Types of Response
You might not have an answer for every question in your viva. But in response you could offer an opinion or share a thought. You could ask a question for clarity or reveal how you feel about a topic. You...
Daily viva help for PhDs
You might not have an answer for every question in your viva. But in response you could offer an opinion or share a thought. You could ask a question for clarity or reveal how you feel about a topic. You...
If you’ve nothing left when you sit down to get ready for the viva, then you’re not ready to get ready. Take a break. Submit, then stop. Pause, then prep. Relax and restore, then ready yourself. You can’t get ready...
It’s a minute before your viva starts. You’re probably a little nervous. Ready but recognising the importance. As you begin remember you have passed… …whatever requirements you had to in order to get on to your research programme… …the difficult...
Between Christmas and New Year I shared some of my favourite posts from the blog from 2020. In case you missed them here’s a link to those posts, and a link to my favourite post from each category! Best of...
Following yesterday’s post, consider the environment that you’re going to work in to get ready for the viva. What can you do to make it as supportive as possible? Where will you go? If you’re at home, where will you...
If you can manage it, a little routine could be useful for helping you to get ready for the viva. Viva prep will not be the first thing that goes in your diary or on your wall planner. You’ll have...
In some cases, you won’t be able to. The viva is not a question and answer session or a quiz. Some questions won’t have memorisable facts that you can serve up to your examiners; instead, you will have to offer...
I had read my thesis. I had made notes, lots of them. Read papers by my examiners. Had six or seven hour-long conversations with my supervisor in the almost-two months leading from submission to my viva. My viva was 10am on...
If not you, who? Because you’re the only person who can pass your viva. If not now, when? Because until you’re in the viva you have time to prepare, time to get ready. Time to remind yourself that you’re the only...
Not just the 1st of January. Not the 2nd, once you finish celebrating New Year’s Day! Every day is a chance to look at what you do, how you do it, why you do it and think, “What else…?” What...