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Month: June 2023

Nathan

Perspective, Not Perfection

Daily Post

As part of your viva preparations, make sure you have researched your examiners’ most recent publications. For both external and internal, take a look at their last two or three papers. Get a sense of their interests, the methods they use and the questions they have been considering.

Compare that with what you’ve done. Look for commonalities and differences, and build an idea of what that means for you, your work and your viva. Are there questions you might anticipate? Are there topics in your thesis that you might have to explain to them because they might be outside of their knowledge base?

Read your examiners’ recent papers to gain perspective. You don’t need to become perfectly aware of everything they have ever done or everything they currently do.

A little work will help.

Nathan

Before You Forget

Daily Post

There will be congratulations after your viva, from examiners and others, telling you how well you’ve done, how great you are and starting the necessary celebrations for a wonderfully big and amazing thing!

And before the celebrations really start to happen, take five minutes to make some notes. Grab a piece of paper, divide it into four and quickly jot down some thoughts:

  • What was the viva like for you?
  • What did your examiners ask?
  • What did you enjoy?
  • What corrections stand out to you?

Five minutes, four questions and one important task to complete before you forget. Those four questions and the notes you make could be a big help to you in the weeks that follow – or to others in the years afterwards.

Take the time to write a few things before you forget.

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