Preparing for the home straight: The DPhil Examination
- Oncology Student Network
- May 17, 2020
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 11, 2020
Author: Letitia Harris
Let’s face it, the thought of a viva is a pretty daunting one! It signifies the end of the DPhil journey in which we discuss what we have to show for the past 3+ years of work - it’s a big step but we’re here to help! We’ve rounded up some previous DPhil students and supervisors from the Department of Oncology and asked for their greatest tips and tricks, looking from both sides of the table…
So, you’ve submitted your thesis, cue sigh of relief, but now what? You should have at least four weeks from submission until the date of your viva. Firstly, make sure to take some time to celebrate – producing a thesis is no small feat and you should be really proud of what you have achieved! It is worth noting that the Medical Sciences Division organise a ‘Viva Preparation’ course for students in their third or fourth year. We, alongside students that have attended this session, would strongly recommend booking on. It encompasses all of the formalities about the viva examination – from expected duration to how to choose your examiners!
How to prepare for the viva?
We’ve received some great feedback for how to spend your time in the lead up! Several students, and supervisors too, suggested organising a mock viva. It’s a fantastic way to anticipate any tough questions whilst giving you the opportunity to practice handling them. It also means you will have some time to reflect on these before the real thing! This could be to your lab group, organised friends from the department and, of course, we always welcome students to present at one of our Oncology Student Seminars!
Next up is reading - it’s as important as ever to keep up to date with the current literature! This can help show the examiners that you are engaged and familiar with the field and can aid your discussions. It is important to consider the work in which your examiners are involved in too as this can help you to predict some questions that they may ask (plus, they’ll always find a way to bring up their work!). The examiners will likely bring in a copy of your thesis and you can too. Print this out in COLOUR and take the time to read over it critically. You will probably have read over this piece of work more than you can imagine but take each chapter at a time and put your objective hat on. Make notes throughout your copy including any typos and corrections but also print out any important data that you have generated since submission that supports your work.
Question time!
Now we can’t predict every question as every viva will be different! But you can anticipate some typical questions that examiners like to ask:
1. Summarise your research – This is a classic starter question and is used to help set a conversational tone between you and the examiners. They may also ask for a brief overview for each chapter as you are working through the thesis together.
2. Why is your work important? – Essentially, why does it matter? Why have you been working on this for the past 3+ years?
3. Why did you take that experimental approach? – These kinds of questions are your chance to demonstrate that you took some leadership in your project and you understood the steps you took, and why you took them!
4. What about your thesis is original? – This question helps address that you are familiar with the literature but also that you understand how your work fits in to it.
5. Strengths and weaknesses – There are strengths and weaknesses of every single research project! Questions looking to identify these are to help the examiners test your ability to reflect and evaluate on your own work.
6. What experiments could you have done to resolve any shortcomings? – Oh! But just one more experiment, please! There will always be another question to answer from our data – we know it, our supervisors know it and the examiners know it! We are under a time constraint and inevitably there will always be data that would have been great to showcase. This question is to help examiners see that you have thought about what direction the project could take and how to strengthen what data you have.
7. Identify some unanswered questions within your field – Another question looking for evidence that you have a good knowledge of your subject area but also that you are able to collate this and recognise what is unknown.
8. What are the real-world applications of your data? – the big picture question! This can be asked in lots of different forms, but the scope of the question is generally the same. Remember, you have been working on some very specific details about a very niche topic – it’s good to take a step back and consider the bigger picture.
As for answering these types of questions, spend the time to prepare and practice how you would address them. From an examiner perspective, keep it short and sweet and please don’t respond with “because I was told to” as that really won’t help identify you as an independent researcher! Try to prepare some positive suggestions for how you can answer these, especially to issues raised regarding any potential downfalls of the work.
Sub Fusc-ed and ready to go!
The day is finally here. Make sure you’ve got a copy of your thesis to hand, any extra data if necessary, a water bottle, plus a pen and paper. It’s normal to be nervous, in fact nerves can be a good thing! So please don’t be surprised by the examiners trying to put you at ease – you may start off chatting about how you’ve found the DPhil process, biggest achievements, your future plans... anything! But it’s just to help you relax a little – they want to make sure they see the best side of you!
Generally speaking, examiners have said they prefer to go through section by section. So, what are they looking for in each of these?
1. Introduction – Do you have a good general knowledge of the subject area?
2. Methods – Do you have an understanding behind the principles and reagents of the methods used? For example, how do you get from a flask of cells to an immunofluorescent image? Why does that buffer have reagent B in it? Examiners will also focus on why you chose certain methods over other alternatives and what further experiments you would suggest.
3. Experimental chapters – Have you used the appropriate controls? Are your conclusions valid? Why have you used that statistical method? Have you interpreted data correctly? What other explanations could you offer for your data?
4. General discussion – Does the data fit with the general conclusions made? How do these findings fit in the context of our current understanding? Examiners will look to revisit your hypotheses and review to what extent it has been confirmed.
Within these sections, examiners will ask you a whole range of questions – ranging from the very broad to extremely detailed! When it comes to answering, don’t be afraid to pause for thought. It may feel as though you’re saying “I don’t know” a lot but don’t panic (We know it’s easier said than done!). So, what to do if you can’t answer the question? Try asking the examiners if they could give you an example of what they mean, if you could have a moment to think about it, or just spill your water glass (just kidding!). Remember you can always ask to come back to a question later but make sure to write it down for reference. If the question includes the word “briefly”, make a mental note that they do not want a 5-minute answer! Check the body language of the examiners for clues that they are satisfied with your answer – don’t just keep talking to fill the silence! If you’re unsure, you can always clarify with a “would you like me to continue?”
The old phrase, “a picture paints a thousand words”, is pretty true! Using a figure does help us to condense our word count but you need to make sure you know how to explain them verbally. Supervisors have made the point that they like to ask for a description of figures, especially complex ones, during the viva process. The examiners are bound to pick up on some unforeseen shortcomings. Don’t use this as an opportunity to criticise your supervisor (examiners know more than you think and you’ll get credit for discretion!). Also, don’t take criticism personally – explain calmly and carefully what you did and why you did it. They are looking to assess you as an objective scientist, not how successful the project has turned out. The data is the data – be comfortable criticising it but also defend it where justified.
Take home message
Every student that we spoke to emphasised that one of their top tips would be to enjoy the viva process! Yes, you read correctly – we said enjoy! Take it as a chance to discuss your work with experts in the field and view it as a scientific conversation, not a test. Ultimately, what the examiners want to know is that the work was your own, that you can defend it and that you have a strong knowledge of the field!
We really hope that this has been a useful read and we would like to say a huge thank you to all of the students and supervisors that contributed their input towards putting this together!
We’ll end with an analogy… we all love one!
“Having a DPhil can be considered as licence to become an independent scientist, similar to passing your driving test and being able to drive. I failed my driving test the first time because I was told I didn’t look in the mirror. I did look in the mirror - the examiner just didn’t see me do it. On my next test, I made a point of showing the examiner that I was looking in the mirror and I passed! The same is true for a thesis… You have to show the examiners that you have done all the appropriate controls, understand the strengths and limitations of each experiment and are well-read within the literature etc. In other words, you have to show that you are capable of being an independent scientist.”
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