Daily viva help for PhDs
Whenever you’re reading this, be kind to yourself when you’re getting ready for your viva.
Don’t settle for less than you’re capable of, but do be kind to yourself and have reasonable expectations for what you can do with all of the pressure, stress and disruption around you. Make reasonable demands on your time. Recognise that you need to take a break.
How are you going to do your best in your viva if you’re not kind to yourself?
How can you make a sanctuary for yourself before your viva? How can you make a nice space for preparing, or create an environment that is going to help you feel good as well as get ready? It probably won’t involve setting up cushions and a blanket, but the same idea applies: how can you make a safe, sheltered, secluded space that’s comfortable, quiet and just for you?
What do you need to help make this real?
How do you need your friends and family to support you?
How can you take a little pressure out of your situation to help you get ready for your viva?
I could make suggestions, but they wouldn’t be as good as your responses to these questions.
What kind of a viva prep space are you going to make for yourself?
I got a new logo for my business a few months ago.
I like it. For the longest time I struggled with how to explain what I did:
No. Simply: I help PGRs become PhDs.
Simple.
What do you do? How do you define what you do with your skills, your work, your research, or with the outcomes or mission?
When you can find greater clarity in explaining it to others, you might find some interesting or surprising things for yourself. Consider that, particularly as you prepare to explain who you are and what you do at your viva.
What do you do?
There may be a disconnect between you and your friends and family when it comes to the viva. Colleagues, peers, your supervisors – they’ll all have an idea of the stakes involved in a PhD and what the viva means. Some of your friends and family, friendly, supportive and lovely, will have no idea.
They see you working, but don’t know how you do it.
They see you busy, but don’t know what you’re doing.
They see you stressed, but don’t know why.
You might have trouble sharing how and what you do, but you can certainly help them with why. Practically, they may be able to do very little to help you prepare – they probably can’t ask you questions, or help you explore expectations, and they won’t be able to look through your thesis to help you annotate it – but they could do a lot to support you and help you feel ready. They can help you create an environment in which you’ll thrive through your preparations and in the viva itself (assuming you have a video viva).
Let your friends and family know why you’re doing what you do, and they’ll find ways to help you.
You are the only person who can pass your viva. That does not mean that you have to get ready alone.
Who do you know who can help you prepare?
Who do you know who can help you to feel relaxed?
Who do you know who can ask you relevant questions about your research?
Who do you know who can share their experiences about the viva?
Who do you know who can help you be certain of what to expect?
Who do you know who can support you?
You don’t have to get ready alone.
I’m forty in a few months. As much as I like to say, “I’m fine!” whenever anyone asks me about my health, the truth is I’ve started to pick up a few grumbles here and there.
My right knee likes to ache. My lower back shouts at me several times a year. Various pandemic-related restrictions – both externally-ordered and self-imposed – have reduced my overall fitness, and increased my waistline.
Maybe more than a few grumbles! But this is now a time to take stock and do something. Not to skate further in one direction, but change path, look into things that concern me and make them better. Little grumbles get bigger, they won’t just go away, and I won’t always be able to put them to one side probably.
What are your viva grumbles? What do you push to one side when perhaps you need to pay a little more attention? If there’s a question, a problem or an idea that you’re concerned about, then you can probably do something to make it better.
Small grumbles with your thesis, your research or your confidence won’t go away by themselves. Nerves about the viva will only magnify any issues. Reflect now on the causes of your grumbles, then figure out what you can do to improve the situation.
“Ready for the viva” doesn’t mean “not nervous about the viva”.
Ready doesn’t mean perfect in any way.
Ready and prepared aren’t quite the same thing – but they travel in the same car.
Ready for the viva means you’ve practically prepared and found some confidence for the day.
There’s always more that you could do to feel more ready, but a finite list of tasks is sufficient to get you ready.
Ready is personal. What does it mean for you?
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide…
A few weeks ago I was half-humming, half-singing Bohemian Rhapsody as I was tidying up.
“What’s that?!” asked my seven-year-old daughter.
I started singing the song properly. I stayed in tune. I know the words pretty well and thought I did a good job.
When I stopped, I waited for applause and appreciation.
My daughter said, “No, what was that? I don’t know that. Is it new? Or is it really old?”
She could hear all the words, catch the tune, see her dad making a bit of a fool of himself (that’s standard operating procedure), but was at a loss for trying to really get what she was listening to. She’d never heard Bohemian Rhapsody, was unfamiliar with that kind of song or style of music, and so all she got from my virtuoso performance was confusion.
Whereas I thought I was being very clear!
Consider, as you prepare for the viva, where you feel you’re clear – in your thinking, in your knowledge, in how you communicate your research – and explore what you could do both to check how clear you are and improve how clear you are. Share your research with friends and ask them about what they understand and what they want to know more about. It’s not enough that you get it: check that they get enough of what you’re trying to share.
You know a lot and can do a lot to have got this far through your PhD. Now check how clear you are when communicating with others – something you’ll have to do when you meet your examiners in the viva.
Any way the wind blows…
Your supervisors will be able to help with lots of things related to the viva. It’s good to consider them in the role of a consultant.
Consultants take a step back, they’re there to advise: you have to do the work. It’s best to ask highly-targeted questions and make specific requests – both to get the best response from them and respect their time.
There’s lots of possibilities: before you ask for help, consider what you might really need from them. Then focus on asking for that.
If most vivas result in success, why would yours be any different?
If most candidates can get ready with only a little work, relative to the rest of their PhDs, what’s different for you?
If most people have a viva that’s two to three hours long, does it matter if yours is longer or shorter?
If most theses need correcting in some way, what’s the problem with you doing yours?
If you have a real response to any of these sort-of-rhetorical questions, then in most cases you’ll have to do something. You might have to work more, or get more help than most, or ask for support, or get clarification about how your viva can be made fair.
But for some candidates, you might simply have to think about what’s really going on for you. Think about what might be skewing your point of view, and explore what you could do to change your perspective.
Hold on to this: most vivas, the overwhelming majority, result in success.