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