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Year: 2024

Nathan

More or Different

Daily Post

There’s always more or different when you do a PhD.

You could have done more of something in your research. You could have done something in a different way.

It’s valid to be concerned about it as you write up your thesis and prepare for your viva. It’s reasonable to expect that examiners might ask about more and different when they meet with you.

Focus first on what you did. The fact that there are other options rests on you necessarily doing something.

Explore why you did what you did rather than something else. In your preparation, take time to be clear and articulate your reasons.

Then in the viva take time to listen to your examiners’ questions. Don’t dismiss them, but do clearly demonstrate the contribution that you’ve made.

Alternatives might be possible but focus on the actual work you’ve done and the difference it makes.

Nathan

Zero Corrections?

Daily Post

It would be really nice to have no corrections to complete after your viva!

I bet that would feel great.

Hope for it, but that’s all it is: a hope that your writing, proofreading and efforts didn’t miss any mistakes that need fixing. A hope that your thinking has been clear and consistent across tens of thousands of words.

 

Corrections are a part of the process for most PhD candidates. It’s not because most candidates are sloppy: it’s a reflection that writing is hard, editing is hard and proofreading is hard.

It would be really, really nice to have no corrections to complete after your viva!

You’ll probably have more than zero to resolve. Accept that situation when you submit, do the work that’s asked and then move on.

Nathan

Doing, Done and Nerves

Daily Post

The key difference between transfer or upgrade vivas and the final viva:

At a transfer viva you need to talk about what you’re potentially going to be doing – and at your final viva you’re talking about you’ve done.

Postgraduate researchers can feel very nervous at both though!

For some PhD candidates, I think that final viva nerves might be the still reverberating echoes of the transfer viva. If that was a nerve-wracking event you might think this final viva will be a stressful event too.

Remember you’re not the same person you were then. Your final viva is not the same situation. At the end of your first year there was still so much you were doing and so much to do. At the final viva you are done.

Nathan

The Unknown External

Daily Post

If your external isn’t known to you – and there are lots of reasons why might this be the case, as well as lots of degrees to which this might feel true – then the best thing you can do is find out more.

  • Ask your supervisor about them.
  • Ask anyone in your network about them.
  • Check your memory to see if you’ve met or seen them at a conference and you’ve just forgotten.

And of course, more than anything, read their most recent work.

 

It helps to know your external a little but it’s much more helpful to know about what they do: their knowledge, biases and research will bring perspective to how they read your work, ask questions and consider what you’re saying.

Read their last two or three most recent papers. Look for themes, ideas, questions, methods and anything else that might be relevant. You’re not trying to become an expert in them. You’re looking for points of connection – or the lack thereof!

The more you know, the better you’ll feel – and thankfully it won’t take much to feel good about your external, even if they’re a stranger to you at the time of selection.

 

(and of course, if you’re not that familiar with your internal, find out more about them too!)

Nathan

Different To Expectations

Daily Post

Regulations, general experiences of PhD candidates and the more particular stories from people in your department create your viva expectations.

Every viva is unique, but yours won’t be a total unknown because it will follow – to some extent – the patterns of other vivas. Whatever you learn and whatever you come to believe, yours will not be a photocopy of the idea you have or a twin to a story someone else told you.

Find a balance for yourself in all this by getting ready.

A little knowledge (expectations) has to result in action (viva prep).

Having a mock viva isn’t a direct rehearsal for your actual viva: it’s not the dress rehearsal where everyone knows their lines – you’re getting a feel for the room, a feel for what it sounds like to be talking about your work and to be in discussion.

Your viva will necessarily be different to expectations – and in a way that you can’t expect!

All you can do is find out what you can, prepare as best you can and then keep going and being the determined, capable researcher that you are. That’s how you succeed.

Nathan

By The End…

Daily Post

…of your first thesis draft you’ll probably be wondering what to do, what to focus on and how long you’ll need to fix anything that needs fixing.

…of the day when you submit your thesis you can hopefully take a deep breath, relax and smile a little.

…of your viva prep period you’ll appreciate that you are ready.

…of the last minute before your viva I hope, despite any nerves, that you’ll feel like you are enough.

…of your viva I hope that you feel it was a good experience.

…of your PhD I hope you feel good for whatever challenges are in your future.

Nathan

VIVA, Viva, viva

Daily Post

I regularly receive all three formulations of the above four-letter shorthand for “thesis examination” when people ask me questions:

  • VIVA is used when someone thinks there is an acronym involved or perhaps they are especially nervous, placing the event on a great pedestal.
  • A person might write Viva when they give some importance to the exam. It has a title. This is my Viva.
  • It’s most common for people to simply write viva – it’s also technically the correct way to write it as well!

When you’re asking a question, it doesn’t matter which spelling or arrangement you use, so long as you’re understood.

It helps to remember though that different words mean different things, and perhaps give a hint to how you feel about something.

If you’re preparing for your VIVA, is it possible that you’re anxious? And if so, what can you do to help yourself or get help?

If you think about your Viva are you sure you’re on track? Sometimes a person’s focus on the importance of a thing can lead to obscuring other details. Maybe take some time to check all is well.

And if you are simply working towards your viva then just take it nice and easy. How will you get ready? How will you get the help you need from others?

It takes a little work but not too much to get ready for a viva – but then if you’re writing viva instead of VIVA or Viva you’re probably fine in appreciating that!

Nathan

Decide In Advance

Daily Post

There’s a lot you won’t know about your viva before it happens.

You can have reasonable guesses and expectations around questions, opinions and discussion topics. You can learn generally what to expect and build up a picture. But you can’t know. There’s a lot you have to simply contend with as it happens. A question is asked and you have to pause, think and respond – in whatever way seems best in that moment.

This is why the viva, even if it’s a positive experience, can be a draining event: a lot of brain work is required on the day.

 

To help reserve as much thinking ability as you can, decide as much as you can in advance of your viva.

Decide in advance:

  • how you will get to your viva – and what time you’ll leave!
  • what you will wear – and how you want it to make you feel!
  • what to take – and don’t forget to check with friends and your supervisor to see if there is anything atypical that you might need!

You have to pause, think and respond as every question is asked. You can’t decide on a response before you hear the question – but you can decide in advance how you will respond to every question. Pause. Think. Take your time.

You can decide in advance to pursue confidence. You can’t decide that you won’t be nervous; feelings can’t be pushed away by a decision. But you can decide that you want to feel confident and take actions to find that.

Nathan

The Next Challenge

Daily Post

That’s one way to think of the viva if you’ve submitted your thesis. It’s just the next challenge.

You’ve faced, figured out and overcome many more on the way to submission. You can rise to this one too.

And then on to the next challenge – because for all of the importance you might give your viva, your thesis and your PhD, there’s another challenge coming along for you.

Nathan

The Final Hours

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A full-time PhD could take about a thousand days from when you start work on your research to when you submit your thesis.

Getting ready for your viva is a modest chunk of work that could take twenty or thirty hours spread out over two to four weeks.

The viva itself might go by so fast that you’ll blink and miss it! Two, three, four hours? Maybe less, certainly not much more even for a “long” viva.

 

Thousands and thousands of hours of work to get to submission.

Twenty or thirty more to get ready.

Two or three to finally get the job done.

Those final hours matter, but rather than stress about what will, won’t or might happen in those few hours, it’s probably better to focus on the work you will have done in the thousands of hours before then.

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