A Lack of Confidence
I often write about looking for ways to boost or find confidence. I’m not sure I’ve wondered too much about why someone might have a lack of confidence on the blog, except for mentioning surface level things like “what if...
Daily viva help for PhDs
I often write about looking for ways to boost or find confidence. I’m not sure I’ve wondered too much about why someone might have a lack of confidence on the blog, except for mentioning surface level things like “what if...
Look back over your PhD. It may seem like a straight-line journey has brought you to the finish line. But that’s only one path. There may be lots of ways you could have gone, and lots of times things might...
It’s a year since I started the daily blog. There’s times when it feels like I’m not doing all that much, but when I pause – like today – and look back I can see how much I’ve done. In...
I think the TV show Inside The Actors Studio is a pretty similar format to the viva. An experienced and interested host asks questions. Their interviewee has done a lot of hard work over a long period of time. Questions...
I’ve shared a few acronyms in posts over the last year but today’s tool is different because I invented it! VIVA is very useful to help with exploring your thesis before the viva; it’s a directed thinking tool in the...
I used to love the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? The “phone a friend” idea fascinated me. Who were these people? How were they confident Jim would know about Oscar winners? What would they do if Janet...
I’ve been using questions and prompts to unstick my thinking a lot lately, like the question I mentioned in the recent Easy Viva Prep? post. I have a lot of projects and ideas I’m developing, and all have challenges or...
Do we need to talk again about the negative things that people say, think and feel about the viva? Particularly on Friday 13th? Let’s just say this: if you ask around, if you listen to what people tell you –...
I wonder if the key common attribute for researchers is persistence. Not smarts or know-how, not project management skills or effective presentations. Persistence. If you don’t keep going when things are tough, if you don’t keep going when you reach...
You’re not getting the context. You’ve not considered the question before. You mis-heard the examiner. You don’t know a key piece of information. You’ve gone blank. You got distracted by a sudden thought or idea. You’re just not making a...