After you have finished and handed in your thesis, you may have to do an oral exam on your work.
It is a good idea to assess the weaknesses of your thesis before you hand in, but make sure you do it afterward.
Unfortunately, examiners are all different, and the bits of your project they choose to focus on will depend partly on their own interests, but also on your weaknesses. Thus, it’s a good idea to analyse which sections are your weakest and pay special attention to those.
Get Practical TipsPractical Tips:
- Re-read the more important papers you referenced. By the time of your examination it may have been a while since you last looked at them.
- Check to see if you have all the relevant controls that give your results meaning. If you don’t have them, start thinking up excuses.
- If there was a section you were not particularly keen on writing then that is a good candidate for a weaker section.
- Any bits where you weren’t 100% clear what someone was talking about, but you still wrote about it should receive specific attention.
- Bits where the literature is not clear and you could be asked to give your opinion are also good candidates for revision.
- Make sure you read up on what your examiners focus on for their own research. Start thinking about the parts that link their research to your own. You may receive heavy questioning on these areas.
- Write down some questions they could ask you and practice answering them.
Read Personal PerspectivePersonal Perspective:
After my friend told me he got loads of questions on his materials and methods, I spent ages revising this for my viva, but my examiners skipped the section entirely. On the other hand, the work I did re-reading my references came in very handy. Not everything you do will come up, but make sure you have a good all round understanding for the bits that do.
