If you’ve made it through to viva point and you’ve really done your own work, you’re ready. Here in the UK, the viva is there to primarily check three things (in my view): that you did the work, that you know why you made the decisions and that you can talk about where it sits in the context/why you did your work. The rest, really, is in your thesis.
The detailed feedback from my examiners on my thesis highlighted to key things to me: 1) My own doubt about my abilities comes out in my work and hides the stronger parts 2) I am a bit different to what people thing an engineer is, but that’s not a weakness, it’s a strength.
So, worst case that comes out of the viva is that I’ve got some more work to do, other than fixing the typos I’ve found in my thesis. If that’s the case then so be it.
After several weeks of a pretty chilled time post-thesis submission, it’s probably about time that I got stuck into some structured viva prep.
All in all, I’m pretty convinced that I’m a little crazy but I am going to be mightily disappointed when viva day comes and there are no Avengers there. If there’s every a sequel to that dream, I’ll be sure to let you know. Until then, I’ll be figuring out what to do with my time and probably create some work for myself!
I’m freeeee!! I had the viva part of my Early Stage Assessment yesterday and I’m relieved to say that I passed. I say relieved rather than any other adjective because that was the overwhelming feeling I had yesterday. That and wanting to sleep.
Shruti's PhD 