You Are Here

Month: January 2018

Nathan

Counting Chickens

Daily Post

Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched…

…especially with the viva…?

Don’t count them.

Spend your time counting something more worthwhile.

Count the number of days you’ve spent on your PhD.

Count the number of papers you’ve read and referenced.

Count the times you’ve made breakthroughs.

Count the times you’ve heard someone say, “Interesting…” after you’ve told them about your work.

Count the times you’ve stood up and presented.

Count the ideas that you’ve come up with.

Count the ways that you’re a better researcher now than when you started.

What does all of that add up to?

Nothing poultry.

(sorry, couldn’t resist!)

Don’t expect there to be nothing to challenge you in the viva, don’t expect to fail; know that you’ve got the tools and talent to meet the questions of your examiners. Instead of assuming you’ll pass, or worrying you won’t, do what you can to remind yourself of why you’re there and how that happened.

Nathan

Boss Battle

Daily Post

A possible screenshot of the viva has people imagining it’s like facing end-of-level baddies in a computer game.

After all of the trials and tribulations of doing research, your examiners appear through the fog, two mysterious and challenging foes! Whatever you’ve done before, the rules don’t apply to them!! They’re bigger than the other baddies, tougher, hit harder and if you’re not careful you’re doomed!!!

Well. That’s one way to look at things.

If we accept it then we have to accept everything else from the picture: you’ve reached the end of the level. You’ve fought your way through, and you’ve got there, and it’s not by accident. While a boss battle can seem much tougher, they’re based around all of the same moves that you’ve done in the rest of the game. There’s a different focus maybe, and a different challenge, but it’s well within your capabilities.

There are no cheat codes in the viva – but you don’t need them if you’ve got there.

Nathan

Summary Fundamentals

Daily Post

A summary is an answer to a question. For a postgraduate researcher with their viva in the future the question could be:

  • How can I describe this concisely?
  • How can I explain this to a novice?
  • How can I display this visually for myself?
  • How can I outline my thesis?
  • How can I arrange what I know to most help myself?
  • What’s the story of my research?
  • What are the essential facts of my thesis?
  • What does my thesis look like?
  • What matters most about my work?
  • What stands out about my research?
  • Why is this a valuable contribution?

There are many, many useful questions to help create summaries. And there are many ways that you can arrange or display the content of an answer to create a summary. The act of making a summary is a useful tool for viva preparation. If you ask a better question you can find a more valuable answer.

Reflect a little. What kinds of information formats help you? So what kinds of summaries could help you?

So what kinds of questions could help you?

Nathan

Birthday-off

Daily Post

It’s my birthday! I’m taking the day off, and sharing the happy with 50% off my ebooks 😀

I won’t say how old I am today, but if you use the offer code THIRTYSEVEN before midnight on Monday 22nd January 2018 then you can get 50% off all of my ebooks at www.payhip.com/DrRyder Just enter the code when prompted and you’re all set!

Thanks for reading, and do feel free to share the code with anyone who might find it useful 🙂

Back tomorrow with more viva help and advice!

Nathan

On Weakness

Daily Post

No research programme can’t be improved. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made or limits imposed. Sometimes experiments or investigations don’t work out the way you hope they will. That doesn’t mean your thesis is fundamentally flawed, or your research is weak.

Still, a lot of PhD candidates ask me, “How do I talk about weakness in my viva?”

If there’s really something that could be better then you can discuss it by being honest, being clear and by talking about what’s great in your research and thesis.

  • Be honest: don’t try to hide or bluff and hope that your examiners will move on.
  • Be clear: set out the facts and your reasons, what they mean and why.
  • Talk about what’s great: not to distract, but to honestly persuade.

If there’s something you consider weak about your thesis or research, you don’t have to bring it up as you start the viva. You do have a responsibility to have thought about it and be willing to engage with your examiners. That’s no different to anything else in your research though.

You can’t write a perfect thesis. But you can’t get to the end of the PhD by accident either.

Remember: just because you think something is weak, it doesn’t mean that it is. If your examiners frame something as being weak, and you disagree, it doesn’t mean that they are right.

“Weakness” is a shorthand that people use for limitations, lack of time, doubts, worries and uncertainty. By all means consider how things could be improved or be different, but perhaps consider using a more accurate word to describe what you’re thinking about.

Nathan

Blank Feels Bad…

Daily Post

…but it doesn’t mean something is wrong with you or wrong with the viva.

You go blank and it’s uncomfortable: doubt, anxiety or fear. It’s not that common an occurrence though.

In the unlikely event it happens, breathe. Pause. Take a sip of water. Ask yourself the question again, or think about what’s just been said. And whatever you need will come to you.

A momentary memory lapse or glitch is not comfortable, but it’s not the end of the world, even in the viva.

Nathan

Five Minutes

Daily Post

To prepare for your viva you need time. A significant number of candidates may have a job or be applying for one when the viva comes around. Time is always a precious resource, but can feel quite pressured for some. While it’s still important to organise and have a decent amount of space to think, there are some valuable ways you can use small blocks of time in preparation for your viva.

  • Tidy your workspace.
  • Make a list of bigger tasks you need to do.
  • Write a 100-word summary of a chapter.
  • Make a list of papers you need to review.
  • Message someone to tell them how you’re doing.
  • Listen to a song that helps you to feel happy.
  • Write down what you’re going to do next and why that’s going to help.

Viva prep takes time, usually in blocks of more than five minutes, but little things add up. With five minutes you can make something to help yourself, setup future progress or prime yourself for the next big task.

What could you do?

Nathan

Internal Vs External

Daily Post

Candidates focus on the distinction between internal and external examiners a lot. Have you heard these nuggets of examiner-related folk wisdom before?

  • Your external is likely to be more of an expert in your field than your internal.
  • Your internal will ask the easier questions.
  • Your external is going to take the lead.
  • Your internal is on your side.
  • Your external and internal will act differently.

They sound right, but from all of the conversations I’ve had about vivas, I’ve only seen some evidence to support the first point.

And really, when you break that down, it’s wholly dependent on the candidate, their research, their field and who is available in your department and elsewhere. The other four bits of wisdom sound like neat ways to sum up your examiners, but aren’t accurate and wouldn’t help all that much if they were.

Two simple truths that help:

  • First, your examiners are prepared: they read your thesis, are ready to examine you and are competent to do the examination.
  • Second, your internal is local: they know what the requirements are, and while they’re not on your side exactly, they are there to make sure it’s fair. (some institutions go a step further and have independent chairs in vivas, to ensure candidates get a fair exam).

Forget folk wisdom. Focus on what’s true about your examiners.

Nathan

Me, Chocolate and Books

Daily Post

Boxes of bite-size chocolate frustrate me. I eat the treats I love first, Twixes and Twirls, then days later I open to find that all I have left are so-so Milky Ways and Mars… Finally I’m left with Bounty and Snickers that I won’t eat at all.

I look at my bookshelves and see similar behaviour. I look at my stacks of unread books and go for what attracts me most, or for a book I know I’ve enjoyed before. I push to the back of the queue any books that seem too big, too boring or just not right. I’ve had books on personal improvement, award-winning novels and sci-fi escapes in my library for years and always pushed them away. “I’ll get to them one day.” I go for the fun or the familiar. Save the rest for later.

If you’re preparing for your viva then it’s OK to focus on things you like about your research. You can make notes on things that are most rewarding or fulfilling to you. You can prepare for the questions or topics that you like most.

It’s your choice, but all of the other stuff is still there. Just because you don’t look at it, doesn’t mean that your examiners will avoid it too.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. You might do the tricky stuff first, or you might set a particular time in your diary to look at it. But you have to do something.

You can’t always just have the fun stuff.

(having said all this, chocolate and books generally are fun and make excellent post-viva presents and rewards!)

1 2 3 4