• moody@lemmings.world
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    4 months ago

    They’re not trying to destroy your thesis, they’re trying to make sure it’s complete and sccurate. In theory, the only person who knows the material is you, so they can’t just ask anyone else.

    I never really understood why they call it a defense. Nobody’s going in there trying to insult or fight it.

    • jupyter_rain@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 months ago

      ->Enter Thesis defense. Scream “Your thesis sucks!”. You or your thesis now have to fight me

      Tbh this scenario sounds way better to me than asking detailed questions about methodology or the results. But somehow I want to keep my job.

      • restingboredface@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        That person went to a department that was WAY less toxic than mine was.

        That said, my committee was lovely and my thesis and dissertation were relatively low-stress compared to some of the horror stories I’ve heard.

    • candybrie@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      How science often works is you try to disprove things, and if you can’t, you accept them as likely to be true. So, to show that the thesis is complete and accurate, they’re trying to find places where it’s incomplete or inaccurate. In the defense, your job is to defend against these attempts.

      • kwomp2@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        So trying to destroy it and making sure its accurate and complete turns out to be the same thing