Why the First 5 Slides of Your Project Presentation Decide Your Viva Outcome (2026 Guide)
Introduction: Evaluation Begins Before You Reach Your Methodology Most students believe that examiners begin evaluating their project when they reach the methodology or results section. In reality, evaluation begins much earlier. By the time the fifth slide appears, most experienced evaluators have already formed a preliminary judgment about the intellectual seriousness of the work, the maturity of the candidate, and the level of questioning that will be appropriate. This early judgment is not based on bias in the negative sense. It is based on professional heuristics developed over years of experience in assessment. Examiners have seen hundreds of presentations. They have learned to recognise patterns quickly: patterns of clarity, confusion, ownership, exaggeration, or superficiality. The first few slides provide enough signals to calibrate their expectations. From that point onward, the viva rarely starts from a neutral position. It proceeds from the trajectory already formed. Und...
