 The thesis defence or viva is like an oral examination in some ways.

It is different in
many ways, however. The chief difference is that the candidate usually knows more
about the syllabus than do the examiners.
 Consequently, some questions will be sincere questions: the asker asks because s/he
doesn't know and expects that the candidate will be able to rectify this. Students often
expect questions to be difficult and attacking, and answer them accordingly. Often the
questions will be much simpler than you expect.
 In a curious relativistic effect, time expands in the mind of the student. A few seconds
pause to reflect before answering seems eminently reasonable to the panel, but to the
defender it seems like minutes of mute failure. Take your time.
 For the same reason, let them take their time. Let them finish, or even elaborate on, the
question.
 The phrase "That's a good question" is useful. It flatters the asker and may get him/her
onside, or less offside; it gives you time to think; it implies that you have understood the
question and assessed it already and that you have probably thought about it before. If
absolutely necessary, it can be followed by a bit more stalling "Now the answer to that is
not obvious/straightforward..." which has some of the same advantages.
 Don't try to bluff your way out of a question. If someone has asked a simple question, and
you answer with a torrent of jargon, or refer to some complicated equation, the other
observers will probably conclude that you haven't answered a simple question with a
simple answer. Now this may be both true and honourable: some simple questions cannot
be answered simply. However, if you have to resort to complexity, you could begin by
translating the question into your terms, defining them as you go, and, when you think
you have answered, at least make an attempt to rephrase it in the language of the
question.
 If the nightmare ever did come true, and some questioner found a question that put
something in the work in doubt... mind you this is thankfully very rare.... then what? Well
the first thing would be to concede that the question imposes a serious limitation on the
applicability of the work "You have identified a serious limitation in this technique, and
the results have to be interpreted in the light of that observation". The questioner is then
more likely to back off and even help answer it, whereas a straight denial may encourage
him/her to pursue more ardently. Then go through the argument yourself in detail -
showing listeners how serious it is while giving yourself time to find flaws in it or to limit
the damage that will ensue. In the worst caese, one would then think of what can be
saved. But all this is hypothetical because this won't happen.
 What usually happens is that the examiners have read the work typically twice, and
looked closely at some parts that interested them most. These are usually the good bits.
The examiners have standards to uphold, but they are not out to fail you.
(Administratively, it is a lot more complicated to fail you than to pass you!) In general,
they feel good about the idea of a new, fresh researcher coming into their area. You are no
immediate threat to them. They have to show that they have read it and they have to give
 you the opportunity to show that you understand it (you do, of course). And they usually
have a genuine interest in the work. Some of them may feel it is necessary to maintain
their image as senior scholars and founts of wisdom. Judicious use of the "Good
question", "Yes, you're right of course", "Good idea.." and "Thanks for that" will allow
that with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of time for champagne drinking.
 If one of the examiners is real nasty, your thesis defence is probably not the best place
and time in which to do anything about it, except perhaps for allowing him/her to
demonstrate his/her nastiness clearly and thus to establish the support of the rest of the
panel. If you want a major dispute, save it up for when you are on even ground, unless
you are very, very sure of yourself and think that you have nothing to lose.
 Be ready for a 'free kick'. It is relatively common that a panel will ask one (or more)
questions that, whatever the actual wording may be, are essentially an invitation to you to
tell them (briefly) what is important, new and good in your thesis. You ought not stumble
at this stage, so you should rehearse this. You should be able to produce on demand (say)
a one minute speech and a five minute speech, and be prepared to extend them if invited
by further questions. Do not try to recite your abstract: written and spoken styles should
be rather different. Rather, rehearse answers to the questions: "What is your thesis about,
what are the major contributions and what have you done that merits a PhD?".
 Your viva is important. It is worth rehearsing it. Write down some questions (including
nasty ones) and give them to a couple of trusted friends or allies. Have them ask you
these questions, in as realistic a setting as you can manage, then answer, pretending that
they are your jury, not your friends. Your friends can take notes about your style: they
may have helpful advice. More importantly, however, you get to practise your answers
and to rehearse giving them.
 Finally, a very important distinction. I wrote above: Take your time. This is not the same
thing as 'Keep calm'. Most of us simply wouldn't be able to keep calm in this situation.
Further, being excited or a bit nervous is actually helpful: with extra adrenaline, you can
think more quickly. No, you don't want to be so nervous that you freeze up, but on the
other hand, don't be scared because you are nervous: recognise that a bit of nervousness is
a good thing. However, in spite of your nervousness, remember to take your time: don't
rush.
 Now read the first two bullet points again. Good luck!

Opinions expressed in these notes are mine and do not necessarily

THE DEFENCE
Structure of Examination
For a thesis defence, a Chair is appointed by the Dean of the Faculty
of Graduate Studies.
They can ask questions if they choose, but
will primarily chair
the examination. For a
project, the external examiner and the Chair
is the same person, and the Chair is expected
to ask questions. After introductory comments,
the student presents the research (in less
than 20 minutes). Then, questioning begins, st
arting with the external examiner (for a
project, the community member/client starts
the questioning), then committee members,
and finally the supervisor. After questions
are exhausted (usually after 90 to 120
minutes), the student is asked to leave
the room while the committee deliberates on
whether the thesis as presente
d is satisfactory and whether th
e oral defence of the thesis
was satisfactory. The student is then called back
to the room and the decisions are shared.
The chair of the examination is asked to se
nd a report of the examination to the Dean.
Suggestions for Preparation for the Defense
•
Prepare and practice your presentation.
It should NOT exceed 20 minutes. The
presentation should focus on: what y
ou have done; why you have done it; how
you did it; what you found; and what the implications are.
•
If you are planning to use an LCD projector, ensure that you are familiar with the
equipment and you know what to do if there
is a technical problem. This is not the
time to use Power Point and an LCD projector if you never have before.
•
It is acceptable to acknowledge that you
don’t know the answer or hadn’t thought
about the question. It is us
ually better to do that than to guess or make up a
response. You can ask to have a question repeated. Also, you can indicate that
you hadn’t thought about the topic,
but could speculate that .....
•
Review your thesis before the defence
and think about possible questions that
might arise. While it’s useful to be fam
iliar with your citations and sources, it is
not necessary to re-read every article th
at you cited in the literature review.
•
You may wish to do a “mock defence” with your supervisor or with some friends
•
Avoid overgeneralization of your findings.
•
Highlight areas in your thesis, wher
e you may be asked questions (e.g.,
limitations) using post-it notes so
you can find them quickly.
•
Sit in on some other defences to ge
t a sense of what they are like.

Use the following steps when preparing for the oral defense of your thesis/dissertation.
1. Evaluation of oral examination is based on your presentation and your answers to questions
from the examining committee.

2. Be well prepared for your presentation – academically, mentally and physically. Try to be well
rested and focused before your oral defense.

3. In your preparation, don’t try to memorize all the studies cited in your thesis, but you do need
to know the details of a few key studies, which form the basis of your investigation.

4. You need to be familiar with larger issues, such as the basic assumptions, theoretical
framework, paradigm, cross-cultural perspectives, Christian integration, etc.

5. More importantly, you need to have a deep understanding of the nature of your research
problem and the major issues involved.

6. You may bring with you important materials for easy reference in the course of your defense;
these may include key articles, computer print-outs of results, etc.

7. Your presentation is evaluated in terms of content and clarity as well as style.

8. Don’t speak too fast and don’t read from your notes.

9. Treat your presentation as a public address because there may be non-psychologists present at
your defense. Therefore, don’t use too many jargons and don’t pack it with details. You need to
tell people in simple, concise language: (a) What you did, (b) Why you did it, (c) How you did it,
(d) What you found, and (e) What do the results mean.

10. Prepare overhead transparencies, hand-outs or power-points. Typically, they should include
(a) An overview or outline of your presentation, (b) Introduction (including research question,
rationale and hypothesis, if any, and definition of key constructs). (b) Method (including design,
methodology, sample, instruments or questionnaires, and procedure. (c) Results (including tables
or figures summarizing your findings) and (d) Discussion (including reasons for new or
unexpected findings, contributions and limitations, and practical implications.)

11. Make sure that you space yourself well. Don’t spend too much time on one section. For
example, you should not spend more than 5 minutes on introduction, since you are allowed only
20 minutes for your presentation.

12. Most of the questions are rather general and broad, dealing with substantial methodological,
theoretical and application issues. However, some questions focus on specific points regarding
sampling, statistical analysis, or some questionable conclusions.

13. Be prepared to clarify or elaborate on your assumptions, theoretical positions, methods, and
conclusions. Often an examiner plays the devil’s advocate to see how well you can think on your
feet and defend yourself.
14. Occasionally, an examiner may ask a question which is unfair or cannot be adequately
answered. After a few futile attempts, feel free to say that you don’t know the answer. You may
even be bold enough to say, “Since none of my answers are acceptable, I would really appreciate
it, if you could give me some pointers or tell me what would be a correct answer.”

15. Here are some common questions: (a) If you were to do it all over again, what changes would
you make? (b) What specific aspects of your findings can be utilized by counselors or
psychologists in their practice? (c) What is the most important contribution of your thesis? Can
you say it in one or two sentences? (d) What are some of the competing hypotheses? Could you
think of an alternative interpretation of your findings?

16. Don’t rush to any answers. It is perfectly acceptable to think for a couple of seconds, or ask if
you are on the right track. If you are not clear about the question you are entitled to ask for
clarification.

17. Try to be concise and to the point, but at the same time demonstrate that you have a good
grasp of the complex issues involved. In other words, do not give superficial answers, but at the
same time, do not go all over the map.

18. Put up a good defense without being defensive. Be confident without being cocky. A good
defense means that you can provide strong logical arguments as well as empirical support o
defend your position or conclusion. However, don’t be defensive, when people criticize your
study. If they are able to point out some real flaws or weaknesses in your study, accept their
criticisms with humility, grace and gratitude.

19. Before the oral defense, talk to your advisor about areas of concerns based on external
examiner’s comments. Then, discuss with your advisor how to best address these concerns. (You
advisor can not tell you the specific questions the examiners will ask, but he can direct your
attention to issues or areas that require some thinking or additional research.)

20. After the oral defense, meet with your advisor for debriefing and seek advice on how to
revise your thesis.

Defending your thesis can be an intensely nerve-wracking experience. How can you best
prepare to face your examiners?

Know the format of your thesis defence

The format of the defence varies from country to country. Having studied in the UK, my viva-
voce defence was essentially an interview with one internal and one external examiner. In other
countries it’s common to have public examinations with a whole panel of examiners and an
audience of colleagues, family and friends.

The first and most obvious tip then is to make sure you know what the format of your exam will
be; whether you will have to prepare a presentation and so on.
Prepare and practice your presentation
If you have to give a presentation, check any time restrictions so you can prepare accordingly.
You don’t want to show up with 100 slides for a 15-minute presentation, nor do you want to
show up with 10 slides for a 1-hour presentation.

The most important thing to do for any presentation is to practice so that;

 You know the material inside out

 You know how long it takes
 You can refine the presentation

You can practice on your own and with an audience, and you should do both if possible.
Practicing on your own and speaking out loud to an empty room may feel silly, but overcoming
that discomfort is good preparation for the discomfort of facing an actual audience.

Practicing with an audience of peers is then a good way of getting feedback and finding out what
questions people ask.

The dreaded “awkward question”

Whether you have to give a presentation or not, one of the scariest aspects of the defence is the
possibility of being asked a question you can’t answer.

It’s tempting to try to read a ton of literature to prepare for this, but since it’s very difficult to
predict what the examiners will ask and it’s impossible to read everything, this approach isn’t
always effective or reassuring (it might make you realise how much you don’t know).

There will always be gaps in your knowledge, but actually it doesn’t matter if you don’t know
the answer to an awkward question- you can still respond in a way that will make the examiners
happy.

When you don’t know the answer…

You aren’t expected to know everything. Sometimes, an examiner will ask a question they don’t
know the answer to, either out of interest (since you are the expert in your research) or because
they want to see how you think.

While it is OK, sometimes, to just say “I don’t know”, you could also say something like, “I
don’t know, but I would think that […] because of x and y, but you would need to do […] in
order to find out”. This shows that you have the ability to think as an academic.

Core content
Of course there is some core content which you will be expected to know well, but this is set by
you, not the examiner. To a large extent, the content of the examination is determined by the
content in your thesis.

When you choose what to cover in your thesis you are choosing your battleground for the thesis
defence, so the best strategy is to stick to the material you know best in your writing!

Make sure you have read through your complete thesis at least once before your defence, so you
know what you have written about.

Dealing with nerves

You will be nervous before your examination. You will almost certainly get an adrenaline rush
which can set your heart racing, give you sweaty palms, make your stomach churn and make you
want to go to the toilet 10 times in 20 minutes. This is normal!

The worst part is the waiting before you start, because there isn’t much you can do to use up all
that nervous energy! But once the defence starts, you can do some things to keep it under control.

Slow down
One symptom of nerves is to talk really fast and to try to show how much you know and speak in
this kind of long stream of consciousness that diverges away from the question until you forget
what the actual question was but then you don’t know how to get back to the point and so you
just keep talking and that makes you more nervous and how are you going to get off this train of
thought…

Try to deliberately slow down, and give yourself time to breathe.

Try to remember the question, and come back to the point.

Once you have answered, stop talking!

The examiners expect you to be nervous

Remember that the examiners expect you to be a bit nervous, and they will help you through if
necessary.

It is OK to ask them to repeat or clarify a question. It is OK to pause to think. It is OK to take a

sip of water if you need to!

Ultimately…
Success or failure is determined mainly by the content of your thesis. If your research is good,
and you actually did the work, it is highly unlikely that a nervous performance in your defence
will lead to failure.

Generally speaking, once your thesis is submitted, there isn’t much you can do to affect the
outcome (positively or negatively).

Read through your thesis, read up on one or two key points if necessary, practice your
presentation, and trust that whatever ha