Feel Good
What will it take for you to feel good about your viva?
What do you need to know to feel good about your viva?
What needs to happen for you to feel good at the end of your viva?
And what will you do to feel good about your viva?
Year: 2024
Expectations Are Estimates
Viva expectations help. Regulations and past experiences can help someone figure out what their future experience might be like; stories can shape actions for preparation and convince someone that they are going to be OK.
Remember though: expectations aren’t exact, expectations are estimates. And, going a step further, expectations are a set of estimates, about length, questions, feelings, process, outcomes and more. You can have a sense of what your viva will be like – and what vivas are like in general – but you can’t know for sure.
It’s not exact. But with enough information and reflection you can have a good estimate of your future viva experience.
PS: expectations are a big part of my upcoming Viva Survivor webinar. If you want to know what’s worth putting your focus on – and what to do – then register to attend the session on Thursday 5th December 2024. More details at the link.
Common Ground
A small part of viva prep is making sure that you know who your examiners are and what they do.
This does not mean that you need to become an expert in everything they do. As part of viva prep, unless you really know a lot about their work already, take time to read their most recent papers. Look for recurring ideas, themes, questions and methods. Look at their staff pages for their research interests.
Try to explore the common ground that your research shares. Look for the connections between what you do and how you do what you do. If you need to, take a little time to understand any differences between your research.
Again: a small part of viva prep is knowing who your examiners are and what they do. It helps, but make sure you spend your time well.
Time To Stop
Possible answers to a candidate’s question of “When should I stop getting ready for my viva?”
- When you’ve ticked off everything on your viva prep to-do list.
- When you’ve found answers to every question that’s been bothering you about the viva.
- Ten or fifteen minutes before the start of the viva.
- When you feel ready.
- When your supervisor says you’re ready.
- Will you ever be ready for your viva?
One of the above might satisfy a candidate. It might be that one of the above satisfies you!
But we need to go a little deeper. First of all, there’s no should when trying to figure out viva prep and getting ready. Knowing when to stop is probably helped by knowing what you need to know and what you need to do. Knowing when to stop is helped by not overloading your schedule with too much to do in too little time.
And maybe you’re simply ready when it’s time to stop.
PS: I’ll be sharing a lot more about viva prep and getting ready at Viva Survivor, my live webinar on Thursday 5th December 2024 – one week today! For full details on the session and to register to attend take a look at the link. Thanks for reading.
Glass Half-Full
I think that the majority of PhD candidates can be broadly optimistic for their viva.
Believing that you’ll succeed doesn’t come from simply hoping though. Hope is good, but generally hope is what we have left when we have no meaningful actions we can take. A PhD candidate, on the other hand, can build up their capability and their confidence as they work through their PhD journey.
A candidate can do a lot more than hope that they will succeed: they can feel sure of it, optimistic that whatever happens they can engage well at their viva.
The Shift
Viva prep involves shifting the kind of work you were doing to submit your thesis to the kind of work that will help you be ready for your viva.
Viva prep operates at a different scale. Perhaps a few dozen hours are needed in total compared to the weeks and weeks of effort to get your thesis finished for submission. Viva prep requires focus on a few helpful activities while submission preparations need overall awareness that everything is done and nothing is missed. Viva prep benefits from a break to rest but submission can feel like there is no time to pause.
Submission is a challenge. The viva is a challenge. Both come in quick succession, relatively speaking, but both come after years of experience of someone rising to meet a challenge. If you work through to submission you can shift your attention and work through viva prep.
And then succeed one more time in the viva.
Fresh Thinking
There’s a lot of fresh thinking in and around the viva.
Your thesis has to contain a significant and original contribution; there must be something new and fresh in it.
To get ready for the viva you have to look again at what you’ve done and try to explore it in different ways to be ready for your examiners.
Then your examiners will likely have fresh questions at the viva. You will have a lot of experience of talking about your work but it’s probable you’ll face a question or idea you’ve never considered before.
There’s a lot of fresh thinking in and around the viva – but thankfully you have a lot of knowledge, understanding and experience.
PS: your significant original contribution is a big discussion point for the viva – find out what else to expect at Viva Survivor, my live webinar on Thursday 5th December 2024!
Save The Best For Last?
It’s not needed for your viva.
The knowledge, understanding, skillset and determination that you apply to get to thesis submission is all you need in your viva. A little prep for the particular challenge of talking to your examiners will help, that’s all.
You’ve already displayed your best and been through the worst by the time you get to your viva.
Oops!
Anyone can make a mistake.
If you find one before your viva, in your research or your thesis then – after taking a deep breath and not panicking – reflect on the following three questions:
- Why is this a mistake?
- How did it happen?
- What can you do about it now?
Reflect on these questions and make some notes. If you think you need to then discuss the situation with your supervisor. That will probably be enough to help you feel ready for talking about it in your viva if you need to.
And if a mistake is brought to your attention in the viva (or if you make one in the viva) then the three questions above will still be helpful.
Deep breath, don’t panic, think and respond.
Personalise Your Prep
Make a plan that suits you.
Make a plan in a format that meets your needs.
Ask for specific help from the people best placed to help you.
Read your thesis in a time, place and way that helps you.
Annotate your thesis to make it useful for you.
Have a mock viva – or don’t!
Reflect on your journey.
Take steps to build your confidence.
Given that your research, your thesis and your circumstances are unique to you, it shouldn’t be any surprise that your viva prep has to be personal too.
There are a lot of generally good ideas about how to get ready. You have to decide what you will do with them.
PS: looking for more good ideas to adapt to your own viva prep needs? Check out Viva Survivor, my live webinar on Thursday 5th December 2024. If you need more ideas or just some general advice on what to expect then this might be for you 🙂