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Month: June 2023

Nathan

Another Way

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If you can’t have a mock viva or don’t want one, there will be another way for you to rehearse talking about your research. Give a seminar, go for coffee with a friend or just chat with people about what you’ve done. These actions are not the same as a mock, but they help in the way that a mock does.

If you don’t want to read your thesis in preparation for your viva in the way that your colleague did, then think about how you could do it. They did a chapter a day? Maybe break it down into sections instead. Or maybe take an afternoon off to read it all. There will be a way for you to do the work.

A lot of really helpful viva prep advice gets swallowed in the specifics of how someone else did it. Find your way to do things like read your thesis, make notes and summaries, rehearse and so on. If your friend’s way won’t work or you can’t follow the advice of the person on the internet then find another way to do it that will work for you.

Nathan

The Last Review

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What will you look for when it’s the last time to look over your thesis before your viva?

  • The sections and sentences you’ve highlighted?
  • The red pen that shows the typos and changes you want to make?
  • The paragraphs that make you feel proud of what you’ve done?
  • The margins of notes you think you need?
  • Or the final pages that bring your research to a conclusion?

Or something else entirely? You have to decide where you need to give your attention. It’s probably best to steer towards the good stuff rather than remind yourself of typos. They’re there, you’ve acknowledged them, you know what you need to do.

Save your attention for what really matters.

Nathan

Spoiler Alert!

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You’ll most likely pass your viva!

It really is the most likely outcome.

Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be nervous. It doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to prepare for or you can just take time off until you meet your examiners. And it doesn’t mean that you won’t be challenged by your viva, the preparation, the corrections or anything connected with it.

You’ll most likely pass your viva. Do the work to fulfil that. Be nervous, but work to get ready and be confident. You’ll be challenged, so work to meet that challenge and respond to your examiners’ questions.

Spoiler alert: you’ve got this.

Nathan

Only

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I’ll be fine in the viva so long as I’m not asked about Chapter 4…

I can only talk about what I did, I don’t want to talk about hypotheticals…

I’m happy to talk to my examiners but don’t want them to challenge my conclusions…

PhD candidates have told me these things and similar for years. They’re reasonable things to think. They come from a place of concern about whether or not they can manage the task that’s ahead of them. There’s nothing irrational about wanting to do well.

But these thoughts don’t help.

A candidate has no control over what examiners will ask. You might have ideas or hopes of what they will want to talk about in the viva, but you won’t know until you get there.

Focus on being ready to talk whatever the question. Your only job in the viva is to engage with each comment and question as needed.

That’s it.

Hold on to that idea, prepare to be a full participant in the discussion, and you’ll find a far more useful position than holding on to worries and concerns.

Nathan

Last Call For Summer Sessions!

Update

I have three viva help sessions running this week and there’s still time for you to join me!

7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva is a tried and tested 1-hour live session of viva help. I’ve delivered it almost seventy times in the last three years. In one hour I break down what the viva is all about, how you can engage with it and what you can do to pass – and we still have time for your questions too!

The seven reasons I share are not tiny things. They’re not hacks, tips or dodges. They’re seven fundamental things to know, explore and hold on to. 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva is a 1-hour confidence boost. I’m sharing it three times over the next three days. You can find out more at these registration links:

Registration closes an hour before the start of each session; I won’t be running more until at least the autumn.

If you’ve already had your viva or have valued my writing or sessions in the past then please pass this on to someone who might need 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva.

Thank you for reading and thank you for your support!

Nathan

Nathan

Good Practice

Daily Post

Academics have a sense of what is right when they come to examine a thesis. This is underpinned by regulations but also informed by what they believe is the right way to do things. These beliefs are a mix of their previous experiences and those of friends and colleagues. This then leads to common situations like:

  • Vivas beginning with simple opening questions;
  • Vivas structured around the flow of information in the thesis;
  • The length of a viva being typically in the two to three hour range.

Good practice builds in communities. Colleagues in a department talk now and then about the vivas they have been part of and this also produces “ways of doing things”. This leads to departments that regularly ask for prepared presentations to begin a viva or let a candidate know to expect a certain length.

Good practice isn’t good as opposed to bad! It helps to know that there is a history, a process and a way of doing things that helps the viva – and helps the candidate.

The viva is not a great unknown and so can be prepared for.

Nathan

A Gamble

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Simply hoping you will succeed at the viva is leaving what happens up to luck. It’s not wrong to want to succeed, but you mustn’t believe that passing is only due to whether or not things just happen to work out.

Luck and hope isn’t enough. You have to act.

Do the best work you can. Write the best thesis you’re capable of. Prepare when you need to and build yourself up ready for the viva.

You’re not gambling when you take these actions. You’re not leaving things up to chance. You’re readying yourself for success.

You’re taking steps to get closer to what you want and the odds are good that you will succeed!

Nathan

Use Everything

Daily Post

Do everything you can to improve your feeling of confidence for your viva. Look back at the story of your PhD and take apart all the key moments and stages to show how you have become a capable, talented researcher.

Examine your successes. Unpick the work you did, what happened as a result and what that has meant for your research and for you.

Explore your setbacks and failures. Why did things go wrong? What did you do to change your approach as a result? What did you learn from those experiences?

Estimate the amount of work you invested. How many days did you show up? How many hours? Realise that you stayed committed to your work, even when it was a challenge.

What other numbers could help you to see the scale of what you’ve done? The number of words written? Papers read? Meetings attended and talks given?

Find ways to remind yourself. Statistics help, but stories help more. Do things that help you to feel confident. Wear clothes that help you feel good. Your confidence is not only rooted in the pages of your thesis and what you did to write them.

Use every opportunity you can find to build up your confidence for the viva. There are many, many reasons to feel certain of your success. Do what you can to remind yourself of them as you get ready.

Nathan

Just A Moment

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Just a moment.

That’s all you need, compared to the years of work in your PhD already, in order to get ready for your viva.

Just a moment.

The shortest of pauses, used regularly throughout the viva, is all you’ll need to think carefully before you engage with your examiners’ questions.

Just a moment…

…is how long your viva could feel! Hours passing by quickly because of how focussed you feel.

Just a moment.

Corrections requested, done, checked and then the thesis is finally – finally! – completed.

Just a moment.

A brief second in time where you cross a stage to shake a hand or receive a certificate in the post to say “You did it.”

 

The end of the PhD is a series of moments. Little snapshots where you do a little more, demonstrate who you are and celebrate your success. A short series of moments, following years of experience, growth and development.

If the end is hard, remember all the work that has brought you this far. Remember that it really won’t be long before you’re finished.

Nathan

Not Exclusive

Daily Post

Your thesis is not written only to pass the viva, or only to live up to your examiners’ expectations. That’s worth keeping in mind as you write it, but also as you prepare for your viva.

To share your contribution you have to write it for whatever audience you imagine will be interested and receptive to your research. To share that with your examiners in the viva, you might have to know a little about them and what they do. You might need to prepare and think about the language you would use to explain something in a discussion – as compared to how you might express it on a page.

Remember that most candidates are asked to complete corrections of some kind: while that request will come from your examiners it is never simply to satisfy them. They are asking either because they have found simple mistakes that can be amended simply, or because they think a change is needed to help your thesis be the best it can be now that it is going to be finished.

Your thesis will be studied, examined, questioned and probably changed by your examiners. But it’s not for them – at least, not exclusively.

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