Preparing for the Viva Professor Liam Marnane

Dean of Graduate Studies

Viva

Preparing for the Viva

• Practice verbalising and communicating your work – talk to others

• Summarise you thesis and what it ‘shows’ in 10 sentences

• Know what you have contributed

• Know what you have learnt

• Know what you might do differently

• Know what surprised you

• Know the weaknesses (but don’t worry about them)

03/12/15 dgs@ucc.ie

Preparing for the Viva

• Be clear on what influenced key decisions around questions, theory, methods, analysis and be able to verbalise/defend these decisions

• Take the opportunity to make a presentation – it helps you to set the agenda for the viva

•Defend your thesis but try not to be defensive

• “That is an interesting angel/viewpoint on it however I found that ....

• “That is something I hadn’t considered but it could be really interesting, and I will follow it up...”

dgs@ucc.ie 03/12/15

Gavin

Any supervisor who is even half decent would not let a student go forward for a viva if there was any doubt about them passing

Examiners differ, some will go hard on the candidate and some will be far more supportive/positive.

Just because an examiner takes a hard line does not mean they view the research negatively, and as such it is no reason to assume the viva is going badly.

dgs@ucc.ie 03/12/15

John

I think the biggest thing is to stay calm about it. I got very worked up before hand. But you know your work better than anyone else, including your supervisor, so you don't have to worry as much as you think.

Also to know everything in your thesis... every image, structure, equation and sentence. They can only examine the thesis so if there's something in it that you're not sure about, that's where you'll be caught!

dgs@ucc.ie 03/12/15

Brian

Best advice I could give is don’t panic and don’t worry about the small stuff but that’s much easier in hindsight.

dgs@ucc.ie 03/12/15

Niall

I adopted the "know thy enemy" approach before my viva. I downloaded and read/skimmed through a handful of theses and a dozen papers that my extern's past/current students published.

I also researched the process from the examiner's point of view, and I found an interesting article titled "It's a PhD, not a Nobel Prize: how experienced examiners assess research theses" that convinced me that the extern isn't necessarily out to get me.

I don't recall whether I did much more aside from re-reading my own stuff beforehand.

dgs@ucc.ie 03/12/15

Simon

I did a lot of prep on the potential holes in my thesis and in theoretical background of xxx etc. But didn't get quizzed on it.

A "cheat" might be to read up on what undergrad subjects the examiners teach and have a look over them

If I was doing it again I would argue a lot more, particularly on stylistic things as I feel some of the changes actually do not improve the thesis or add to it very little.

dgs@ucc.ie 03/12/15

Handling your viva

•Best reaction afterwards may be ‘is that it?’

•Examiners (should) want to pass you, not fail you

•You are the expert and this is your chance to show it

•You know the weaknesses of your research and thesis

• It may even be enjoyable!

•Don’t forget the big picture on your topic

•What impressions do you want the examiners to get of you?

dgs@ucc.ie 03/12/15

Preparing for the Viva

•Discuss with your Supervisor • Prepare your Presentation • Investigate your Examiners • Know the Regulations

• Independent Chair • Conflict of Interest • Video Conference

• Investigate Location • Nearest Toilet • You are entitled to breaks

• Bottle of Water • Clothes • Bring a copy of your Thesis • Ask your supervisor to make a note of “Corrections”

dgs@ucc.ie 03/12/15

The Result of the Viva

Possible Verdicts

•Award, no corrections

•Award with minor corrections suggested

•Award with major corrections required

•Reject with possibility of resubmission

•Reject without possibility of resubmission, award lower degree

•Reject (fail)

dgs@ucc.ie 03/12/15

Reject, but permit the submission of a revised thesis

• a major rewrite of all or a significant part of the thesis, leading to a new thesis being submitted to the GSO for examination

• may include substantial rewriting of parts of the thesis, including introduction of new research and appropriate correction of an inherently flawed and unsound argument or methodology

• modification(s) would normally be so great as to require re-examination in a second oral examination.

• If the candidate is not capable, in the opinion of the Examiners, of carrying out such a significant revision of the thesis, then fail or lower award may be preferable.

• should normally be completed within 12 months of the Examination, and the revised thesis should be resubmitted to the GSO.

dgs@ucc.ie 03/12/15

Major Corrections

• the thesis requires substantial modification including rewriting of parts of chapters or sections of the thesis, introduction of new material, further experiments or calculations, analysis or data)

• modifications required should be such as to make the thesis acceptable but would not normally require another oral examination

• corrections should be verified to the GSO by the Examiners in writing, when submitting a corrected hard-bound copy of the thesis, and approved by the ACGSC, generally within 6 months of the Examination.

dgs@ucc.ie 03/12/15

Minor Corrections

• includes minor recommendations that do not significantly affect the argument and/or conclusions of the thesis

• e.g., typographical errors, minor changes in phraseology, inclusion of additional minor points of discussion, or correction or updating of the bibliography

• corrections should be verified to the GSO by the Internal Examiner in writing generally within 3 months of the Examination

• The Supervisor will play a supporting role in ensuring that this process is brought to completion

dgs@ucc.ie 03/12/15

After the Viva

•What corrections are needed? Make sure they are clearly communicated to you

•Report from Examiners plus hard copy comments?

•Who will review the corrections (major versus minor)

•Discuss with your supervisor what needs to be done

•Hard copy then submitted to GSO with confirmation that changes have been made

dgs@ucc.ie 03/12/15