I often describe the process of viva prep as adding lots of little things:
- Read a thesis chapter per day rather than the whole thing at once.
- Have lots of conversations about your research rather than rely on one mock viva for practice.
- Lots of little annotations add up to having a better thesis resource for the viva.
To get ready for the viva a candidate might also need to take a few things away too:
- Work to take away imposter syndrome.
- Take away confusion by finding out more about what to expect.
- Writing a summary that takes away from all your words to find the core contribution.
You need to add things to get ready for the viva. You can also help by subtracting things too.
