Big Deal
Anyone who tells you the viva is no big deal is wrong. It comes at the end of years of research. It’s huge life achievement. It matters for many, many reasons. Anyone who tells you the viva is the biggest...
Daily viva help for PhDs
Anyone who tells you the viva is no big deal is wrong. It comes at the end of years of research. It’s huge life achievement. It matters for many, many reasons. Anyone who tells you the viva is the biggest...
What you don’t know about your viva can be scary. It’s helpful to make a distinction between the three main types of unknowns: There are things you can find out: the regulations for vivas at your university, what happened at...
There’s a connection between how comfortable you are in the viva and how confident you are. I’ve written a lot before on getting comfortable with the thought of the kinds of questions you might get, but that’s not the full...
Viva coming up? Think about who you know and what they can do for you: How can your supervisor help you prepare? Who among your close colleagues has some way of helping? Who do you know that could be a...
There are countless questions you could be asked in the viva, but you’ll only be asked one at a time. Preparation doesn’t mean somehow considering every question, but feeling comfortable considering and responding to any question that comes up. Find...
When you’re asked a question about your research, unless you’re completely surprised or stumped, the shape of an answer appears in your mind. Think of it as a sketch of a response. The outline of what you could say. It’s...
A term from maths: sometimes a peak in a graph is not the topmost point, but just the highest one for now. A downward slope afterwards might not run down forever. The curve may rise again, higher, further and faster....
Why didn’t Achilles wear a boot? If you know there’s a problem, wouldn’t you try to address it? If you know you have a weak spot, wouldn’t you at least try something? For example, I knew my background knowledge on...
Talking to friends about their viva experiences is useful. Picking up on bits and pieces of what goes on in vivas while you do your PhD is inevitable. Generally, candidates have a fair picture of what they need to do...
You will know who your examiners are before the viva, but it’s possible you won’t know much about them. Not everyone has examiners they’ve cited or met before; you can’t strike up a conversation over coffee or email to get...