Haven't been blogging this week that much seeing that tomorrow (Friday the 12th, hmmm, there's a new spin on the horror genre) is the d-day. It's been a long time coming (6 1/2 years for this day). I've been reading over my thesis, making corrections (80% mostly typos), thinking about things my examiners could ask me about. There's four levels of questioning that I'm expecting:
1. why did you do that?
2. what would you do next?
3. tell me about (science word/technique/system/something that I should know, if not gawd help me)?
4. why is the sky blue?
The first level is the basics and generally I'm not too freaked about them. There's always "better" ways to do any experiment. Also it's nitpicking about your writing style and/or data presentation. You just need to defend why you chose the way you did, but be humble to admit that you could do things another way.
The 2nd level is more testing whether or not I have the cajones to sport that Ph.D. title. We are trained to think about the next step, the next experiment. No project is ever truly finished, there's always one more experiment you can do to forward the knowledge from it. Sometimes I falter with this level, I think it's more to do with self-doubt of my own expertise. I usually overthink the experiment or not think about it enough. So I'm fearful of these questions. Depends on the day and whether my brain is connected to my mouth.
The 3rd level is the part where you study for real. I've been going over methodology and systems like crazy this week. It's all vaguely familiar, but I often need a refresher course for the finer details of the exact chemical equation of how a bacteria makes light. These questions, ehhhh... it all depends on what I studied right? There's always a few questions on systems that I didn't spend much time on reviewing, so it's the luck of draw. Like on any written exam.
The last level, these are the "WTF?" questions. Totally out of the ball park, no way to prepare, you just simply dance for them. Often these are the "BIG PICTURE" questions, but they are just "Let's watch her pupils dilate more for fun" questions. I remember one past defense question was: How did you feel about working with GMO? I'm thinking, "GMO... GMO... acronym for what chemical compound... guanine mono... WTF?"
He rephrased, "Are you okay with working with genetically modified organisms?"
I blink.
My advisor blinks then rolls his eyes.
Yeah... and these folks are the ones with the Ph.D.s
Back to reading... deep breath.
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