Possible Thesis Defense Questions
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Based on your findings, what will your next research project be?
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How would you build on this research?
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Where do you see this kind of research moving in the future?
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What are the openings?
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How could you improve your work?
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How can your research be used in practice?
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What would you change if you were to do the study again?
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If you did it again what would you do differently?
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What would you do differently if you were setting out to do it today?
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In hindsight, is there any aspect of the research that you would do differently?
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Looking back, what might you have done differently?
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What are the main weaknesses with what you did and why are they there?
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What are the strongest/weakest parts of your work?
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What is the main contribution of your thesis?
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What have been the significant contributions of your research?
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In what ways does this research make a significant contribution to your particular field of study?
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What have you done that merits an MS?
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Summarize your key findings.
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What’s original about your work?
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Where is the novelty?
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What are the contributions (to knowledge) of your thesis?
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What is the implication of your work in your area? What does it change?
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Why did you decide to undertake this specific project?
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What are the motivations for your research?
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Why is the problem you have tackled worth tackling?
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What are the main aims, questions, hypotheses?
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Where did your research-project come from?
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How did your research-questions emerge?
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Why are your research questions interesting or important?
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Comment on and justify your research methodology. Why have you done it this way? What are the alternatives to your approach?
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What are the principal findings of this research project?
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How do they compare the findings of other projects within the field?
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Who are your closest competitors?
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How has your thinking changed as a result of this research project?
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What have you learned from the process of doing your MS?
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Has your view of your research topic changed during the course of the research?
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In one sentence, what is your thesis?
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What are you most proud of, and why?
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Where do current technologies fail such that you (could) make a contribution?
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Where did you go wrong?
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How have you evaluated your work?
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How do your contributions generalize?
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What previous research has been done on the topic of your study?
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What does your thesis deal with \”What kind of theory is it based on?\”