Mock Viva Questions: A Ready-to-Run Script for Examiner and Candidate

Good mock viva questions follow the order of a real viva: general questions first, then a walk through the thesis page by page, then limits and future work. This guide gives you a ready-to-run script for whoever plays examiner, with timings for each phase. It also gives the candidate a feedback sheet to fill in straight after the session.

If you are still deciding whether a practice session is worth it, start with what a mock viva is and whether you need one. If you want a bank of questions with answer patterns, use our 45 common viva questions. This page is the session itself: who says what, when, and how you record what happened.

Who should play examiner, and what to set up

Anyone who has read the thesis can play examiner, and two people are better than one. Vitae’s viva checklist includes a mock viva with your main supervisor and asking “peers to quiz and challenge me about my thesis” (Vitae, The Viva). Trinity College Dublin’s guide suggests asking “colleagues, your peers or your supervisor” (Trinity PhD Viva Guide).

Know the limit of a supervisor in this role. Gill Houston told UKCGE that supervisors “know much more about the candidate’s research” than the examiners will. She added that “apart from some basic questions, the real examiners are not going to ask the same questions as the mock examiners” (UKCGE interview with Gill Houston). So the aim is practice at being questioned, not a forecast of the real questions.

The set-up checklist

• Two roles. Examiner A plays the expert in your topic. Examiner B plays the outsider who reads your method and claims cold. One person can play both if needed.
• A copy of the thesis for each person. Examiners mark the pages they will ask about. The candidate brings the copy they will take into the real viva, if their university allows one. The University of York, for example, says you “should bring an annotated copy of your thesis” (University of York).
• A room with a door and a clock. Vitae notes that a UK viva is held in a non-public space, such as a private room, so practise in one.
• A recording, if everyone agrees. It lets the candidate hear answer length and filler words later.
• Two blank feedback sheets (template below), one for the examiner and one for the candidate.

How long to make it

The script below runs for 75 minutes of questions plus a 15-minute debrief. Real vivas run longer, and guides differ. UCL tells examiners that vivas “should last for around 2-3 hours” with no formal limit (UCL examiner viva guidance). Edinburgh’s guide says a viva “usually lasts between two hours to four hours” (University of Edinburgh, A Guide for Viva Preparation).

A 75-minute mock tests every phase without exhausting a volunteer examiner. If you want to test stamina too, run phase 3 twice with different pages. Check your own university’s rules for the real length, because they differ.

Mock viva questions by phase: the examiner’s script

Read the script in order and keep to the times. Each phase lists what to say, the questions to ask, and what to listen for. Lines in quotation marks are word for word from the UKCGE guide for candidates (UKCGE, Preparing for the Viva) unless marked otherwise.

Phase 0: opening (2 minutes)

UCL tells real examiners that they “must outline the plan for the viva at the outset to the candidate”. Do the same, so the candidate practises hearing the plan and settling.

Examiner script (our wording): “Thank you for coming. We have read the thesis closely. We will start with some general questions, then work through the thesis in order, then talk about limits and next steps. You can ask us to repeat a question, and you can ask for a break.”

Phase 1: the overview (10 minutes)

The UKCGE guide says that “After general questions, the examiners may proceed to work through the thesis”. Start general so the candidate can show they see the whole project.

1. “Could you please summarise your thesis for us?”
2. “Why did you choose this subject?”
3. “Did your study turn out as expected?”
4. Which part of the thesis are you most proud of? (adapted from Edinburgh’s practice questions)

• Listen for: a summary under three minutes, a real gap named, and one honest surprise.

Phase 2: contribution and literature (15 minutes)

These questions test what the thesis adds and whether the candidate knows the field around it. Pick one claim from the conclusion and press on it.

5. “What is your contribution and what do you feel are the most interesting things to come out of your thesis?”
6. “Who would you say are the key people in your field today?”
7. On page __ you build on (author). Where exactly does your work part company with theirs?
8. Name the closest study to yours. What did you do that it did not?

• Listen for: a contribution stated in one or two sentences, named authors, and a page the candidate can turn to.

Phase 3: page by page through method and findings (25 minutes)

This is the longest phase and the one generic question lists miss. Ask about pages you marked in advance, in thesis order. Edinburgh’s guide supplies three questions worth keeping.

9. “Why did you not use (something else) as the model?” (Edinburgh)
10. “How do you know if the results are not due to chance?” (Edinburgh)
11. “Why did you choose to use this statistical test rather than others?” (Edinburgh)
12. On page __ you say (claim). Talk me through the evidence for it.
13. In table or figure __, what should I look at first, and what does it not show?
14. On page __ you made a choice about (sample, coding, data cleaning). What would have changed if you had chosen differently?
15. Here is a result that does not fit (page __). What do you make of it?

• Listen for: the candidate turning to the page before answering, and answers that keep data and interpretation apart.

Phase 4: the pressure round (10 minutes)

Trinity’s guide says viva questions aim at “testing the candidate on perceived weaknesses of the thesis”. The UKCGE guide’s own mock viva checklist asks whether you have “performed well in the face of negative or aggressive questioning”. This round practises exactly that.

Take the weakest answer from phase 3 and follow it three questions deep. Stay polite but do not let it go.

16. I am not convinced. Why should I accept that?
17. What would a critic in your field say about this, and what is your reply?
18. What evidence would change your mind?

• Listen for: the candidate defending a decision without getting defensive. Houston’s advice to candidates was “do argue in a gracious way. Don’t be defensive but defend your decisions.”

Phase 5: limits, future work and publication (8 minutes)

These questions ask the candidate to see the work from outside. They are also a chance to finish strong.

19. “If you were embarking on this research again, (how) would it be different?”
20. What are the two main limitations, and how did you keep your claims inside them?
21. “What are your publication plans?” The UKCGE guide says to be “as specific as possible, with specific journals”.
22. “How do you see research in this field developing in the next five years?”

• Listen for: real limits stated plainly, and named journals rather than “a good journal”.

Phase 6: close (5 minutes)

End the way a real viva might: give the candidate the last word. Then stop the clock and step out of role.

23. Is there anything you would like to add, or anything we did not ask that you expected?
24. Do you have any questions for us?

Follow-up prompts for any answer

Use these whenever an answer drifts. They keep the session honest without the examiner inventing new topics.

• Show me where that is in the thesis.
• Can you say that in one sentence?
• What is the strongest objection to that?
• You said (word). What exactly do you mean by it?
• How does that connect to your research question?

Possible viva questions: how the examiner writes them from the thesis

Possible viva questions for a mock come from the thesis itself, not from a list. Set aside time before the session to read and mark the pages. Our guide on how to predict viva questions from your abstract is a quick way to find the main claims first.

Use this rule of four when marking pages. Each type becomes one question with a page number in it.

For example, a thesis on reading habits in secondary schools might claim on its final pages that library visits predict reading for pleasure. The examiner marks that page, the sampling page, the main results table and the limitations paragraph. That gives four anchored questions for phase 3 before any generic ones are added.

Typical viva questions versus questions from your own pages

Typical viva questions are the general ones that fit any thesis, like the UKCGE questions in phases 1, 2 and 5. Use them, but do not build the whole mock from them. Trinity’s guide says “There is no set list of questions that will be asked at a viva.”

The UKCGE guide does tell candidates to “Go through some generic questions” in the week before. So keep both kinds, with a rule of thumb of our own: open and close with typical questions, and fill the middle with questions that name a page. If the examiner cannot point to a page for a question, it belongs in phase 1, 2 or 5.

Rules for the person playing examiner

The examiner’s job is to make the mock feel real, so the candidate can practise the habits the guides ask for. These rules keep it fair.

• Do not rescue. No nodding along, finishing sentences or hinting at the answer.
• Let the silence run. Vitae tells candidates to “Pause and take time to think before responding.” Count to ten before you move on.
• Repeat a question when asked. Vitae says candidates can ask for questions to be repeated or for clarification, and UKCGE says the same. Reword it only if asked to.
• Give a break when asked. UCL tells examiners to “allow the candidate a break if they request this.”
• Accept “I don’t know” and follow up. Vitae says you can admit not knowing. Then ask the candidate to reason aloud from what they do know.
• Write the page number next to every note. The debrief is only useful if the candidate can find each weak spot later.

The mock viva feedback sheet

Fill in the sheet during the session, then talk it through in the debrief. The candidate fills in their own copy first, before hearing the examiner’s view, so both impressions are captured.

The first rating column comes from the first tip in the UKCGE guide’s section on questions. It says “Listen carefully to the question and try to answer that question, not a question you hoped the examiners would ask”. The length column comes from its warning against “going off at a tangent or over-long responses”.

The 15-minute debrief, in order

1. The candidate names the answer they felt worst about (2 minutes).
2. The examiner gives the three answers that most need rework, with pages (5 minutes).
3. Together, pick one page to re-read and one phase to repeat in a shorter second mock (5 minutes).
4. The candidate adds any question that frightened them to a list. The UKCGE guide advises you to “Make a list of questions that frighten you most and try to compose answers” (3 minutes).

After the mock: a plan for the next week

A mock is only useful if the answers change afterwards. Within a few days, rewrite your notes for the three rework answers as bullets with page numbers, not as scripts. Then say each answer aloud with the thesis open at the right page.

Run a second, shorter mock on the weakest phase with a different person playing examiner. A new reader asks new questions, which is closer to the real day. If a question still stumps you, our guide on answering viva questions you don’t know gives wording to use.

Preparing for a US dissertation defense instead, with a committee and a timed presentation? Use our mock dissertation defense run sheet, which is built for that format.

What Thesisroom does with this

Defense Practice, one of the Thesisroom rooms, writes questions an examiner or committee could ask, each tied to a specific passage or page of your own thesis. The candidate can answer in writing or out loud, in three styles: Practice, Rapid round and Mock panel. Thesisroom does not write answers or scripts.

That makes it a source of page-anchored questions for phase 3 when the person playing examiner has not had time to mark the thesis. The human mock is still where you practise the room, the silence and the follow-ups. See Defense Practice.

Frequently asked questions

What are typical mock viva questions?

Start with general ones from the UKCGE guide, such as “Could you please summarise your thesis for us?” and “Why did you choose this subject?” Then ask questions tied to specific pages of the thesis, and finish with limits, future work and publication plans.

How long should a mock viva last?

No rule sets a length. Our script runs 75 minutes of questions and a 15-minute debrief. Real vivas are longer: UCL says around two to three hours, and Edinburgh’s guide says two to four. Check your own university’s guidance.

Who should be the examiner in a mock viva?

Anyone who has read the thesis. Vitae suggests your main supervisor and peers, and Trinity College Dublin suggests colleagues, peers or your supervisor. Two people playing different roles make the session closer to a real viva.

Will the real examiners ask the same questions?

Not reliably. Gill Houston told UKCGE that, apart from some basic questions, real examiners will not ask the same questions as mock examiners. Use the mock to practise answering under questioning, not to collect answers to learn by heart.

How do I find possible viva questions for my own thesis?

Mark each main claim, each method decision, each table that carries a claim and each admitted limitation. Turn each into a question with a page number. Those page-anchored questions make up the middle of a good mock.

What should I do if I freeze during the mock viva?

Practise the moves Vitae lists for the real viva: ask for the question to be repeated, pause to think, or admit you do not know. Then reason aloud from what you do know. Freezing in a mock is useful, because it shows which answer to rework.

Sources

• UKCGE: Preparing for the Viva, a guide for doctoral candidates (Lunt and Houston)
• UKCGE: Dr Gillian Houston on doctoral examination, Part 1: Understanding the viva
• Vitae: The Viva
• Trinity College Dublin: Trinity PhD Viva Guide
• University of Edinburgh Doctoral College: A Guide for Viva Preparation
• UCL Doctoral School: Examiner viva guidance
• University of York Graduate Research School: Viva

How this guide was made: Thesisroom drafted this guide with the help of AI writing tools, then checked every fact, figure and source by hand against the references linked above.