What's a viva?

Hi

Sorry if this is a really dumb question but I keep seeing a viva mentioned and was just wondering if someone could tell me what it is?

Thanks

Reply 1

Good bloke

It is either (a) an oral examination or (b) or car made by Vauxhall many years ago, famous for rusting to pieces after ten minutes.

Reply 2

RightSaidJames

Well, I think you're talking about a viva voce (pronounced voh-chay), because it's sometimes shortened to just viva. Basically, it means talking [to an examiner/tutor/assessor/audience] about your performance, piece of work or essay, defending your opinions and views about it verbally. Viva voce is latin for "by live voice".

In my A Level Music Performance exam, I gave a viva voce about a Debussy Piece that I'd played called Des pas sur la neige, and I talked about the main features of the piece, how hard it was to learn, and what imagery it evokes (which is the image of a man wondering in a desolate, snowy landscape).

Reply 3

legend07

viva means long live, an example would be 'viva Las Vegas'

Reply 4

apotoftea

Tyler3012

Hi

Sorry if this is a really dumb question but I keep seeing a viva mentioned and was just wondering if someone could tell me what it is?

Thanks

In relation to the academic world - it's when you have to defend your PhD thesis tooth and nail in front of other academics who are experts in their field. If you pass, you're awarded the doctorate, if you fail, you go back and tweak the thesis some more and try again.

You do find them at Masters level occasionally and even sometimes in a basic basic form at undergrad (I had to do one)

Reply 5

Cirsium

There are basically three kinds of viva voce exam:
- The oral part of a PhD where it's like a mini seminar and academics in the department tear you to shreds while you defend yourself
- A similar exam in undergrad science subjects, which may be defending your research project or a presentation on an unrelated subject (a bit like a verbal extended essay)
- An "exam" for people who are sat right on the boundary of two degree classes, or who have failed one paper, or who have not turned up to some exams. These are done to determine whether e.g. failure in one part means they should be massively penalised overall; or whether they were really a first class candidate having a bad day or a 2:1 candidate who got lucky etc etc

Reply 6

prodriven

I had to do one as part of my undergrad dissertation...

Basically it was a presentation of the work carried out to form the dissertation report. For us it was a 30min presentation on what/how/why we did what we did and then 30min of questions on the subject. Apparently they are a very good way to see if people genuinely understand their dissertation topic, when your in a room with lecturers, examiners and industry representatives, if you dont know what your talking about then its pretty obvious!

I actually quite enjoyed mine :smile:

Reply 7

apotoftea

Bekaboo

- The oral part of a PhD where it's like a mini seminar and academics in the department tear you to shreds while you defend yourself

Not just from the department, you will have externals too, just to make the process even more nerve-wracking

Reply 8

Lou_

We have 1 viva every semester.. basically our lab demonstrator just asks us questions about the labs we have done throughout the semester.

Reply 9

username43584

I had to do one this morning (for prizes) and a formative one for anatomy in the DR. Definitely an awful lot harder than paper exams.

oral examination

apotoftea

Not just from the department, you will have externals too, just to make the process even more nerve-wracking

The external is the one who is supposed to tear you a new hole. Your internal is there to protect you if things get too rough (although that is rare).

Reply 12

Cirsium

Can't say I've had personal experience but judging by the experiences of several friends that's not how it works at this place :frown:

Although I guess those have mainly been PhD applications (with a few PhD vivas thrown in) so it's in their interests to push you til you crack.

Reply 13

ChemistBoy

Bekaboo

Can't say I've had personal experience but judging by the experiences of several friends that's not how it works at this place :frown:

Although I guess those have mainly been PhD applications (with a few PhD vivas thrown in) so it's in their interests to push you til you crack.

I can assure you that the DPhil viva process at Oxford is exactly the same as elsewhere in terms of the fact that you have an external and an internal. Your internal is allowed to ask you questions (and some might be rather tough, in fact, the hardest question I was asked in my viva was by my internal, but it wasn't done in a nasty way) but they aren't supposed to lead the discussion merely follow the external's lead and ensure that there is fair play (in many areas the only external experts available are often those who espouse a different position to the one the student adopts and so this is important). Of course there are examples where this has not happened, but that's often a matter of personalities, just as there are many examples of PhD vivas decending into arguments between two of the three people in the room.

Reply 14

Kitty Pimms

ChemistBoy

I want to be sick already. :s-smilie:

Reply 15

ChemistBoy

IlexAquifolium

I want to be sick already. :s-smilie:

To be honest, most people I know, including myself, enjoyed their PhD viva greatly. It was nice to actually have two people captive for several hours to talk about my work at a high level.