PhD Viva Preparation & Typical Questions

Viva Preparation

A nice graphic I spotted recently

If you are nervous about the viva, Alessandro and I are happy to organise a practice viva beforehand.

Typical Viva questions

Some examples of typical viva questions courtesy of former group members

Expect some general opening questions

'give us an overview of the motivation for your PhD research and what you feel have been your main achievements'

Then expect some detailed questions on specific technical issues

There may be some general questions to make you think on your feet:

'Could you explain the main point of your research to my mother?'

'how would you put a SNSPD in a smart phone?'

'what is required to realise a quantum computer based on your approach?'

'What about high temperature superconductors'

'What would be the next steps for the next 3 years for this research'

Listen carefully to the questions the examiners ask and allow them to finish.

If you are stuck on a basic point, they will try to give you clues and prompts if you stay calm and listen,

Do not interrupt them or try to answer a different question

Always be polite and respectful to the examiners (don't imply you think the questions are stupid or you don't think they read the thesis!)

At the end of ~3 hours of questions the examiners will send you out of the room so they confer. They will then invite you back in after 10-15 minutes and give you the outcome. Just listen politely and thank the examiners.

I guarantee you will get a fairly long list of minor corrections from most examiners..

For minor corrections you will get about a month (on agreement with the internal examiner)

For major corrections you will get up to 6 months.