I thought my viva would be a walk in the park. I’d proofread my thesis so many times – given chapters to unfortunate colleagues, polished the thing until it gleamed. Surely the viva was just a formality? What PhD viva questions could they possibly ask? Then I opened the door and saw my examiners, glasses perched on noses, with the copies of my thesis bristling around the edges with post-it notes.
Your PhD viva voce or defence is the culmination of a lot of hard work. Years of trial and improvement, highs and lows, dead ends, changes in direction. It’s a story of you and your choices as much as it is a piece of research. You owe it to yourself to be prepared. One final hurdle. Then you can write “Dr” on your Tesco Clubcard. (And if you’d like some one-to-one help preparing for your viva, please see here.)
During your viva, your examiners are trying to establish three things –
- That you did the work (and wrote the thesis) yourself.
- That you can defend (and argue) your choices and conclusions.
- That you are (trying to be) free from bias.
A viva is like a job interview… after you’ve done the job. The overriding question is “is this person worthy of joining academia”?
Here are five PhD viva questions your examiners will ask, and how to answer them:
1. Why did you decide to do *this part of your research* in this way? Continue reading “Five common PhD viva questions (and how to answer them)”
