Viva Preparation (What You Need to Do Before You Are Ready for A VIVA)

I have completed my Viva presentation 1 year ago, but I just wanted to share my experiences to help everyone out there who are struggling on what's the next step to take if you are ready for Viva presentation.

I takut I lupa lupa je ni. Sebab dah lama sangat dah haha. Ok hope it helps! If you guys are ready for VIVA presentation, first thing first, you have to submit GS-14a form. Ini baru form taw, belum lagi thesis submission. This form is a notice of submission, macam kira nak bagitahu you are ready for VIVA la.

P/S: For UPM students, there are TWO submission(s) for THESIS taw. I will explain later.

Make sure you fit the criteria above. Then, only you can submit 14a form. If possible, submit this form 3-months in advance. Along this form, you have to prepare i) Table of Content of your thesis & ii) Abstract.

Once you dah submit this form, then boleh la start complete your chapters in your thesis. Mind you that proses untuk tunggu VIVA memang sangat lama, that's why advisable to submit 3-months in advance. University have to appoint Examination Committee.

For Master students, you will have 1 external examiner. From other university which will be your examiner during your VIVA. They also will review your thesis and correct anything they want. Berdebar kan? Haha

So I submitted mine on January 2020. Lama dah sebenarnya, then due to COVID19, I have to wait for almost 1-year k. Really, lama gila.

Then, once University has nominated your Examination Committee, you need to prepare GS-15a form and please bring along what they asked. For Masters student, you have to prepare THREE(s) hard copies of your thesis and Turnitin report. Plus, 1 CD of PDF version & Turnitin report in it.

This process pun kena get few signatures before you can send them. Memang kena kesana kesini sikit part ni.

Submit 15a form with these

Ini belum hardbound taw. Just submission of thesis before VIVA. Your thesis will be sent to your Examination Committee for them to check and review.

Then, you have to wait again. This process also quite long. Sebab your Examiners will check your thesis taw. I tunggu 6-bulan (also due to COVID19 too). Then, last-last I rasa cam lama sangat, I terus contact UPM and inform them about this. Terus they asked me which date you want to do the VIVA. So after I talked with my SV about this, I agreed to do VIVA 1-month after. That time I was still working, so it was my busy month. After long thinking, I think 1-month after is ok (because I can't wait to settle this once and for all).

So I pilih tarikh 9/3/2021 for my VIVA presentation. Tak fikir apa dah ni. Nak nervous pun takleh sebab dah setahun lebih dok tunggu. Ingat-ingat lupa je semua content. So 2-weeks before, I read my thesis everyday. Fahamkan about my research (padahal taktau dah nak baca apa).

And I also request for VIVA online (that time I was pregnant, and I was concerned about COVID19 too). Luckily, they approved. So I did my VIVA online at 9am.

If you want to see the details, please log in your student portal. You will find all the informations there. It is important to keep up to date with your portal okay.

Phew, it was tough haha. Got so many questions, and I also didn't know if my answers satisfied them. Haha. But Alhamdulillah, I passed. Phew.

Then, the hardest part was corrections. Omg, really, it was tough. Because I was so eager to settle the correction as soon as I can (I was afraid I terberanak before submit the corrections lol). So I bersengkang mata siapkan corrections in 48 DAYS je. One week before I terberanak haha. Nasib baik sempat submit.

Ok I will continue the next part in the next post. Please stay tune on what you need to do next. Really, so many things to do...