To ask for your viva experiences?

[whatthefoxsaid]

I've got my viva in a few weeks, can I ask how yours went? I can take the good and the bad, and any tips you have will be gratefully received!
I was going to post in academics corner but it's a bit quiet over there.

Are you talking about a doctoral viva? Vivas are also used at undergraduate and taught PG levels.

it's been quiet over there because it's been the holidays! didn't do mine in the uk so won't share, but my main tip is it's the only time in your life you'll be able to discuss your research in such depth, soenjoy it!

My doctoral viva was a positive experience. They informed me I had passed when I entered the room as they just wanted me to relax and engage in a discussion with them about the research - couldn’t have asked for more compassionate examiners!!

Tip wise - depending on you subject, know the greater clinical and research context within which your research sits, as well as the nitty gritty details of it (possible alternatives to your stats, etc)

Mine was great. We'd picked my examiners carefully so knew they were reasonable people. I'd recommend making sure you know a little about their point of view on the topic of your thesis, and any relevant publications. I knew for example that one of mine came from a very different school of thought in one particular area, so was prepared to make my case. Know your research very well and make sure you can explain why you used method x over method y, what your thoughts process was etc. Basically, they asked me to say what the key contribution of knowledge is from my thesis, why it's important. Then went through chapter by chapter and they asked me questions and gave me comments. It felt very easy because I knew the thing inside out (despite not reading it again beforehand....I would definitely recommend doing that!!) I had to justify my approaches and explain some of the results. They'd ask things like, why didn't you do a full systematic literature review (because one had recently been done), why did you pick this method (most appropriate for data due to reasons), things like that. And encouraged me to highlight a bit more why the findings were an advancement of knowledge in the field. Ended up with minor revisions despite what I felt were some serious issues, was sent a sent of comments and I made the changes and sent a point by point response, like you would do for a journal article. Overall, very good experience and my thesis is better for it. Good luck!!

Mine was also a positive experience. In fact it is up there with probably my best memories ever. I had googled viva horror stories beforehand (tip: don't do that ) so it was safe to say that I was prepared for the worst.

Other people told me to relax and enjoy it and I was very sceptical but they were right! Try to think of it as the opportunity for you to talk with other people who are just as passionate (probably) about your research as you are.

Good luck!

Just to add to what MeltingWax was saying - your examiners are probably the only people (except maybe your supervisor - maybe!) who will have kinda sorta read your whole thesis! So, it's a chance for a nerd-out, essentially.

Sorry yes I should have clarified, doctoral viva.
Apologies @LaDaronne I appreciate its the holidays but it is a pretty quiet section on MN in general, I've stalked it for a couple of years. I also thought it might be interesting to hear from people who have survived the viva but not continued in to academia!
Oh my goodness @TrainsandDiggers that's the dream right there, well done!

Mine was lovely too. One examiner took issue with my use of one word when he preferred an alternative (so simple find & replace job), but otherwise it was a stimulating discussion. You know your research far better than your examiners; their job is to ensure that you wrote it yourself, and to determine originality.
I took in an errata list, which they didn't even look at!

That's really helpful @catlady3 thank you! I will have a thorough read of the whole thing before the day. Also good point about wider contribution to knowledge and originality- I know this in my head but when I think about it, sometimes I struggle to articulate it properly! And absolutely avoid horror stories apart from any that crop up here

So, I was utterly TERRIFIED before mine. Truly, I've never been so scared in my life. Mostly I was scared that they'd say it needed another 6 months work, and I knew I just did not have the emotional capacity for that.

However, it was FINE. Once I was in there and talking, I was confident that I did in fact know what I was talking about. That's really what they mostly are checking - that it's your work, and you understand it properly. It was about 40 minutes, I think. There was one thing they pointed out that I agreed could have been clearer, but mostly it was just a conversation about ideas in the thesis.

Then I had to leave with my supervisor (who was in the viva, but not allowed to talk) for about ten minutes while they agreed what needed doing. Pass with minor corrections. Really minor - some footnotes that had gone wonky and a couple of sentences adding to one chapter.

At which point I burst into tears. They were nice about that too and plied me with whisky (Scottish university) even though it was only about 11am. And then there was a little party and we all went out for lunch.

Mine was fine too. I was really nervous beforehand, but it was fine. The external examiner was lovely - he's a big fish in his (and partly my) field, and I'd read all his books, his PhD, his MA...... I was terrified of meeting him, but he was so nice, and put me at ease.

The whole thing lasted about 1 1/2 hours, after which they chucked me out into the corridor for ten mins while they had a chat, but calledl me back in after about 5 mins to tell me I'd passed with minor corrections - though they did point out there were a LOT of typos (so much for proofreading).

There were some difficult questions, but that's only because they want to make sure that you've written the whole thing yourself, and to make sure that you've understood your subject properly and the context within which it sits, and you can justify why you've looked thing A instead of thing B, or not compared them, or not looked at thing C instead.
The viva is basically your chance to explain yourself, justify your thesis - as others have said, it's a chance to nerd out on your subject for an hour or so.
I had a very squeaky bum moment when the external examiner said he'd decided to do a quick look to make sure I was right when I said that there was hardly any historiography on an aspect of my thesis. At that point I did think he was about to say I'd missed something really important, but fortunately he hadn't been able to find anything more than I had (phew).

Definitely have a re-read of your thesis before the viva - I handed in two months before my viva and didn't think about it at all in that time, but then about a week before the viva made sure I skim read it through again to remind myself what was in it. That was when I discovered all the typos, so I made a list and took it to the viva with me, so if they brought the subject up at least I could say I was aware of them.

They should send you a list of corrections to make, and give you a time scale for completion. I found it was better to get them done sooner rather than later and just sat down one weekend and cracked through it. They'd picked up on some of the typos as part of the corrections, but I made sure I caught all of them.

I had a lovely viva, and having examined a few now - I think if your supervisors have done their job in selecting the right examiners then disasters don’t happen. All my friends where it went wrong it was predictable, really.
Really engaging with your examiners’work (so if it isn’t already cited in thesis making points like ‘as I know you’ve argued...’ or ‘while in your 2014 book... in this case...’) should impress. Have a clear statement of your originality ready at the start, and then try to enjoy. They really can be a wonderful experience.

Mine was lovely. They started trying to ask me questions on a related branch of basic science about which I know nothing, and I said “I don’t know very much about xxxx, only what is relevant to my area” and they just retracted the question and we talked about my actual work. Only an hour, time flew, minor corrections. Good luck!

Mine (not in UK) was about six hours!

Some good experiences here! I really hope mine goes as well as everyone else's!
I've cited a couple of bits from both examiners but I'll make sure I refresh my memory with it and also have a look at other stuff over the next few weeks.
I tried to start reading through again this morning but didn't make it past the first chapter before DD woke from her nap, so will try again later!

Trying to read my thesis again was the absolute worst ;-) You'll be fine, don't worry too much, you know this stuff inside out anyway!! Fingers crossed!

Mine was a relatively painless 90 mins. Enjoyable in retrospect. My flatmate's was 3 hours. Worse still, he knew he was going to get referred within 10 mins of it starting. The experience nearly broke him. Took 18 months to turn things around and pass on the second go. He's an academic now, so it didn't hurt him long term.

I would caution you though. I'm also an academic, and I'm aware of numerous straight fails recently. This is generally due to piss poor supervision but it's worth keeping in mind that a pass, or even a referral, is not a given.

Sorry, but mine was awful! A total interrogation. I’m not even sure my external had even properly read my thesis. She got really hung up on the fact it wasn’t written in a traditional thesis manner (it was grounded theory and written up as such) and couldn’t understand why I had let my funders dictate a methodical change. As far as she was concerned it affected my epistemology and methodology and therefore wasn’t on! Passed with corrections though!

Mine was horrific. I won't terrify you with the ins and outs but it's a time in my life I'm glad is past. But yes I did pass 😊

Oh some alternative perspectives! Thank you this is helpful. I've read through two chapters and found a couple of typos but nothing major so far. I've been making notes on things they might query too.
Ruthlessrooster my supervisors have been excellent so although the prospect of a straight fail is utterly terrifying I'm hopeful that it's a small possibility.
If be devastated if the external hadn't read it properly. It's her area of interest so with any luck she will find it an interesting read, though it's a bit of a radical approach.
A month or so before I submitted we had a discussion about standardising the structure so hopefully that won't be too much of a problem. I worry its a bit 'out there' compared to similar research but to me that's a massive part of the contribution to knowledge / originality?!

luckycat007 do share some ins and outs if you don't mind!

Not got a PhD (crazy committed folk!) but I do work in HE and I came across this professionally the other week on preparing for vivas which seems really good - you might want to take a look

www.nuigalway.ie/media/graduatestudies/files/phdvivaguide/phd_viva_guide.pdf

A couple of small pieces of advice I can think of: about a week before, do a last minute literature review to see if anything relevant to your thesis has been published since you wrote your introduction - a few months might have gone by since then.

If they ask you something you know inside out, don't break into a big smile of relief in case they go "well obviously you know that so let's move on" yes that happened to me

Don't be surprised if you have a bit of a feeling of comedown or anticlimax immediately afterwards. It's a massive thing to get through and it can be a bit of a shock when it's over. Just go and have 5 mins in the toilets and then go and have lunch with them or whatever it is that is planned for afterwards.

Best of luck!

Mine was quite enjoyable really. My examiners were people I knew and were genuinely interested in the research. They both took completely different approaches to the viva - one focussed on my work (Why did you do this experiment this way? What other approaches could you have taken? Tell me more about this technique?) and the other focussed on context of my results in the rest of the literature (including how would you explain this to nonscientists). It lasted about 2.5hrs and I passed with minimal changes. Perhaps it would be useful to get in touch with anyone you know who had either of the examiners in their viva and ask them what type of approach they took?