A SMART Review

From time to time I’ve shared an acronym I like on this blog. I’ve talked about SMART before: a useful tool to help with planning, it stands for Specific, Measurable, Advantages, Realistic, Time-bound – the five qualities of an effective goal. It struck me a few weeks ago that these words could also be a nice prompt for reflecting on your research at the end of the PhD:

• Specific: how would you define what you’ve done in your research?
• Measurable: how can you be certain of what you’ve achieved?
• Advantages: how does your work make a contribution?
• Realistic: how does your work compare to what you were originally planning?
• Time-bound: how did your research change over the course of your PhD?

Five simple points to reflect on your research before the viva. Making notes on each of these points could make a nice summary of your work for viva prep.