1. Tips Attending a Viva-voce at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Ismail Said
School of Graduate Studies
Rafee Majid
Faculty of Built Environment
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
10th December 2014

2. Content
Section A: What is a Viva-voce? Section B: FAB Record for 2014 Section C: Preparation Section D: Your Presentation (D-Day) Q&A

3. Eligibility for Viva-voce Section A
Once external and internal examiners have submitted their reports to SPS Viva Unit.
You are not called for the defense if you get an E grade or the examiners found that your plagiarized.
If you got a C or D grade given by one of the examiners, a representative from SPS will attend your defense.

4. What is a Viva-voce? Section A
Your living voice.
An examination; último
A defense.
A platform that allows the examiners to see you in person.
A verbal presentation that permits you to explain to the examiners the new findings of your study in your own words.

5. A Thesis versus Papers Section A
Thesis: COMPREHENSIVE and ELABORATIVE
Paper: A section of your thesis and concise.
Hence, a thesis is not equivalent to all your papers. The examiners have the right not to consider your papers as part of your thesis.

6. Contribution of your PhD research is a tiny addition to the existing pool of knowledge

7. FAB Record of PhD Examination from January to October 2014 Section B
A: 0% B1: 8 candidates (22%) B2: 22 candidates (61%) C: 6 candidates (17%)—including one reviva D: 0% E: 0% TOTAL: 36 candidates Note: In November, one candidate got a D grade. Total number of PhD candidates passed their viva is 489 till November.

8. Who are the attendees of your viva? Section C
A chairman—a moderator
An assistant of chairman
You
Supervisor(s)
An external examiner
An internal examiner
A SPS representative if you get a C grade

9. Viva room setup at The School of Graduate Studies in UTM

10. Preparedness and Etiquettes Section C
Introduce yourself
You are the master of your study.
Be smart
Address the chairman and the examiners politely. Say thanks to your supervisor.
Be humble
Stuck to your guns. Stay put.
Rationalize your answer with your findings and relate it with findings from past studies.
Memorize the authors of seminal references.

11. Preparedness and Etiquettes Section C
No pledging from your supervisor to assist you in the defense.
Pay careful attention to the questions.
Walk your audience through a story.

12. What is the content of viva presentation? Section D
Title
Background, Research problem and Gap
Methods
Results
Findings
Conclusion
Implication
List of your papers
You are given 20 minutes to present your slides. How slides that you should prepare for the presentation?

13. Mehdi Mehran defended his thesis on 15th October 2014

14. What you do when you get this grade? Section D
A: Be happy and you can book a ticket to fly home B1: Be happy but stay another week B2: Not to worry but stay more than 4 weeks to do your correction C: You are in trouble, revise your thesis as required by comments from the viva chairman D: You can go home now; you got only a masters E: Sayonara

15. Mehdi Mehran sees the rainbow after 2.5 hours of defense.

16. Nor Fadzila: No more butterflies in me after 1 hr and 45 minutes of defense on 1 Oct 2014.

17. Tareq Gaber: Mummy it is over. (2 September 2014)