I've had a bit of time away from my thesis since handing it in, and have instead worked on and submitted a paper. However, though I have no idea of when my viva will be (no letter confirming a date - but it's only been two weeks), I feel that now is the time to start preparing for my viva. I spent today reading the Tinkler and Jackson book and it seems like there's much more to a viva than I initially thought. I have taken into account all of the very helpful advice provided by Bilbo on how to prepare, but I'm at a bit of a loss... How do you actually start preparing and how do you decide on possible questions that you could be asked? It sort of feels like I've traversed on Mountain and now there's another one.
I'd really appreciate any advice or experiences that people can offer. Any ideas or personal experiences you prepared (or intend to prepare) would be really helpful. I sized up my external examiner and it's essentially David and Goliath. Thank you.

Hi Walminski,

I think that at the viva you must be able to show that you have written the thesis, in other words that you know the work inside out and that you have mastered your subject, by knowing more than what actually has been written down.

As such I think that the advice by Tinkler and Jackson to summarise your thesis page by page is very useful, as this really forces you to summarise every page in a few sentences, making that the thesis becomes more more to the joint and much quicker to read through it again and again.

One you have done this, I think it time to look at the likely potential questions, as Bilbo has indicated in the past, for example why have you done this project, what does it contribute to knowledge, explain your methodology etc. These would be questions you should be able to answer in your dreams. Then one starts to look at more lateral issues, which potentially could be asked, for example related to use of certain literature, why certain authors, why certain excluded etc.

It may help to have a scheme indicating the date of the viva and writing down the issues you have to do before that date. Good luck
:-)

I don't think it's possible to anticipate every possible question, and I didn't personally find it helpful to revise lists of dozens of potential - but similar - ones. That's why I narrowed things down to 5 key areas, using Tinkler & Jackson as my guide. And those stood me in good stead on the day.

It's really important to know your thesis very well though. Rereading it and summarising it, in the way Tinkler & Jackson describe, is a good way of doing this. One of the key things the examiners check is to make sure (through deep questioning) that you wrote your thesis. The other essential thing is that your work makes a contribution to knowledge. So focus on those.

So, basically, what I did was reread and summarise my thesis, and think about the 5 core areas that Tinkler & Jackson said. That was it. Very little time required, very little work. But it made me confident enough to approach my viva, and to be able to field all the (mostly quite unpredictable) questions on the day.

Although I am a little away from my Viva, I found the DVD with Stephen Potter's book (Doing Postgraduate research) very useful, there are students on there talking about their viva experience and advice from 3 examiners. There is also advice on how to deal with questions from an author of the book on the subject.

Hope that helps, all the best.

Firstly, you need to be confident when appearing in front of your examiners. Remember and kindly make you mind that you know better than the examiners. The examiner could be expert in the field, but you are the one who spend 2 to 3 years working on the same narrowed subject. When you appear, bring along a copy of your thesis and a blank sheet of paper. Title the blank sheet of paper Amendments and left section of the paper, just scribble Page. The idea is that to inform Examiners indirectly that you have appear well prepared to accept any correction going to be suggested by the examiner. Defence yourself constructively, but when you noticed that the examiner is pressing in the same point, then just back off, let the examiner win. Remember don’t be obstinate to argue for the point that you think genuinely the examiner was wrong. In my viva, I found the Prof was ignorance on some fact and still insisting he was right, I merely smile and agree with him. After all the examiners are human, so if you notice any change of face that you could easily detect, go easy, immediately back off from the point you are arguing. Above is a penny thought based on my experience completing doctorate in UK in 2.5 years and viva voce in 2.5 hours successfully. Please read section on preparing for viva in book entitled “How to Get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and Their Supervisors by Estelle Phillips and D.S. Pugh”. Glance through “How to Survive Your Viva: Defending a Thesis in an Oral Examination” by Rowena Murray.Happy researching, Cheers.

Thanks for these tips everyone, they're very helpful. I've spent much of today taking notes of what everyone has said and watching some excellent tips videos on Youtube. I'd recommend having a look on the site to anyone else that is thinking about or preparing for their viva. I'm now going to make some notes from the Tinkler and Jackson book and then start summarising the pages of my thesis. The one thing I am wary of is the need to build up my peripheral knowledge. :-)