Mock PhD Viva and Factor Analysis @ OUM

May 23, 2010

About 25 PhD students both junior and senior were present at Open University Malaysia main campus in KL to attend 2 mock PhD viva session by Lum and Tajul Arrifin. The session was chaired by Associate Prof. Dr. Nagarajah Lee from the Faculty of Education of OUM.

Lum presenting his mock viva in front of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nagarajah Lee (seated front right) and 25 other students

Part of the students who attended the mock viva

First presenter Lum started his presentation at 9.00am. It was about perception of employees on PMS and its impact on their job satisfaction. He gave a 40 minutes presentation followed by another 30 minutes of Q&A session from the floor guided by Dr. Nagarajah. 10 minutes break followed before our next presenter Tajul Ariffin.

Tajul Ariffin's presentation was about the interaction between Real Estate Market with Conventional & Islamic capital market.

The objective of the mock presentation is for the presenters to present their research findings and at the same time to prepare for actual viva. For the audience it was another lesson to guide them towards the lonely journey of achieving their PhDs.

Good questions were asked by the chair and the floor during the mock viva session. Dr. Nagarajah Lee advised all PhD students to look our for the What, Why and How when presenting their viva. He highlighted in particular the Problem Statement which should answer why the problem is critical and important. He also urged students to highlight clearly the dependent variable in the study. Most importantly students must mention why the proposed research is worth doing and what is the value of the research.

He also advised students to be careful with the analysis tool used. Students should not confused ANOVA with Paired Sample Test for example. ANOVA is used to compare the mean score of different populations. It can also be carried to find whether there consistency in the mean score of the various groups.