What your supervisor says: | What your supervisor means: |
| Look on this as a learning experience. |
You're going to suffer. |
| Let me explain the format of the defense. |
Let me make you even more nervous. |
| I'm here to lend you support. | I
'm here to destroy you so you won't look smarter than me. |
| I found the overall concept interesting. |
This is my token compliment before ripping your idea to shreds. |
| I would like to have more time to study this. |
I didn't read it. |
| I have some concerns about the theory upon which your study is based. |
I hate the theory but I can't insult the author so I'll insult your work instead. |
| There are some aspects of the study I would like to hear more about. |
I read it but I just don't remember anything about it. |
| Your hypotheses are not strongly enough linked to the existing literature. |
You came up with an innovative idea and I want to make sure you never do it again. |
| Your research is an interesting extension of my own work. |
Why didn't I think of it before you did ? |
| You have failed to take into account some of the more relevant literature. |
You failed to cite me. |
| I would like you to explain.... |
I don't know anything about this stuff so you have to explain it to me. |
| Your statistical results don't seem to support your hypothesis. |
I don't understand statistics. |
| Your selection of statistical tests is rather simplistic. |
I'm the only one here that understands statistics and I want to rub it in. |
| How did you ensure that you had drawn a random sample ? |
I had to come up with at least one question and this one always works. |
| Let's wrap this up. | I'm hungry. |
| Could you step out of the room while the committee comes to a decision ? |
We decided beforehand to give you your degree, but we still want to make you sweat. |
