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Month: March 2019

Nathan

Nerves Aren’t Nice…

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…but they’re not a sign that something is wrong. Nerves are a signal you’re feeling stressed or excited or anxious about something. The physical and mental discomfort doesn’t mean you definitely have a problem.

There’s a strong correlation between recognising something as important and feeling nervous about it. If you experience nervousness around viva time, I think it’s because you recognise the viva is important.

I felt a bit nervous as my viva got close, not too bad thankfully. My coping strategy was to think about how I could make myself less nervous. I asked myself, “What could I do to feel better?” With hindsight, I wonder if a more useful question in situations might have been, “What can I do to do this important thing as well as I possibly can?”

You only have a finite amount of energy and attention to spend, and if you use it up trying to beat nerves you could miss the opportunity to focus on preparation.

My hunch is that investing time on prep – on doing the important thing well – will make you ready and less nervous.

Nathan

What’s Your Story?

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If you have your thesis done and your viva coming up, it’s because you did the work and you developed yourself. Simple to say, but these things don’t just simply happen. What were the big moments along the way?

Everyone’s story is different. From my PhD, I remember…

  • …being six months into my PhD, sitting on a train, not even on my way to work, and suddenly the problem I had been considering snapped into focus. It was a small result at the time, but a meaningful one. It grew into a result that underpinned three chapters of my thesis.
  • …visiting Marseille for a two-week conference and summer school. It helped me present and share my research with others and was also a big boost to my confidence. It forced me to step out of my confidence zone.
  • …going to researcher development workshops, and then being invited to help on them. It helped me with presenting and thinking skills, it made me think about my talents more broadly, and it planted a seed that there was something interesting I might like to explore in the area of researcher development…

…which is how I ended up where I am!

Think back over the last few years. What are the big moments that have shaped and defined you? How did you get to where you are now? What stands out in your memory and why?

Nathan

Three Cheers!

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As far as I know a round of applause isn’t that common immediately after a viva. Maybe if you have a group of friends and colleagues on hand, perhaps with a bottle of something sparkling, there’ll be a call to applaud you. Probably circumstances won’t make it happen for you, but that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve it.

We clap our hands when we’re happy. We clap our hands at the end of something good. We clap our hands to show others that we agree. We do it to show respect.

There are lots of reasons for you to get a round of applause. I hope you do!

Nathan

Reasons You Could Enjoy Your Viva

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You could enjoy your viva. A lot of people do, and many do even if they’re nervous.

You could enjoy your viva because…

  • …it’s your work and you know it better than anyone.
  • …you wrote your thesis and you know what it took to make it.
  • …you’re meeting two experienced academics, not two people who know nothing.
  • …the viva is the last big thing you have to get done for your PhD.
  • …you get to demonstrate how talented you are.
  • …your PhD is almost finished and soon you can start something new.

It’s not wrong to have your reasons for being nervous, but also look for reasons why you could enjoy your viva.

Nathan

Using “Plan, Do, Reflect, Review”

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I’ve got a lot of help from remembering the Plan, Do, Reflect, Review cycle for projects and work over the last decade or so. I like to think of it simply as:

Make a plan, do the work, reflect on what happened and review what you learned from it all.

While you might use this process a lot during the PhD, it’s kind of lopsided when you apply it as a lens to the whole PhD experience. Making a plan and doing a work is most of the time, the reflection comes in towards the end as you finish writing up and start preparing for the viva. Then the review is the viva itself.

I’ve often written about the need to make a plan (even a small one!) for viva prep time, and you can’t prepare for the viva without doing some work, but it would be really wrong to leave out the other two points of reflect and review.

It’s not just what did you do? and what did you learn? Use that review to think about how you can be confident for the viva. What experiences have got you this far? How have the last few years developed your knowledge and talent?

And how will they help you to succeed in the viva?

Nathan

Start Again

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What would you do if you could start your PhD again?

Would you follow the same process, explore the same topics? Would you want to take on something different?

Would you look for other ideas, dodge methods that didn’t work or papers that weren’t helpful?

How would you steer someone starting a PhD in your discipline?

Take twenty minutes to reflect on these questions. Make some notes to get the thoughts out. They’re not exhaustive by any means, but the answers can help you think before the viva about what you’ve learned about being a researcher through your PhD.

Nathan

Stressors

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It’s not nice to feel stressed or anxious. Trying to unpick why you feel that way can sometimes feel like a difficult task too. What if, by paying attention to it, you end up feeling even more stressed? I know that’s been the case for me in the past. I’ll find something stressful, focus on it, and then find myself unable to take that focus away. What happens? More stress!

I think, though, part of the problem for me has always been to focus on thinking it through. Reflection is good, but it only becomes useful if it leads to action.

There are lots of reasons you could feel stressed about the viva, and it is good to unpick why you might feel that way. But then you have to do something about it.

Worried you’ll forget something? Why? I feel I have a poor memory! OK, what could you do about it? Read my thesis, make some summaries.

Nervous about getting questions about your contribution? Why? What if my examiners are critical?! OK, what could you do about it? Explore the value of what I’ve found through my research.

Concerned about explaining your results? Why? They’re tricky! OK, what could you do about it? Have a mock viva and prompt supervisor to ask questions about that chapter.

It’s not nice to feel stressed or nervous, but those feelings don’t tend to just go away by themselves. Ask yourself why you feel that way, then think about what you could do to improve things. Then do it. Keep doing it. You might not be able to get rid of every stressful thought, but you’ll do something to build your confidence and talent for the viva.

Nathan

No Rush

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There’s no rush necessary in your viva preparations or in the viva UNLESS you make it that way.

Fail to think through what you need to do and you might make things pressured. Fail to prepare for how you’ll act on the day and you can feel that you need to blurt out answers and not think when you engage with your examiners. You don’t need to rush unless you create a situation where that’s the only thing left that you can do.

You have the responsibility, no-one else, but it doesn’t take a lot to live up to that responsibility.

Plan the weeks leading up to the viva. This doesn’t have to be hour-by-hour, just think about the kinds of tasks you’ll do and when you might do them. You can’t plan for every minute of the viva, but you can think about how you will react. Think about being in there. Think about being asked questions. Think about how you might respond.

And think about how, unhurried, you can present your best and most confident self on the day.

Nathan

What Do You Want Them To Ask?

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As part of your viva prep spend ten minutes listing everything you’d like your examiners to ask.

Reflect for each one: why do you want them to ask about that thing?

Do you feel confident? Why?

Do you feel happy? Why?

Do you feel proud? Why?

It’s useful to dig into things that trouble you and ask why. Once you’ve unpicked the feeling you can start to do something about it.

It’s just as useful to reflect on the things you’re happy with. You can build confidence for the viva on those whys as well.

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