When I wrote Making Awesome Presentations: Useful Tips for Project Defense, I never knew it was
going to be a great success story. So many success stories and commendations from over 50,000
readers were just enough to make my year and give me more grace to write more.
Well, enough of the hyping! That great piece was still lacking some smaller pieces to make it totally
awesome as some Oliver Twist-Like fans still needed more to it. Questions like, what should we expect
on the D-Day? What type of Questions do they committee members ask? Can you suggest possible
questions and answers that will be asked when defending a dissertation or thesis paper? These questions
fill my mail box by the day and since I adore my readers, I have decided to write a sequel to Making
Awesome Presentations. This time around, with the help of some senior lecturers, friends and my own
experience, I have compiled some common questions you may face on your defense day and suggested
answers/approach to these questions. So as usual, Enjoy!
Question 1: In few sentences, can you tell us what your study is all about?
The question is simple right? Many professors will tell you that most students get choked on a question
like this. Anyways the question is simple, but a bit technical. To answer this question, you need to know
every detail of your research project from chapters one to the end. The question needs an answer in form
of a summary of the entire study, therefore, to ace this particular question you need to know every detail
in your abstract. If you wrote a good abstract, this question will be a cross over for you.
To answer this question, you may decide to elaborate on the problem investigated in the study. Your zeal
to solve this problem becomes your motivation. Do not state financial reasons or the need to graduate as
a motivation as you may easily go off point.
Question 11: Based on your findings what areas will you suggest for future research?
Questions like this are just there to test your reasoning and authority in your research area. Based on
your findings in a manageable scope, you should be able to suggest future research areas in line with
your study. For example, if I researched on the challenges of personal income tax collection in Nigeria, a
good area for further study will be in other forms of taxation such as VAT, Company tax etc.
Question 12: How can your research study be put into practice?
Easy for the computer scientist and engineering students, but a bit tough for management and social
sciences since most management/social science projects are more of abstract in nature. However, you
should try your best to be realistic here. Relate your study to current trends in your environment, office,
economy, government, schools, church etc. Use of relevant examples and illustrations will score you good
point here.
Question 13: How would you summarize your study to a practitioner in a few sentence?
Your ability to convey technical information from the study will score you good points here.
Question 14: What would you change if you were to conduct the study again?
Hmmm. Be careful! Do not be too jovial. There is a loophole here! Just like your limitations, this question
can be asked to identify your week points.
Question 19: What source of data was employed for the study?
At this point you have to state the source(s) you got data from. In general you have to state whether data
was gotten from primary or secondary source or both. You can further convince the committee members
by discoursing on literature reviewed for the study-both theoretical and empirical.
Question 20: What theories or theoretical framework is your study based on?
This is a very technical question but interesting. Before you step into the defense room, you should know
at least two relevant theories that relate to your study. For example, the impact of motivation on
employee productivity will be based on Maslows Theory and other theories of motivation. If you cannot
find relevant theories to back up your study, consult your supervisor for help.
Question 21: How would you relate your findings to existing theories on the study?
To ace this question, one will have to read extensively. You should know existing theories on the subject
matter as well as empirical studies too. Your ability to link your findings to previous research studies
(Whether they agree or not) will go a long way in validating your study. You will score good points here
trust me.
BONUS TIPS
o When confronted with a difficult question, adopt a strategy to make them rephrase or
repeat the question. This will give you more time to think.
o If your research project is Empirical in nature,or you used any statistical tool to test
hypothesis, try to know how you arrived at such conclusion. Also know how your data
was analysed and the various tools used for the analysis.
o Before your defense day. Practice with your supervisor or your friends. Make them to drill
you with likely questions.
o Talk calmly with confidence. Do not talk too fast as this may pave way for tension and
stage freight.
o Read your project thoroughly. Know basic definitions and terms used in the study.
o Expand the likely questions to 50. Feel free to add yours in the comment box below.
Thanks and God bless you.
Here are some guidelines you may want to consider as you prepare for your Oral Defense:
Create a PowerPoint slide for each of the following topics, unless your chair or the university
provides a list of topics:
The Problem;
The Participants or Subjects (inclusion criteria for the proposal or actual summary for the
complete dissertation);
Compliment the committee for their assistance up to this point, regardless of whether they gave
you much help or not.
If a question is asked that gives you discomfort or confuses you, ask for more information about the
question. Ask for a clarification of one or more aspects of the question. This approach could give
you an additional 10 to 30 seconds of precious time to think of an appropriate response.
Be clear on the time allotted for an oral defense. Your Chair usually decides.
Limit your planned presentation to about one-third of the total time of the defense.
Regardless of the nature of committee members comments, never show anger or other negative
emotions. There is an attitude among some faculty to try to make an oral defense as difficult as
possible for the student and make you sweat. You want to be prepared for the one with a
confrontational approach. Always stay calm.
Always accept blame and responsibility for omissions, typographical errors, and erroneous
writing.
After your presentation is completed and you have answered all their questions, since you will be
doing a telephone oral defense, expect that the Chair will ask you to hang up and call back in a few
minutes.
It is almost always the Chairs responsibility to maintain a list of required or suggested additions
or changes.
If you are defending your proposal, expect the committee to require major adjustments. At this stage
the standards of quality are always higher than previously accepted. If you are defending your
complete dissertation, expect extremely high standards.
At an Oral Defense, your verbal communications skills are just as important as the written quality of
your manuscript. This why I have always offered a mock oral defense for my clients. The
experience of trying out their presentation on me gives them added confidence and helps to polish it.
We collaborate and discuss all the slides to be used in the PowerPoint presentation.
Regardless of whether an Oral Defense is for the proposal or the complete dissertation, it is an
examination. It is also a chance for the committee to assess the doctoral students competency to
continue or worthiness to graduate.
And believe me, I know how scary this can be especially by yourself without any preparation. So
if youd like help with this, click here to apply for a free consultation.