What happens if you fail your defense

You do not have to be a victim of failing a dissertation. Take the words of counsel from our gurus and graduate with top grades. Our professional dissertation writing services are affordable for all. Your email address will not be published. Skip to content. One of the reasons can be inadequate help from your supervisor. Most professors are too busy, and finding time for their students becomes a nightmare. The result of this is the student lacking the necessary support, especially for a technical course.

Another reason might be on the student himself — lacking enough time for their academic studies. Most college and university students are pre-occupied with other activities such as work or family. These might lessen the time one has for research, thus the failure. Plagiarism is a killer of many dissertations. In most universities, this is the first thing that they look at when you submit your paper. All these and many others are possible reasons for a failed undergraduate dissertation.

Can You Re-sit a Dissertation? Here are pro tips for an exceptional dissertation paper: Review your paper before submission : It will help you detect typos, weird formatting, or wrong structure. Check to ensure that each section is supposed to be and that no part is missing. You should also check your referencing and citations to prevent penalties for plagiarism.

In case of any challenges, raise them earlier before they become too great for you to handle. Research extensively : Any research paper aims to test your knowledge on a particular topic.

You can only achieve this by reading widely and consulting a variety of sources. Seek writing help from dissertation experts : These come in handy to give you the essential tips and tricks for cracking a dissertation.

Read your full thesis in preparation of the questions, so you know what you have written about. While you are reading in preparation, you can create a list of possible questions and try to answer them. You can foresee many of the questions you will get by simply spending some time rereading your thesis.

In addition, this blog post from researchClue. When you start your graduate degree, the end of it seems so far away. But then it ends up coming faster than you thought. You hand in your thesis, which was a lot of work, and as a last step before you officially receive your degree, you have to master your thesis defense.

Here are a few tips on how to prepare for your thesis defense. We've mentioned it before but you can really prepare for most of the questions you will be asked. Read through your thesis and while you're reading it, create a list of possible questions.

In addition, as you will know who will be on the committee, look at the academic expertise of the committee members. In what areas would they most likely be focused? If possible, sit at other thesis defenses with these committee members to get a feeling for how they ask and what they ask.

As a graduate student, you should generally be adept at anticipating test questions, so use this advantage to gather as much information as possible before your thesis defense meeting. Your thesis defense is a formal event, often the entire department or university is invited to participate.

It signals a critical rite of passage for graduate students and faculty who have supported them throughout a long and challenging process. While most universities don't have specific rules on how to dress for that event, do regard it with dignity and respect. This one might be a no-brainer, but know that you should dress as if you were on a job interview or delivering a paper at a conference.

It might help you deal with your stress before your thesis defense to entrust someone with the smaller but important responsibilities of your thesis defense well ahead of schedule. This trusted person could be responsible for preparing the room of the day of defense, setting up equipment for the presentation or preparing and distributing handouts. Technology is unpredictable. Life is too.

There are no guarantees that your Powerpoint presentation will work at all or look the way it is supposed to do on the big screen. We've all been there. Make sure to have a plan B for these situations. Handouts can help when technology fails, or an additional fresh shirt for spilled coffee can save the day. One of the scariest aspects of the defense is the possibility of being asked a question you can't answer.

While you can prepare for some questions, you can never know exactly what the committee will ask. There will always be gaps in your knowledge. But your thesis defense is not about being perfect and knowing everything, it's about how you deal with challenging situations. You are not expected to know everything. James Hayton writes on his blog that examiners will sometimes even ask questions they don't know the answer to, out of curiosity, or because they want to see how you think.

While it is ok sometimes to just say "I don't know", he advises to try something like "I don't know, but I would think [ During my after-party, one of the senior staff members told me that she had never seen that professor be so tough on anyone else. Kat, gave me a big hug, and whispered in my ear that she had to restrain herself from giving the professor a black eye during his interrogation.

That was my last talk at that department, but I gave many other research presentations during my postdoctoral fellowship and in the pharmaceutical industry. I realized that no one expected me to know all the answers, but they did expect me to take ownership of my project and know how to find the answers.

In a strange way, the verbal beating during my thesis defense, was a gift that helped me to have more confidence in myself. Would you be more bold about speaking up during meetings, or answering questions with confidence? Most of the myths around the thesis defense stem from the fear that if you say the wrong thing, some will get you. Most importantly, you will gain confidence to speak up in front of others, a skill that will serve you throughout your career.

Still not sure? Here are five myths about the thesis defense, that might be causing you undue anxiety. In many cases, a thesis defense is a great way to bring the department together and showcase interestng research. Usually, in cases like these, the changes that are requested are extremely minor modifications that can be done fairly quickly.