I tend not to be nervous, but was just the hours/minutes before the start of my disputation. But once we started all that dropped away, and it was just me and the opponent, and we had a great time together.
You spent years and years studying your topic, you're the expert. If the opponent(s) have questions it's because you were not clear enough in your thesis, and they were not smart enough to follow your line of thought without the extra explanation you'll supply at the defence.
The fun questions are the ones where they *do* catch your drift, and give it a nice spin and together with you explore parts of the work you have not touched upon. See it as a duel, thrusts, parries and feignts. You get to deal them as much as they do!
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Date: 2006-09-25 10:50 pm (UTC)You spent years and years studying your topic, you're the expert. If the opponent(s) have questions it's because you were not clear enough in your thesis, and they were not smart enough to follow your line of thought without the extra explanation you'll supply at the defence.
The fun questions are the ones where they *do* catch your drift, and give it a nice spin and together with you explore parts of the work you have not touched upon. See it as a duel, thrusts, parries and feignts. You get to deal them as much as they do!