You Are Here

Month: September 2023

Nathan

The Other Side

Daily Post

The viva isn’t the top of the mountain. It’s not the hardest challenge, the last thing to do or the most difficult conversation. The stakes aren’t raised to such a height that you are risking everything when you talk to your examiners.

Prepare for the viva, rehearse, remember what you’ve done to get this far.

You’re not at the top of the mountain: you’re already working your way down the other side. Tread carefully, but with confidence. You’ve done the work and are more than capable of doing what you still need to do.

Nathan

Considering Outcomes

Daily Post

A few loose thoughts…

 

Viva regulations are impersonal.

They give structure. Section 2, paragraph 3, check appendix 2A.

Regulations say yes and no. They specify and describe: this is a pass, this is a fail.

 

But viva outcomes are not a binary. Most people pass, but they pass in different ways. Most people pass with minor corrections, but all corrections are unique, in the same way that all candidates and their theses are unique.

Universities offer multiple outcomes that are passes – no corrections, minor corrections, major corrections and more. Typically there’s only one real category of failure, something that the vast majority of candidates don’t experience.

 

When considering viva outcomes, the point that stands out to me most is that every candidate has to find the meaning and the value in their success. Rules and regulations don’t care: you do.

What does your PhD mean to you?

What’s going to keep you going while you finish and have your viva?

And how will you celebrate your success when you find it?

Nathan

Why Most Candidates Get Corrections

Daily Post

Because there are typos in their thesis and passages that need editing.

That’s it! That’s all! Enough said!

 

 

 

OK a little more… 🙂

Writing a book is hard. Proofreading is hard. Combining these both in a project with a word count in the tens of thousands means the resulting thesis will likely have mistakes that need correcting.

Some thesis corrections are simple. A missed or misspelled word is obvious when spotted.

Some thesis corrections are subtle. They take patience to see and consideration to correct.

Some thesis corrections are style-choices. Examiners might feel something is needed and usually their requests are followed.

Remember that all thesis corrections are requested with the goal of making the thesis better. Most candidates get asked to complete corrections. Expect that you will too, get them done when you’re asked and then you’re done!

Nathan

Imperfect Reflections

Daily Post

Looking in a mirror shows things reversed. Looking in a spoon shows things distorted. And reflecting on research doesn’t automatically reveal everything we want or need.

  • Gathering thoughts or summarising ideas doesn’t tell the whole story.
  • Focussing questions mean that some points have to be left out.
  • Memory can be faulty and our biases can cover up things that they shouldn’t.

With all of that in mind, perhaps the best thing you can do when when reflecting on your research for viva preparation is to reflect a lot.

Ask lots of questions. Create lots of small summaries. Find many different ways to look at what you’ve done, how you did it, why you did it and what happened.

A reflection is never perfect, but by exploring different perspectives you will find more than if you just looked back one time on one aspect.

Nathan

Mini-Viva Modifiers

Daily Post

In a few months it will be five years since I first published 7776 Mini-Vivas – a little game to play and get practice for the kinds of discussion you might face in the viva. I’m going to do something special to mark five years since I made it, but I don’t know what yet!

Since making 7776 Mini-Vivas I’ve made a small printed version, adapted it in several ways and occasionally shared other posts here with particular question sets. You can use it as a reflection tool, as conversation practice and as a means to rehearse key questions or ideas.

Take a look at 7776 Mini-Vivas if you haven’t already; explore the resource and think about how you could use it to get ready for your viva. I’ve been thinking about ideas for variants on the concept a lot lately. If you’re looking for more fun ways to use it, here are six:

  1. Reverse: roll dice but then start with the last question and work backwards.
  2. Extra: for a longer mini-viva, get a second person to ask another question from each set.
  3. Keywords: take twenty seconds before responding to write down keywords to help your response.
  4. Five Minutes: take a question from each set and use them as the backbone for a five minute presentation.
  5. All The Ones: take a single sheet of paper and use question 1 from each set to write a summary of your research.
  6. And All The Sixes: take a sheet of paper and use question 6 from each set to reflect on the more challenging aspects of your PhD.

How else could you use the idea of having a mini-viva or two to help you get ready?

Nathan

What’s Your Real Worry?

Daily Post

If you feel worried about any aspect of your viva, ask yourself why first. For example:

“I feel worried about the discussion…”

Why?

“I’m worried I might forget something important…”

When you know what’s behind a worry you can start to do something about. You could reflect and think of possible steps to take. Continuing the example, possible next steps could be:

  • Highlighting information;
  • Adding notes in the margin;
  • Attaching sticky notes to key pages;
  • Writing summaries of important ideas;
  • Rehearsing for the viva.

These are all possible steps to help. Individually they might not be solutions to the problem, but they could move someone closer to feeling better about the worry. When you have possible steps, you then have to do something.

 

When faced with a worry about the viva, follow three steps:

  • Ask yourself “Why is this a worry for me?” – and dig a little deeper into what’s really wrong.
  • Reflect and think “How could I do something about this?” – find options that could help.
  • Decide, “What will I do now?” – and take action to help yourself.

Why is this a worry? How could I do something? What will I do?

Nathan

You Get To Have A Viva

Daily Post

It’s worth remembering, when you’ve submitted and you’re working towards your viva day, that it might not have gone this way. Despite the associated nerves and negativity that people attach to the viva, having one is not guaranteed.

You might have decided to stop pursuing a PhD. Circumstances, particularly during the last three years or so, might have made continuing with research impossible. Things might not have worked out with your supervisor, financial pressures could have been too great or your research ideas might have not developed.

But instead you did the work. You solved problems and overcame challenges. Things worked out enough. You submitted your thesis and now it’s not the case that you have to have a viva – you get to have a viva.

It’s work. It’s a challenge. It matters so it might make you nervous. But it’s a really good thing.

You get to have a viva. Remember that.

Nathan

Miskates Happen

Daily Post

I have to turn off the captions for myself when I deliver a webinar.

It might help some participants to see an AI-generated track of my words, but I can’t see them on my screen. For the most part they’re a reasonable transcript of what I’m saying; whenever I see the wrong thing transcribed in the moment it trips me up, it breaks my flow and I feel I have to do something to set it right.

But I can’t, not in that moment. Because I have something more important to do. If someone else doesn’t understand and needs to, they can ask, but I have to keep my focus on presenting.

And all of this is not all that different from the situations faced by PhD candidates in the viva and during their preparation.

If you find typos, just make a note of them. Where are they? What’s the correction?

If you find something unclear, make a note. What’s the problem? How could you make it clear?

Once you’ve made your notes, move on. Read some more, make some more notes. On to the next prep.

In the viva, acknowledge the mistake, correct it simply if you need to and then move on to the next question or next part of the discussion. There’s more important things to do than dwell on mistakes in the viva.

Nathan

Be Early

Daily Post

Be early for your viva.

Be early so you can take a breath or two and appreciate these last moments on this side of the milestone. In one moment you’re working towards your PhD, getting ready for your viva – and in another you’ve passed through the discussion, responded to all of your examiners’ questions and you’re on your way to completion.

Viva discussion can be deep and engaging, and you may not even notice the event unfolding. Afterwards you could be on a high or tired.

So be early: notice what you feel like, remember what you’ve done to get this far and take a few final breaths before you are Dr Someone.

Nathan

Motivations & Questions

Daily Post

There are three things your examiners have to do in your viva:

  • Explore your significant original contribution;
  • Unpick the hows and whys of your research;
  • Examine your capability as a researcher.

They have to do this. There’s a lot to talk about and a lot that could be brought up through the discussion, but as a starting point, consider how you would respond to these three questions:

  • Why would someone value your research?
  • How did you solve a difficult problem in your PhD journey?
  • What can you recognise as an area of growth in your ability?

Each question corresponds to a point from above; there’s more to ask, more to say and these are just starting points. But what would you say?

1 2 3