I thought I would share my viva experience (school of biological sciences) on here to hopefully support those who are worried about their upcoming vivas.

I’ve had a few weeks to mull things over, and prior to this I’d search forums to prepare myself for it based on other people’s (both good and bad) experiences.

It started very pleasantly with introductions, hand shakes and small talk to break the ice. I had to summarise the impact of my work at the beginning and then answered project questions concerning a very broad and general background. My methods were skimmed over...

The hardest part for me was defending results that my examiners didn’t like or agree with. They had a pre-conceived idea of what they would have done in my position and questioned the competency of my supervisors on several occasions concerning the direction we took my project in. I received a harsh grilling because of this.

There were also results discussed in my thesis that were also being drafted for a manuscript and my external disagreed with the result. I received negative comments throughout along the lines of ‘this work isn’t publishable’. My defence consisted of my results, how I and my supervisors interpreted them and how the literature interpreted similar results. No matter how I stated my case my examiners were not convinced. After 2/3 of my thesis I took the grilling and didn’t pursue with defending something that they clearly couldn’t perceive as defendable. They had made up their minds before I had even entered that room to do the viva.

Towards the end they asked me again if I had any issues with my supervisor team as it was clearly apparent that they couldn’t perceive that I had done my project supervised (I said I was very well supported, as I was!). I left the room while they deliberated my PhD outcome.

It was a painful experience. They agreed that I had passed on the basis of minor amendments. They complimented my writing style and that the amendments were mainly in being more negative about by results. They were concerned at how long it would take me ,and that in a different situation I’d have been asked to do entirely different experiments (however they knew I had moved on to another job).

Condensing 4 years of work in a meeting like this felt fairly degradable. It is not an experience I wish to repeat ever again, but I am pleased that I passed. I was nervous, but when the meeting gets started the nerves do fall away. I felt that my experience was a bad one, but again, I believe it’s entirely down to your examiners and how they interpret your work.

I submitted my PhD thesis in biological sciences last Christmas. It has taken since then for examiners and viva dates to be arranged. So, here I am now…. and it’s now the week of my viva! I do not feel particularly good about my upcoming viva at all. It has been such a long time since I’ve worked on it etc. I am out of practise of talking about it, discussing it… even the basic science parts. I am now in a very basic job far away from science so I don’t even have anything to keep my mind in science occupied mode.

To add insult to injury - whilst I have known a few months when my viva was going to take place, I have been going through ill health. My life for the last 3 months has consisted of me just about making it to work, then returning home to sleep off my discomfort. It has been impossible for me to study in the evenings and I have only managed very little study on the weekends. I have hospital appointments and doctor appointments, so if it came down to it, I can prove that I am not functioning or performing to the best of my ability due to what I have been through.

Having said that, I have read through my thesis, I feel as though I know my results quite well and can discuss their objective, their strengths and weaknesses. My biggest weakness is going into the details of the biology, basic mechanisms that I should probably really know, relatable literature (apart from the key papers that my project is based on) etc. In all honesty, I am crapping myself. The thesis itself I am proud of, it’s the verbal discussion that I feel that I am going to struggle with.

Bearing in mind, I don’t think my external examiner is an ass, as many academics can be, and I get the impression that he will be open to discussing things as opposed to having a conveyer belt of questions to bring me down in my viva. My internal however is known to ask difficult questions and I can imagine him taking this stance.

Does anyone have any advice or experiences they might be able to share? Good or bad Id like to read them.

Thank you.