Use the following steps when preparing for the oral defense of your thesis/dissertation.

1. Evaluation of oral examination is based on your presentation and your answers to

questions from the examining committee.

2. Be well prepared for your presentationacademically, mentally and physically. Try to

be well rested and focused before your oral defense.

3. In your preparation, dont try to memorize all the studies cited in your thesis, but you
do need to know the details of the few key studies that form the basis of your
investigation.

4. You need to be familiar with larger issues, such as the basic assumptions, theoretical
framework, paradigm, cross-cultural perspectives, Christian integration, etc.

5. More importantly, you need to have a deep understanding of the nature of your
research problem and the major issues involved.

6. You may bring with you important materials for easy reference in the course of your
defense; these may include key articles, computer print-outs of results, etc.

7. Your presentation is evaluated in terms of content and clarity as well as style.

8. Dont speak too fast and dont read from your notes.

9. Treat your presentation as a public address because there may be non-psychologists

present at your defense. Therefore, dont use too many jargons and dont pack it with
details. You need to tell people in simple, concise language:

a. What you did,

b. Why you did it,

c. How you did it,

d. What you found, and

e. What the results mean.

10. Prepare handouts or power-points. Typically, they should include

a. An overview or outline of your presentation,

b. Introduction (including research question, rationale and hypothesis, if any, and

definition of key constructs),

c. Method (including design, methodology, sample, instruments or questionnaires,

and procedure,

d. Results (including tables or figures summarizing your findings), and

e. Discussion (including reasons for new or unexpected findings, contributions and

limitations, and practical implications).

11. Make sure that you space yourself well. Dont spend too much time on one section.
For example, you should not spend more than 5 minutes on introduction, since you are
allowed only 20 minutes for your presentation.

12. Most of the questions are rather general and broad, dealing with substantial
methodological, theoretical and application issues. However, some questions focus on
specific points regarding sampling, statistical analysis, or some questionable
conclusions.

13. Be prepared to clarify or elaborate on your assumptions, theoretical positions,

methods, and conclusions. Often, an examiner plays the devils advocate to see how
well you can think on your feet and defend yourself.

14. Occasionally, an examiner may ask a question which is unfair or cannot be

adequately answered. After a few futile attempts, feel free to say that you dont know the
answer. You may even be bold enough to say, Since none of my answers are
acceptable, I would really appreciate it if you could give me some pointers or tell me
what would be a correct answer.

15. Here are some common questions:

a. If you were to do it all over again, what changes would you make?

b. What specific aspects of your findings can be utilized by counselors or

psychologists in their practice?

c. What is the most important contribution of your thesis? Can you say it in one or
two sentences?

d. What are some of the competing hypotheses? Could you think of an alternative
interpretation of your findings?
16. Dont rush to any answers. It is perfectly acceptable to think for a couple of seconds,
or ask if you are on the right track. If you are not clear about the question, you are
entitled to ask for clarification.

17. Try to be concise and to the point, but at the same time demonstrate that you have a
good grasp of the complex issues involved. In other words, do not give superficial
answers, but at the same time, do not go all over the map.

18. Put up a good defense without being defensive. Be confident without being cocky. A
good defense means that you can provide strong logical arguments as well as empirical
support o defend your position or conclusion. However, dont be defensive when people
criticize your study. If they are able to point out some real flaws or weaknesses in your
study, accept their criticisms with humility, grace and gratitude.

19. Before the oral defense, talk to your advisor about areas of concerns based on
external examiners comments. Then, discuss with your advisor how to best address
these concerns. (Your advisor cannot tell you the specific questions the examiners will
ask, but s/he can direct your attention to issues or areas that require some thinking or
additional research.)

20. After the oral defense, meet with your advisor for debriefing and seek advice on how
to revise your thesis.

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.

Question 2: What is your motivation for this study?

Now you must be careful here. This question can be very tricky and it goes a long way in
convincing your panel members that your study is worth their time. Another way this question
could be twisted is WHAT IS THE RESEARCH PROBLEM?
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 3: How will this study contribute to the body of knowledge?

At some point the need for justification will arise and that is when you will be asked to mention
how your study will add to the body of knowledge if approved.
Here you will need to use your methods, case study or any unique model or conceptual
framework used in the study to defend it. For more information on how to tackle this particular
question Click Here

Question 4: What is the significance of the study?

Just like stating how your study will contribute to the body of knowledge, you will need to state
the importance of your study. To answer this question, you will need to highlight how your study
will aid the government in policy development and implementation, how it will help other
students who may wish to conduct research studies on the subject matter and how
organizations and the society will benefit from your study.

Question 5: Did you bridge any gap from your study?

Every research study must have a problem. Your ability to solve this problem and explore into
areas not yet researched on gives you the full marks allocated for answering this question. You
must be able to convince the committee members that your approach is unique and it has
covered areas where much have not been done by other researchers.

Question 6: What limitations did you encounter?

This is another simple but tricky question. Most times the question is not asked to sympathize
with you, rather to get loopholes to criticize your work. To answer this question, you must be
careful with words as you may implicate yourself. Be careful enough not to sell out yourself. Do
not discourse limitations in your methods or data analysis techniques as this may imply that
your study may be biased or not well researched. Use simple limitations like difficulties
encountered in combining lectures and project instead of limiting your study.

Question 7: What are your findings?

At this point it is expected of you to present your results or findings from the study in a clear and
concise manner. Always link your findings to your research objectives/questions. This will make
your panel members to easily be carried along.

Question 8: What Methods or Sampling Technique did you employ?

To answer this question, you must be familiar with your research methodology. Your chapter
three (in Most Projects) must be at your fingertips. Your ability to justify your sample size and
technique will be highly rewarded here. For more tips Click Here

Question 9: Why choose this method?

As discoursed above, you should not only state a particular method for the study. You must also
be ready and able to justify why you chose the method in a convincing manner. At this point you
are free to quote sources or similar studies where such methods were adopted.

Question 10: Based on your findings what are your recommendations?

Recommendations are very vital in every research study and should not be joked with. In
essence you should know your recommendations off hand.

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 15: What is your measurement Instrument?

In simple terms, what data collection method did you employ for the study? Here you state if
questionnaires were distributed or data was gotten from secondary sources. For more
information on measurement instruments Click Here

Question 16: What are your research variables?

Here you will need to convince your panel members that you know what you are talking about.
You need to explain your independent and dependent variable(s) to convince them that you are
on point. Your variables are present in your project topic. You need to identify these variables
and know their definitions as well to ace your defense.

Question 17: What are your research questions?

Very simple question. It should take about 0.015 seconds to answer this question if you are fully
prepared.

Question 18: What do you plan to do with your research project after Graduation?
Here you are at liberty to say your mind. If you intend to publish it, this is the best opportunity to
discourse and interact with the committee members-maybe a professor there can help.

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.

Question 22: What recommendations do you have for future research?

Your problem solving skill is put to test here. You should be able to identify areas that will need
more research.

Question 23: What is the scope of the study?

This one is a cheap or should I say bonus question? Here you quickly state the delimitation of
the study in brief.

Question 24: What question(s) do you have for the committee?

Not a likely question in our Nigerian context, but I have defended a seminar project where this
question was asked and I was shocked to my marrows. This is an opportunity to interact with
your committee members and ask some constructive questions. Do not ask silly or too difficult
questions as the goal should be to make the committee members feel as the boss. It will also
go a long way in showing that you are a brilliant individual.

Question 25: Do you have any closing comments?

This is praising time! Use this opportunity to thank your committee members for their time and
questions. Tell them how much you have learnt from them and how you intend to correct errors
(if any) identified in your work. This can go a long way in impressing your internal and external
supervisors. All the best!

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