Top 40 Potential Viva Questions

1. Can you start by summarising your thesis?

2. Now, can you summarise it in one sentence?

3. What is the idea that binds your thesis together?

4. What motivated and inspired you to carry out this research?

5. What are the main issues and debates in this subject area?

7. Why is the problem you have tackled worth tackling?

8. Who has had the strongest influence in the development of your subject area in theory and
practice?

9. Which are the three most important papers that relate to your thesis?

10. What published work is closest to yours? How is your work different?

13. What are the most recent major developments in your area?

14. How did your research questions emerge?

15. What were the crucial research decisions you made?

16. Why did you use this research methodology? What did you gain from it?

17. What were the alternatives to this methodology?

18. What would you have gained by using another approach?

20. How has your view of your research topic changed?

21. How have you evaluated your work? How do you know that your findings are correct?

23. What are the strongest/weakest parts of your work?

24. What would have improved your work?

25. To what extent do your contributions generalise?

26. Who will be most interested in your work?

27. What is the relevance of your work to other researchers?

28. What is the relevance of your work to practitioners?

29. Which aspects of your work do you intend to publish and where?

30. Summarise your key findings.

31. Which of these findings are the most interesting to you? Why?

32. How do your findings relate to literature in your field?

33. What are the contributions to knowledge of your thesis?

34. How long-term are these contributions?

35. What are the main achievements of your research?

36. What have you learned from the process of doing your PhD?

37. What advice would you give to a research student entering this area?

38. You propose future research. How would you start this?
39. What would be the difficulties?

40. And, finally What have you done that merits a PhD?

1. If you were to do it all over again, what changes would you make?

2. What surprises did you find in your study?

3. What was the most challenging aspect of your research?

4. What specific aspects of your findings can be taken to practice?

5. How generalizable is your study?

6. What is the most important contribution your study can make to your
profession or society?

7. Is there an alternative interpretation of your findings?

8. How would a policy maker be able to utilize your findings?

9. Will your research change current thinking in the field? If so how?

10. How will you communicate your work to other scholars in your field?

11. What will you do, personally, with the findings to make a difference?
12. What advice would you give a student who is starting the dissertation
process and considering using the methodology you used?

13. How did your course work at the university prepare you for your dissertation
work?

1. What are the limitations of your study and how would you have done
things differently if time and money were not an issue?

2. What did you learn about doing research by doing this study?

3. How would you interpret your findings in light of theory X (in other
words a theory other than the one you used)?

4. What theories support/dispute your findings?

5. What are the practical implications of your findings?

6. What policy recommendations might you make?

7. What is the next study that you might design?

8. How do you plan to disseminate your findings?

 Defending your MSc or Final Project
dissertation
The next few weeks we will be having the MSc oral exams in the CCE Division in
which students will have to summarize and defend their work in front of the
examination panel. I am sure every person has his own list of tips and dos and
donts on how to face these type of exams although a viva can go in many different
directions depending on your work, the examiner and other factors. We all have
heard the typical wise advice of be relaxed, be confident, be prepared, tips which
might lead to the exact opposite: that would be panic.

What are you best tips for a successful viva?

Here are some random thoughts I had on this based on my experience which you
might find useful or not towards preparing for you viva
On the day of the exam you are very likely to be asked to summarize your
work and contributions in a short period of time (5 or so minutes); this applies to all
kinds of vivas including Final project, MSc or PhD. Remember that before you
explain WHAT you did during the project you must explain WHY you think the topic is
relevant. Think about the global context of your work and be aware of the practical
applications.
Often you will be asked to discuss WHY you choose to follow one path or
approach over another. You might be tempted to say I did this because my
supervisor told me to do so. Although this might be true, this could be interpreted
negatively as lack of engagement to the project. Instead, you could demonstrate your
confidence and knowledge in the area by presenting the different methods that you
contemplated and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each one. This will
help you to justify your final choice.
In relation to the previous point, if you selected an approach during your
project because it was simpler than others, you can sell it in many different ways;
for example that this simpler approach would be more likely to be used in practice.
Saying that you choose a method because it was the easiest and there was no time
to do anything else sounds quite desperate and it might not reflect the amount of
work you invested in the project. Focus on the positive aspects and identify the
limitations of your work honestly but in a positive manner.
 If you did not understand a question (partially or fully), dont be afraid to ask
the examiner to repeat the question. This can help you to gain some time to think
about it and formulate your answer better. If you still dont know the answer after the
examiner has reformulated the question, be honest but dont give up too easily. I
think it is always better to give an incorrect answer with a certain logic behind it
rather than simply give a blank answer. In some cases the examiner might give you
some hints; try to grasp these lifesavers as they might help you to find the answer to
the question.
Good luck in your exams!

6. Engage the question honestly

When I present at conferences, I sometimes adhere to Robert McNamaras advice in Errol

Morriss documentary Fog of War: Dont answer the question they asked. Answer the question
you wish they had asked. Works for politicians and sometimes at conferences, but not in your
defense. Your committee members are experts in their field(s), and have been through their own
defenses as well as those of others, and they will smell any diversionary tactics. You are better
off trying to engage the question as asked, and get as close as possible to an answer. Which
leads us to the next two points.

7. Dont be afraid to say I dont know

There is no shame in admitting you dont know how to answer a question. A flat out I dont know
probably wont work, but a stab at the question preceded by I dont know exactly how to answer
that, but might work wonders. I often found myself towards the end of an answer that I was
not sure I had answered to the questioners satisfaction, and I would stop and say I dont know if
that answered your question which invited clarification or guidance (this goes with #3 know
when to shut up).

8. You cant know everything dont expect to

You are the expert in the field of your dissertation, and its possible you know more about certain
aspects of it than your committee, but you cant possibly know everything. If questioning goes
beyond your topic, admit that you are not familiar with whatever new topic has come up.
When you dont know the answer
You arent expected to know everything. Sometimes, an examiner
will ask a question they dont 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 dont know, you could also
say something like, I dont 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.