Speaker 1: Giving a research presentation can be very scary, especially if you've never done it before. No matter whether it's your bachelor's, your master's or your PhD, here are the types of questions you're likely to be asked in different categories. And the first one is all about topic selection and overview. Now these sort of questions come up because it's a little bit lazy. It's like an easy start for the examiners or the referees or the academics that are asking you questions. These are sorts of questions such as, why did you choose this topic? Briefly explain what your research project is about. What is the scope of your research project? And importantly, what is the significance of your study? So these kind of questions just get the ball rolling. And what you're really expected to have here is just like a little summary, a little abstract in your mind, an elevator pitch, if you will, about your research. So it just has to follow a very simple structure. That is a little bit of background about why you're doing it, the methods you used, what you found, and the significance. If you can just hit those sort of like little points just in a single sentence for each one, that will be an easy kind of start to all of these sort of questions. I've included in these examples that I'll post down below in the description sort of example answers. That'll just get your brain thinking about how it can relate to your research. So this section is all about just making sure you're familiar with the overarching kind of story of your research. And these sort of questions are designed not only because they're easy for the people asking the questions, but also to warm you up to that first sort of stage of dialogue. Hopefully, it is nice and easy. You've got these answers. And one thing I always do with all of these answers is at the end of my presentation, I make sure that I have slides specifically relating to these categories so that I have supporting information for any question they're likely to ask me. The second sort of questions you're likely to be asked is all about literature reviews and frameworks. They want to have confidence that you know how your work fits in with the general field. So you should have an idea of what happened before you and why there is this research problem you're answering. Here are the sort of questions they can ask you. How does your work relate to the existing literature in the field? And what theories or frameworks did you base your research on? These questions are very important. And what you'll find is that different academics that are there asking you questions will have different biases towards different techniques. So one thing I like to do is have a look at the people that are on my panel and then just go, okay, well, this person's more likely to ask about this subject, so I'll understand how my research fits in with that. These people really like this framework or this methodology, so I'll make sure that I understand how my research fits with that. And that's just a really sort of like sneaky way of making sure that you can not only make it relevant, but also you're rubbing the egos of the people that are on your panel a little bit as well. The next category can seem like a little bit of a scattergun of ideas that get thrown at you while you're giving your presentation or you're in the questions and answer section. And it's essentially the research design methodology and variables section. And this sort of question can come from left of field. It can just be thrown at you and the sort of questions that you're asked are what are your research variables? What research methodology did you use? Why did you use that particular methodology? How did you ensure the study's validity and reliability? Why did you choose this particular sample or population for your study? Can you explain the data analysis process you used and what sort of data was implied for the research? So here, it's really important that you just have a little bit of a defense on why you chose certain things. It's important to have a slide, you know, tucked away at the end of your presentation that highlights the benefits, the pros and cons of different research methodologies showing that you chose the best one for what you wanted to achieve. Now unfortunately here, this is the section of the kind of discussion where you can end up feeling attacked because these people now are trying to find holes in your research. They're going to ask about why you did this and not that, why you chose this population and not this population. But it's also okay in this bit to be like, well, I think that this is the true way of doing it, the best way of doing it. And this is where you can sort of inject your own little bit of stubbornness and say, no, you know, with all due respect, this is the best way to do it because of X, Y, and Z. And if you've just gone over the pros and cons of each method for your research field, you'll be able to present that kind of like with a lot of certainty and a lot of confidence. And that's what they're really looking for is that you are confident with the method you chose and therefore that means the results you've gained. The next section is findings, contributions, limitations, and implications. This is an area where they want to find out what you think about the broader implications of your work. There are questions such as, what limitations did you encounter? What is the most surprising finding from your research? Can you discuss the main contributions? How do your findings impact the real world? What areas will you suggest for future research? And how would you relate your findings to the existing theories in the area or field? This is where you can let your imagination and that kind of marketing side of yourself really come out. I actually like these sorts of questions because you're able to sell them on a bigger idea. You know, if your research was to be extrapolated out for the next five to 10 years, what could happen? And that's what I really liked talking about about my research. My research was solar cells, so I was like, I would love to see everyone have a solar painted roof, because my PhD was solar paint. So I was like, you could paint roofs of cars, you could paint the bus stops, the wings of an aeroplane. Like that is where I was able to kind of like, you know, really sell the implications of my work. Don't worry about thinking too far in the future, but you do need to understand on the other side of the coin about the limitations of your work. So even though you've got this grand scheme, what is your research not telling you? My research, for example, didn't tell me about the longevity of the solar cells. It didn't tell me about the bulk production of the solar cells. So just being sure you understand where your research stops from the data you've got. So it's kind of a balancing act, right? Let's back that up again. First of all, you've got your data set and you need to understand where that data set stops. You can say the limitations of my study is this, but in the future, if all of those issues get solved and people keep on working on this, this is where this research could go. And that's where I really like kind of selling the big idea of why you're there. The last category of question you're likely to be asked is all about self-reflection and future work. This is where you can really take ownership of what went wrong and what you would do differently. Everyone knows in research, hindsight is 20-20. So the source of questions you can get asked are, what would you have done differently if you could start your project again? What are the future directions of your research? What did you learn from doing this research? And how has your view of research topic changed throughout the course of your project? Now, this is all about reflection and you don't have to worry about looking clever, I think, at this point. This is all about ensuring that you have kind of that self-reflective ability to look at what you've done and go, you know what? If I was to start all over again, I wouldn't do this line of work. I probably wouldn't touch on this, but I'd double down on this a little bit more. Maybe you'd sort of like even take your research in a different direction. And I think this is the sort of discussion that academics really like, because they can start plugging their own ideas in it. And also, sneakily, they're probably trying to get ideas for their own research. So, this is where you can have a really open and frank discussion about what went wrong, what went right. And to be honest with you, every research project, no matter how well it's planned, goes wrong in some aspect. And I think that these sort of questions are there to make sure that you understand that no research is perfect and you're able to reflect at the end and say, this was good, this was bad, and these are the things I would change. And so, don't be afraid about telling them the real sort of like nitty gritty bits of what you would do differently. I think that's probably where the most interesting insights from research come. So, there we have it. There are all of the different questions that you can get asked during your oral defense. I'll put a list of them in the comments below so that you can sort of like prepare your talk to have these slides after the final slide of your talk. I like to include sneaky little slides afterwards after my final slide so that I can quickly sort of like move to them. And I find that that often catches them off guard and it helps just give you confidence that you know what you're talking about because you go, oh yeah, no, I've actually got a slide on that. Click, click, click. As you can see, these are the pros and cons, blah, blah, blah. It really works. So, let me know in the comments what sorts of other questions you've been asked and the sorts of answers you've been asked to provide during your oral defense. I'd love to hear it. And also remember, there are more ways you can engage with me. The first way is to sign up to my newsletter. Head over to andrewstapleton.com.au forward slash newsletter. The link is in the description. 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