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Month: October 2024

Nathan

Healthy Expectations

Daily Post

Listening to horror stories, half-truths or suggestions by people with no direct understanding of vivas can skew your expectations drastically and negatively.

Only hearing about the viva from happy people who say you have nothing to worry about can mean you don’t have a full picture of the variety of viva experiences.

Healthy viva expectations give you knowledge, understanding and general awareness of the processes involved.

Healthy viva expectations are like the components of a healthy diet: they probably involve variety, they definitely require some tailoring to circumstances – and it’s always helpful to consider the source!

Nathan

Stop & Go

Daily Post

When you submit your thesis you have to stop, at least for a little while.

Take a break from thinking about your research.

You might be able to have a proper break depending on your circumstances; you might have to do other work, but at least stop thinking about your research and your thesis and the many other things that have been on your mind for so long.

Relax. Wait. It’s OK.

When the time comes and you have a viva date then go: do the work, read your thesis, make notes, rehearse and do everything else you need to do to get ready.

Stop and go. Stop when you need to. Go when you need to.

And rest, relax and look after yourself as much as you can.

 

It’s been great to press pause on writing Viva Survivors for three months! I’ve focussed on some other creative projects outside of vivas and PhDs and doing so has brought me a lot of joy and satisfaction. I’ll be continuing with them in due course, but for now it is great to get started again with the blog.

Hence, stop and go.

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