The sad story of Heisenberg's doctoral oral exam (1998)
I use to frequent a grad student bar that regularly held an open-mic night for people to practice their defense.  It was brutal.  A room full of drunk grad and post-grads would try and pick apart your presentation.  Targeted academic heckling.  It was great.  The goal was to get over your fear of the whole process -no matter what, your actual defense would be a better experience.