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UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Honour School of Chemistry: Part
IB
Viva Voce Examinations
The board of Examiners includes three External Examiners.
One of their duties is to hold vivas (oral examinations)
for a small group of candidates. This explains what happens
in the vivas.
1. Who has to attend a viva?
Any candidate achieving better than a certain level of performance
in the Part IB examination is deemed worthy of
Honours and is allowed to pass through to Part II. A few people
at the bottom of the school have to be examined more carefully;
these are the candidates who have the viva exam. The
candidates for a viva exam are selected by the full
board of Part IB Examiners. It is possible to fail
without being called for a viva.
2. What is the object of the viva?
The purpose of the viva is to gain additional information
about a candidate. There are three possible outcomes, the candidate
being respectively: (i) deemed worthy of Honours and eligible to
proceed through to Part II; (ii) awarded a Pass degree (and not
allowed through to Part II); and (iii) failed. The performance in
the viva cannot weaken a candidate's position.
3. Who is present during a viva?
The only people present during a viva are the candidate,
the three External Examiners and the Chairman of the Examiners.
The External Examiners represent the three branches of Chemistry
(Inorganic, Organic, and Physical); each is a senior, experienced
academic from a University other than Oxford.
4. What information is available to the External Examiners?
The Examiners will have inspected your answer papers and will have
your full set of marks. They will also be shown any medical or other
certificates, should there be any.
5. What happens during a viva?
A viva will last 20 - 30 minutes. As a first objective,
the Examiners will try to put the candidate at ease. They
may ask for additional material on topics for which you have
given good answers in the examinations. Eventually, they will
ask about questions on which you have performed poorly or
about questions you chose not to attempt in the examinations.
They will give you ample opportunity to correct your mistakes
and to show more knowledge than you were able to display in
the examinations. They will not be trying to trip you up or
discomfit you. They may go beyond the immediate material
of the examination questions as the viva progresses.
Questions in a viva are more likely to concern core
chemistry, rather than specialist or advanced topics.
When answering the questions, try to be direct and concise. Whenever
possible, illustrate your answers by drawing clear structures
and diagrams (paper will be available). If you do not understand
the question, say so. The Examiners will try to help you towards
an answer, or perhaps ask you questions on a different topic.
6. How can you prepare for a viva?
Some further work on your chemistry will be beneficial. Concentrate
on those topics for which you believe you gave the poorest
answers in the examinations. The Examiners are most likely
to concentrate on the questions you attempted in the General
Paper but did badly. These are the areas in which you should
aim to show the Examiners that your knowledge of chemistry
is better than indicated by your written answers.
Nick Green
Chairman of Examiners, Part IB 2013
March 2013
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