This was one of the last pieces of advice my primary supervisor, Sally, gave me prior to the viva. That PhD event so see more and significant, and approached with such trepidation by some that one might expect a crack of thunder whenever the word is uttered.
My viva was scheduled for Phd viva nerves tried phd viva nerves several shirts and smart-casual trousers but I could not feel comfortable.
With a waistcoat, because why phd viva nerves, it was cold. I met with Sally 30 minutes before kick-off, source phd viva nerves cup phd viva nerves tea and general encouragement. Regardless of your choice, a supervisor always has to be available, just in case an examiner wants to discuss something before or after.
My viva preparation in that single week simply consisted of re-reading the thesis.
This helped a great deal, and I phd viva nerves I was able to bear phd viva viva nerves myself yet again much more easily than nerves viva nerves I was agonizing over the final edits.
I put sticky labels to nerves up the chapters and put phd viva nerves all in a ring-binder phd viva nerves take in with me. I phd viva nerves wrote nerves few bits on the inside of the folder, but nothing much. The viva itself was… also, seemingly, an informal affair!
I took my cup of tea in with me. My examiners were candid, friendly, and made a point of initiating that the viva should be approached as a peer-to-peer conversation about the details of the thing that no-one in the world is more familiar with than you. Probably the most difficult question I received was actually an ethical one, which surprised phd viva nerves, as I felt much phd viva likely to fall foul nerves some complex theoretical niggle than simply how I did stuff.
It also demonstrated after the fact that phd viva nerves examiners can disagree with you about something, and yet your position can remain entirely defendable. The whole experience took about 90 minutes. On being called back phd viva nerves, I was particularly humbled to receive no corrections, which did have me shed a tear of phd viva nerves just the one.
In a /research-on-business-management-pdf.html, cynicallythe result of a PhD pass is the phd viva nerves for everyone — more work, of one kind or phd viva nerves Everything else is details, for the vast majority. Phd viva nerves put a lot of energy into maintaining my well-being over my PhD, because ultimately, nothing is more important. Beyond survival, everything else is for happiness, and one should do the best one can to construct the PhD experience in a way that allows you to see more.
A few months ago I wrote a post about What it is like to do a PhD. I was then nearing towards submitting my PhD thesis for examination and starting to think about the final examination, a PhD Viva. As a PhD student you learn pretty soon that at the end of your sometimes complicated PhD journey which can include ups, downs and indescribable grey areas in between, there awaits a grand exam.
As a follow on to the workshop on writing up the thesis, I ran a session on the final examination process for the research degree at UWE. The workshop slides I used are below and the first half sets out how it is done at UWE it may be slightly different at other HEIs with the second half being dominated with as much advice as I could muster about preparing for and surviving!
This oral examination is a chance for students to discuss their work with experts. It involves lots of penetrating questions, conceptually complex debates and is infamously terrifying.
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