Master’s Thesis Defense: How To Prepare Yourself

Preparing for your master’s thesis can be made less hectic with these helpful tips:

• Staying calm
• Distract yourself
• Know your defense
• Idea of questions

• Staying calm

A thesis defense can be very stressful and you can easily panic. Do not panic. There are several breathing techniques that are useful in staying calm, the most basic of which is just taking slow, deep breaths. A cool glass of water or a carbonated drink can also help in keeping your body from becoming stressed out. Staying calm will reflect on you when you give your defense, panicking will only lead to mistakes and poor delivery of your thesis defense. So stay calm, breathe normally, and believe that you are going to do a wonderful job on your defense.

• Distract yourself

Too much thinking on your thesis defense can result in poor sleeping. The night before you give your defense, distract yourself from thinking about your thesis. Go out to see a movie or spend a night out with your friends. Distracting yourself will help in lessening your stress levels and ensure a more peaceful night’s sleep. Without sufficient sleep you could be too tired when you have to give your defense, and that will raise the possibility of making mistakes. So study hard and then take a night to distract yourself in order to wake up with no worries.

• Know your defense

Although you are the one who wrote your defense you can forget what was written. This is why it is important to know your thesis forward and backwards prior to giving your defense. After writing your thesis read through it several times, breaking it down by sections so as not to overload your brain in remembering too much at a time. This will help you in memorizing what you have written and be more confident when you give your defense.

• Idea of questions

Meet with your supervisor to discuss the possibility of questions that will be asked. The board you deliver your thesis defense to will ask questions on your topic and content, your supervisor can help in preparing you to be ready for certain questions that will be asked. Knowing the type of questions will help you in preparing well-formed answers and lessen the chance of being blind-sided by a question. It will also help in your confidence level, which will be noted by the board.