The word Viva comes from ‘Viva Voce,’ a Latin phrase literally meaning “with living voice” but most often translated as “by word of mouth.” It also refers to Italian for “live voice”. Viva is an oral examination of a subject, especially in reference to a thesis defense in academia. In simple terms, Viva is nothing but participating in an academic research with your fellow students or educators, sometimes individually and the other times with a group.
Now when we talk about a Viva that you are marked against just before your board exams or otherwise for any examination, which would be added up in your subjects; you tend to become a little less confident and start pressurizing yourself of the outcomes of the viva. When in for a viva, you need to be self aware, know what you are saying and keep calm. You can use the following tips to be prepared for your viva at any stage of your life:

A. A viva is another means of the educator to make sure that you know the subject well and own it. It is one of the nicer ways to make sure that you own the subject and do not just pass your exams well by rote learning.

B. One thing you need to know about a viva is that, ‘done is done, cannot be undone’; you cannot cancel your previous attempt and re-write your answers, so, be careful of what you say, and to do that, you need to have an assembled knowledge base. It may be helpful to remember facts in a way that makes them easily retrieved and communicated in a viva. An intelligent, structured, cogent answer wins the points.

C. When you are attempting a viva in lower levels of education, you might know your examiner because she might be one of the school subject experts; however, you need to be well prepared in any case. Questions from anywhere related to your subject, corresponding to your class level might pop-up. But, if you are attempting a viva in higher levels of education, you may want to remember that there is bound to be an external examiner and you cannot ‘assume’ that they will ask you something and not other things because they know you are of a certain education background/ level or that your topic is not relevant to that they ask. So, it is best to have in-depth knowledge of the subject of the viva. Please note that if it is a fact you are not sure about, immediately accept it before the examiner points out. And if it is an outcome and its procedure that you are in anyway confused about, either appear confident and say something convincingly, or accept your ignorance.

D. If it is a viva based on a particular project or experiment, make sure that you know direct and crisp answers to questions like:
i. What have you done
ii. Why have you done it
iii. How did you do it
iv. What have you found
v. What are the implications
vi. What were the major difficulties you faced while doing it
vii. What better or different could have you done
viii. Is there anything in your result/method different from others, etc

E. What your viva outcomes will be, are also dependent on how you conduct yourself in there.
i. This would mean that you should conduct yourself in a manner that appears friendly, not anxious but calm, your posture should be confident and you must appear to be prepared and not afraid of any questions that might pop-up.
ii. Sitting up-straight and being crisply dressed also do the trick for a good first impression and beginning.
iii. Keep a constant eye contact with the examiner.
iv. Try not to fumble.
v. Before the examiner does it, conclude your viva and bid farewell so that you do not seem desperate for some more time to mend what might have gone wrong.

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