Yet
If ever you’re tempted, by a hard day or a tough moment in your PhD to say one of the following, remember to add the word “yet”: I haven’t got it to work… I haven’t figured it out… I’ve not...
April 2021
Questions, Not A Quiz
Your examiners aren’t there to fire questions at you and expect an answer in ten seconds or less. They don’t have a big list of true or false statements for you to correctly identify. And they won’t be grilling you...
Bringing It All Together
Viva preparation is not the hardest part of the PhD journey by a long way, but it requires a little thought for it not to be overwhelming. What do you need to do? Where do you see the gaps for...
No Time Like Now
Today, whether your viva is tomorrow or a year from now, is a perfect opportunity to build your confidence. Today, whether you feel nervous, uncertain or excited about your viva, is a great time to reflect and see how far...
The Overview
It’s reasonable to expect your examiners to ask you to summarise what you’ve done. It’s a fairly common opening question. Given that a thesis could run to many tens of thousands of words it’s probable your examiners would want you...
And Then You’re Done
Finishing my PhD was a strange time. I remember a weird few weeks of tidying my desk, taking folders home on the train, clearing stuff into recycling, and then a gap of months of trying to figure out, “What now?”...
Diamonds and Pressure
“You need pressure to make diamonds.” It’s a cheesy sentiment, but it’s true that sometimes we need the pressure of a situation to have a breakthrough, grow, build talent or find something amazing. The viva isn’t one of those situations...
Things That Aren’t Big Deals
This is a non-exhaustive list of things that candidates, in my experience, consistently throw lots of energy and attention at – despite none of these things really being problems. Answering every question you set out to with your research. Not...
Arriving
You might not have to travel for your viva, but it’s still good to consider how you’ll arrive. What will the journey be like, possibly from one room to another? What could you do to help you transition from a...
A Series of Successes
Thesis submission isn’t a final domino being knocked over. The process of doing a PhD is rarely so tidy or organised. You get to submission through success; it could be a messy sequence of events over several years, yet in...