======= Date Modified 25 Oct 2012 12:31:25 =======
Hi

For those who have passed viva or are currently preparing for viva, what is your supervisor role during the preparation?

From what I have read from the forums and other viva preparation materials, it seems that supervisor plays rather important role to help their students on preparing some of the possible viva questions- I suppose this is to ensure that the students' answers are "correct"?

I have prepared some questions and answers and asked my supervisor whether I can go through this with him, but he asked me to prepare this on my own and practise them with my friends, and that I should only meet him if I have "additional questions".

I need to point out that me and my supervisor had previous issue, I reported it to the department and he received warning about it. Since then, he is a lot better than he's used to be, but the relationship between us is not as close as it's used to be (i.e. we don't communicate to each other unless really necessary).

I am not sure whether he is kind of refusing to help me "because this is indeed to be my job, and that I shouldn't drag him into this unless super necessary".

Or he's just giving lots of excuse not to help me.

I read some forums and materials where the supervisors are being super helpful to run mock viva etc (he is the only person who has read the entire thesis after all), so I am rather surprise my supervisor make it sound like "it's solely my job to prepare it".

Anyone has similar experience?


Another question is regarding viva date/location/time- when did you receive the confirmation of this information? Although I have been given a provisional date of the viva, but the time and location is not confirmed. My provisional viva date is about 2 week later, should I worry about this or should I make sure the department/supervisor confirm about the date/time/location of the viva?

Thanks

Hi Human, I just had meeting with my supervisor regarding viva. I emailed her earlier saying that I have some questions for which I need her help to answer. I showed her some questions and asked whether my answers were correct. She gave some suggestions to deal with few quesitons. I was also really worrried for some errors I spotted in my thesis. I did mention her abt them and she asked me to remain cool and no need of giving list to the examiner before the viva. She said to keep the list with me and if asked discuss with examiner otherwise correct it later when the examiners will give any other corrections (it is very likely that they will ask for some changes as per her experience). I felt a lot better after seeing her. My viva date was confirmed but just now she showed me the room and said what time I have to be here in Uni. Swetch

I prepared for my viva myself. My supervisor offered to do a mock viva type thing, but I didn't want that, and was happier preparing myself. We get on very well, but this just suited my way of working more. I used Jackson and Tinkler's viva preparation book, and analysed my PhD/thesis in 5 key ways pre viva (I've posted about these a lot here before). This way I covered a lot of questions that could come up, but didn't have a huge list of - often similar - questions to try to answer which wouldn't suit me at all. Note you cannot prepare for all questions. Your examiners will generally ask you things you haven't anticipated at all. Nor could your supervisor have anticipated them all either.

I submitted on 10th February 2010 and received notification of the date a month later. The location and time wasn't confirmed until nearer then. Don't worry unduly about this. My viva was on 31st March 2010.

Like Bilbo, I prepared for my viva mostly by myself. I wasn't offered a mock viva, although I might have been given one if I'd have asked. By the time my viva came around I was working full time, so during my lunch break on the Wednesday before (my viva was on a Monday), one of my supervisors called me, and we talked for about 45 mins about the viva procedure, possible areas of controversy in my thesis, and possible questions that might come up. As it turned out, none of the things we talked about were asked in my viva, but just talking it through with my sup made me feel a lot calmer.

I had another supervisor too, but they were little to no help - I get the feeling that this is because they have worked with my external on various papers, so were distancing themself from the project a bit. All other prep I did alone, by re-reading my thesis and re-familiarising myself with all the important papers. I also gave myself a mock viva by reading a question then answering it out loud - sounds a bit crazy, but you need to practice talking about your research without stumbling over your words, and I found this really really helpful. I couldn't have done this in front of my supervisors as they make me nervous at the best of times!

I handed my thesis in towards the end of Feb this year, and was notified of the date about 3 weeks later via email from my internal examiner (roughly 3 weeks before my viva). I don't think I was ever told which room it would be in - I just went to my supervisor's office on the day and they took me down there. My uni did send me an offical notification through the post that had the date/time/location - it was finally delivered the day after my viva, so wasn't much help to me! I would just send an email asking about the time and location - do you have a postgrad admin person who might know?

Very similar story to Smoobles and Bilbo.

I too prepared on my own, didn't have a mock viva (it was never offered, nor did I ever ask for one). At my supervisor's suggestion I requested that I give a small presentation in my viva. He communicated this request through the chair who passed it on to the internal and external examiners. I sent my supervisor a few panicky emails with hypothetical questions in the few days leading up the viva. He answered them promptly but very briefly which in hindsight was I think, his way of telling me to stop panicking and to stop trying to second guess things! The chair contacted me in good time (via email) with the location and time etc so I was kept in the loop that way.

Best of luck with it; it's a tough time as nobody quite knows how it is going to go. Every faith in you though(up)