All Vivas Are Short…
…compared with the amount of time you’ve invested in your PhD. That doesn’t make them easy. That doesn’t mean they’ll fly by if they are many hours long. That doesn’t mean there’s no need to prepare. Those thousands of hours...
Daily viva help for PhDs
…compared with the amount of time you’ve invested in your PhD. That doesn’t make them easy. That doesn’t mean they’ll fly by if they are many hours long. That doesn’t mean there’s no need to prepare. Those thousands of hours...
Viva prep is a bit like carrying an umbrella on an uncertain day. You look out the window. There are clouds. They’re grey but not dark grey. It might rain but it might not. You could leave the umbrella and...
How about a little music to prepare by? Whenever I need a quick thinking break or need to gather my ideas I listen to Clair de lune by Debussy. I think it’s my favourite piece of music. Listening to it...
If you’re reading this and you’re in your first or second year of your PhD, you don’t have to worry about your viva! You don’t have to give it any great thought: for now, keep on with the main work...
That’s the viva. You’re doing something you have done many, many times throughout the last few years – thinking about and talking about your research and your ability as a researcher – and this is the last time you’ll need...
Corrections. Amendments. Changes. They’re called lots of things, but the requests for alterations to your thesis after the viva really are just the very last, final tweaks to make your thesis the best it can reasonably be. The vast majority...
Need help for your viva? Here are seven tips: Know what you need. It’s easier to get help if you can appreciate the gap that help helps with! If you’re not sure, reflect and try to put it into words....
Viva prep is work: a series of actions that steer you towards being ready for your examiners. You can approach it as a finite project, setting out tasks and activities to a plan for yourself, but it might also help...
A few months after my viva, when my corrections were all completed, it was time to pack up the desk in my shared office. I wish I had considered it properly at the time. Instead, I just packed everything into...
Annotation helps you to prepare in two ways. First, you have to think carefully about your thesis while you add the notes or emphasis you need. Second, you have a more helpful resource for your viva. Annotation is effective...