My final Viva experience

Hi guys,

My name is Edna Suárez. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV), Department of Toxicology, at the Neurotoxicology lab under the advisement of Dr. Arturo Ortega. I just graduated doctorate from The University of Manchester at the School of Materials. During my research studies I was part of two big investigation groups, the group of Bioengineering directed by Professor Teresa Alonso-Rasgado and the Plastic and Reconstruction Research Group (PRSR) under the direction of Dr. Ardeshir Bayat. Having the opportunity to be part of this two investigation group helped me to develop my skills as a researcher and made gain experience managing multiple projects and tasks that were accomplished in tight deadlines.

The day that I received the notification of my Viva I experienced mixed feelings, on one hand I was excited because it represented the culmination of a great challenge on my professional carrier and on the other hand I was terrified to having to defend my research project. To survive the Viva I dedicated one week to carefully read my thesis and to asked myself all those things that I knew someone else could ask about my research, then I chose the papers I considered were more important for my research and made some notes about them. I prepared a ten minutes presentation summarizing my research objectives and achievements and made a mock exam in preparation to my Viva with my supervisors. I consider that among all the preparation the most useful thing to do was the mock exam. It helped to find out and discuss with my supervisors the best way to address some classic questions during the examination.

During the Viva I did not use the presentation, that to be honest, made me feel more comfortable because I get the chance to talk about my research freely, I consider I was very lucky as my examiners were discussing with me all their observations as we were a group of friends trying to sort out a problem, I never felt I was been examined. So, my advice for you is to be confident on your knowledge and capacity. If you are given the opportunity to present a Viva is because you are ready for it. Remember if you do not remember or do not know the answer to a question always is better to say "I do not know or I can recall to the moment", than trying to guess the answer, this just will give you more trouble and will bring to you further questions. Finally try to enjoy the experience. I wish you the best of luck in your future Viva.