Question: what do you have to do for your phd

James Pope answered on 26 Jun 2012:

Hi xchloex,

The criteria for someones working being good enough to allow them to be awarded a PhD (And to be called Dr ….) is

* whether it is your own work;
* whether you understand what you did;
* whether it increases human knowledge.

You show this by writing up what you work on during the PhD (about 3 to 3.5 years) into what is called a Thesis. This thesis must contain a review of all the previous scientific literature and studies in your field, an explanation of why people should care about what you do and an outline of your project. You then have to write about your methods, what you use to get your results. These methods may be brand new and you invented them or you could be using existing methods, so you have to defend your choices. Then we get into your results, this is the filling in the sandwich, the bit that fulfils the 3rd criteria about expanding knowledge. After your results you have to discuss your findings, and explain what you have found and what it means. This is when you show you understand the work and what has been done.

You are then examined, in what is called a Viva Voce (called a Viva for short) which means in latin, “With living voice”. You have to talk about your work with examiners, one of whom is from your University and one from an external examiner. These people can pass or fail you, normally (if you have worked hard and done good science) you get passed with some minor corrections (typos or maybe something you got slightly wrong), but some people do fail.

The easiest way to make your viva easier is to publish your findings before you get to the viva, as publishing work is essentially like a mini viva process were people who are also in your field mark your work (it’s called “Peer Review”).

In the end a PhD is a lot of hard work, but so long as you are committed and work hard you will almost certainly get out the otherside and pass (at least I hope so!) *Fingers Crossed*