Look To Your Community
You have many people around you who could give support as you get ready for your viva. Ask your supervisor for help. Ask early in case they’re busy. Be clear so that they can support you. Check their availability to...
Daily viva help for PhDs
You have many people around you who could give support as you get ready for your viva. Ask your supervisor for help. Ask early in case they’re busy. Be clear so that they can support you. Check their availability to...
Bring a quality of kindness to your preparation for the viva. Don’t overload yourself. Don’t start late so that you put pressure on your work. Don’t rush so that you can make the most of it. Don’t be afraid to...
It used to be that an in-person viva was the right way to have a viva. Video vivas were anomalies, rare arrangements made out of necessity. Then they were the necessary arrangement. For a time they were the only way of...
Alas! There isn’t one. No shortcuts. No hacks. No loopholes. No tricks. No weird little things that will just make it all better. But you don’t need them. You need someone who has done the work. Someone who has put...
On my desk I have a drawing that my daughter gave me on the day of my first Zoom session. It helped me to smile as I tried something new for the first time – against a backdrop of change...
We hear survive and think of tragedy. Desperate situations. Almost impossible and yet somehow someone makes it through. Of course, given those associations, survive sounds scary. Survive sounds scary but survive means manage to keep going in difficult circumstances. Survive sounds scary...
Let’s forget ideas of “big” questions in the viva. There are no small questions either. Instead all questions are important. Each question is an opportunity you’re being given to demonstrate something: Something you know. Something you did. Something you can do....
It’s not wrong to hold your viva date in your mind and count down towards it. Two weeks to go. Ten days. Seven days. Two days. Ten hours! We do this with all sorts of events, like Christmas and the...