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.

Mine was really tough. Almost 2 hours of it and I was suffering with morning sickness at the time so that didn't help. I found one of the examiners kept asking why I didn't include a,b and c from his area of research but I decided to be ballsy and I raised an eyebrow at him and explained why it clearly wasn't relevant. The examiners disagreed over whether it was major or minor corrections. In the end they asked me to rewrite one chapter. When I got my list of specific notes from them it was again asking me to include a load of stuff from examiners area of interest which I had said I didn't want to. I just squeezed in a few tiny references and they passed it off next time round.

Mine was really enjoyable despite being utterly convinced that I would fail. One of the top experts in the field, who I had already cited a lot even before I knew he was to be the external! He said he found my work interesting so I just relaxed into relishing someone being interested in my thesis. Like others - outside with my supervisor for 10 minutes, then back in to be told I'd passed, no corrections, and a really good reaction from both examiners. Then out to lunch too!

I was very prepared - I had a cue card for every contribution that I'd made, with which literature I supported or challenged through my work. And I'd read the whole thing several times. Like pp I went in with a list of typos but they hadn't noticed them at all.

Lots of luck OP! Enjoy!

jenijena thank you for the link- I'm making my way thorough the guide and it's really interesting!
I had a massive feeling of anti climax when I submitted so I'll be prepared for that too. It's been tough going at times but on the whole I really enjoyed doing my PhD and I'll miss it in lots of ways. I'll definitely try and take 5 on my own after it all! And the tip about lit review search is brilliant, thanks.
I'm actually meeting someone that had one of the examiners next week, I hope she doesn't terrify me but it'll be useful to know how she goes about the viva.
Sounds like he was a bit miffed about you not citing his stuff Merlin, I'll go through the rest of the externals publications to triple check there was nothing else relevant.
Cue cards! Yes, I will do this too- better than my scrappy bits of post it notes.

I thought you'd misspelt diva, and was going to tell you about my colleague when someone's used her chair.

I'd still like to hear that tale spidey66
I've just finished reading through the pdf and it was so helpful in guiding my prep work. Now I just need to do the prep! I'll make some flash cards and have a practice run (see if I can get dh involved in asking questions and see if he understands my responses!). I've got a proper mock coming up so that will be useful too. Nerves are setting in!

Just bumping this to ask, if the examiners mention something that's a weakness, do you acknowledge and accept or at least try to argue it and justify?

I would suggest being honest - if you'd spotted it yourself then think about why you did it like that - so defend but not be defensive. If it's new then acknowledge it's an interesting / good / valid point - but again, you must have had a reason for doing it like that - so explain! Hope that helps. How long to go now?

Depends what it is and whether you agree with them or not. You can admit that it's not your strongest point but explain why you still think it's strong enough. Or you can say 'Had I but world enough and time...' and explain why the constraints you had to work with meant you couldn't do it better (e.g. more data gathering).

Thank you that's helpful. There's a few bits I've picked up that I'd change given the chance but can say why I did it like that. I had a mock yesterday and it's knocked my confidence a bit to be honest. Not because I couldn't answer the questions, I could and the pretend examiner said I answered well but during the discussion afterwards I got the impression from my main supervisor that I'll likely get major corrections if I can't argue my methodology well enough. It's difficult because both examiners align one way methodologically and I'm the opposite. Confidence crisis.

Oh sorry forgot to say. Over a week to go so I've got a bit of time to get some arguments clear in my head!

Mine was very positive- lots of questions but nothing unfair or aggressive. The only disappointment was that I thought it was a bit short! It was just over an hour which seems shorter than a lot of people get. I got minor corrections and they were really clear about what they wanted. Good luck!

Just bumping this to ask, if the examiners mention something that's a weakness, do you acknowledge and accept or at least try to argue it and justify?
Unless you really fundamentally disagree I would acknowledge and accept.

They can go on longer than you expect - mine was scheduled for 11am, and I thought we'd be finished by lunch. We took a break at 1pm.... At which point I needed to find lunch (department very much not central) - another student was able to feed me, but take some snacks just in case.

It sounds obvious, but be honest - if your examiners ask 'have you read ....' and you haven't, bluffing won't work well - because they will have read it.

I did pass, though I was asked to rewrite the introduction. However I didn't have to have another viva.

Hope it goes well!

Just coming back here to update, the viva went well and I passed with minor corrections, which I'm hoping to complete before Christmas but might be a bit optimistic!
It varied between quite an intense but friendly chat to some more serious grilling but I don't feel the examiners tried to catch me out.
The internal was a bit more 'grilling' than the external, and asked the most questions, which seems a bit unusual from what I've read before! And predictably they didn't ask anything that I'd prepared for..
Anyway, thanks to all that shared experiences!