Dr Sam Colling & Jo Phillips - Vivas What can you expect in a viva? How can you best prepare for yours? Sam and Jo will address these questions, using their own recent experience.

1. Preparing for your Viva

2. Who am I?
• Samantha Colling
• s.colling@mmu.ac.uk
• PhD - The Aesthetic Pleasures of Girl Teen Film

3. • Don’t panic you know your research better
than anyone
• Re-read your thesis and do a mind map/make
notes on each chapter
• Also do summary (post-it) notes on each page
-> get a copy of your thesis that you can do
this on and take it into the viva

4. • Re-write your abstract -> pitching thesis at a
conference
• Practice telling the story of your thesis in
2mins
• Practice telling the story of each chapter in
2mins

5. • Keywords – index important concepts (your
definitions)
• Do a mini viva with your tutors or anyone that
will help
• Think before you speak, listen to the question
• Recognise weaknesses and be prepared to
discuss them and how you would now
approach it differently.