The Academic viva

The format

This viva lasts 30 minutes. You have 2 papers and get 1 hour to read them both.
They give you a couple of coloured markers and a desk. NO talking. After 1 hour you should have read both and addressed a few points.

How to read a paper

There are many ways and you should have your own format and a PRACTICED doing it in 30 minutes on some papers prior to the exam.

One way:

  • Read the title / abstract? Start with this ...TITLE, AUTHOR, INSTITUTION, JOURNAL 
  •  Why did they do what they did? ( Introduction…usually the last line of the introduction should have a clear statement) 
  •  What did they do? ( RCT, case study, cohort study). Remember a few twizzly bits they love to hear you throw in during your discussion.
  •  How did they do it?  ( numbers, exclusion / inclusion criteria, what was the intervention outcome measures?)
  • What did they find? ( what were the results) 
  • So what? ( do they clearly state what they found in realation to previous studies? Good papers will point at their own shortcomings)  
  • Does this change my practice? ( a good overall summary of what you think of the paper….was it ground breaking or was it a steaming pile of dog shite?)

OR

You can use this format. Click on link   http://www.wmsurgeons.com/kb/entry/200/ 

Tips for the exam
In the exam usually 1 paper will be the good one and this is usually your specialty paper. The other is often a general paper and so poor you can either use it for toilet paper or choose to discuss the problems of the paper while shaking your head in disbelief.

Some things crop up again and again. Here are some examples.

 

Worked example

I got 2 papers form the BJS.

            Both within the last 6 months!I had read both prior to the exam. It is worthwhile therefore just flicking through the journal and if something comes up that most people will understand then there is a half a chance you may see it in  he exam If you cannot understand the title let alone the paper because it was a study into some obscure genetic squibbly bobble that is found in the Indonesian water rat intestines that responds to grow faster hormone X75 from crushed toadstools….ignore it.

Use your markers and highlight some lines and write down the points I have given above in the margin.

So how does it go?

Examiner: Starter for 10 …” tell me about paper 1….”

You: You see an opening and off you go with the wind I your favour you recite it according to the set plan above.

Examiner: This paper is from the BJS….. ”what is the impact factor of a journal”

You: A gift of a question if you bothered to read about it.

Standard question: ‘What is the impact factor?"      http://www.wmsurgeons.com/kb/entry/100/ 
Be prepared to name a few …BJS is about 4. The top ranking journal is Journal of Biological Chemistry…if fact all the science ones Nature, Science , Cell are in the top 10. That doesn’t mean the Journal of Clinical epidemiology is not a worthy journal to the population it serves.

Examiner: Then some questions on study design…

”What is CONSORT?” or “How  would you go about designing a RCT?”          

CONSORT. Be familiar with it. A buzz word must come up in any paper that is a RCT. And there are many!!! http://www.wmsurgeons.com/kb/entry/89/

 

Then you get the harder questions. If you are not an academic you may be left out of your depth. If you have scored well and been confident to now you have passed already.  These include stats questions
Examiner:   “How do you do a power calculation?”

You:  Errrmmm. No idea. Ask a statistician?

 Examiner:   “Do you think they had a good method of randomising their patients? Randomisation techniques”

 You: No. It was pretty obvious they had randomised by date of birth and not a recognised computer generated system. So know a little about this

 Examiner: “Tell me about Stratification”

            BUZZER… Thank god for that.

Stratification. NFI. He did tell me in 5 seconds but the subject is a little more complex. So good old Wikipedia comes through again http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratified_sampling

 

When did the second paper come in you may ask. I did too. Once you give a 60 second spiel and look confident on paper 1 they do not give you chance to do it again. So make it good.

I think they just slipped it in when we talked about randomisation. Leading on from this we talked about methods and main findings in the second paper.

If you are a transplant trainee you are laughing. Most examiners won’t have a clue on what the paper is about.

The key is to dig out a few papers and discuss them with your colleagues. They will pick on a well written paper and one that just isn't quite up to the mark. After you read a few you will be able to spot these a mile away. Rememer you are not as good as you think you are, and talking over papers will give you confidence and you may also learn something while discussing something outside your field.

I know nothing about stats. Glossed over it. Knew a few terms like; parameteric and non parametric tests, Mann Whiney U, Cox regression.