Know What Your Committee Will Ask Before You Walk In

Your defense is on the calendar and your stomach drops every time you think about it. You have reread your document three times, but rereading is not preparing. Your committee already read your document. They are not going to ask you to recite it. They are going to ask you to defend the decisions behind it. Why this problem. Why this method. Why this population. Why these research questions and not others.

That is a different kind of preparation, and this packet is built for exactly that.

• All 60 questions committees actually ask, organized into the ten territories every defense covers, from "tell us about your study" to the final reflection questions.
• What the committee is really checking behind every group of questions, explained from the chair's side of the table.
• An answer framework for every territory, including the two minute study summary structure and the patterns for methodology and limitation questions.
• Sentence starters for every section so you are never fumbling for a first line.
• The pitfall to avoid in each territory, drawn from watching real students handle these questions well and badly.
• The Five Rules for Defense Day and a full preparation checklist to work through before you walk in.

Dr. Rolanda Anderson spent more than fifteen years as a dissertation chair, sitting on the approving side of the table, asking these questions herself and watching students handle them well or badly. She has chaired more than 100 studies and works with students in both PhD and Ed.D. programs. This packet is the preparation she wishes every student had before defense day.