it could go horribly wrong. That makes me nervous.  I don't really know exactly what to expect, so i'm not sure if i am looking forward or it or not.

That's ever so kind of you to offer your services to make me nervous Chuff. I think i'll be alright, but it's nice to know you're all there for me if i need you ;-) (ha ha ha)

shall keep you posted. Thanks.

It can be a wish that I'd adopted a particular methodology earlier, or been able to have a larger sample size.

I was a history student and very late on in my PhD I adopted a subject classification system for the area I worked on. This was a good move, but ideally I'd have thought of this much sooner.

Similarly in an ideal world I would have looked at more archival holdings (primary source material - historical documents), but I was restricted by neurological illness, so focused on the most important records, and increasingly bringing copies of them to me to work on at home.

Neither was a very positive conclusion, but an honest admission of what I would - ideally - have liked to have done differently. I think examiners appreciate honesty, so long as you can justify why you did what you did, in the way you did it, when you did it i.e. the decisions you made.

Hi Sim

My Viva is wednesday too, and like you i feel unprepared. If I can keep the insides of my stomach in throughout the viva that will be a bonus!

Good luck, let us know how you get on

Good luck to both Sim and Kikuka for your vivas today!! I'm sure you both will sail through it :)

many thanks, couple hours to go. only just started getting nervous. good luck kikuka

Best of luck!

Sim, the very best of luck to you. I don't think you'll need it though.