You Are Here

Month: February 2025

Nathan

Knowing Your Stuff

Daily Post

At the viva you’re expected to know your stuff, whatever that might mean for someone in your field or discipline. Broadly speaking: you’re clever, you’ve done the work and you’re assumed to be capable.

It’s not hard to worry that you might be missing something, but keep in mind, to set the right perspective:

  • Knowing your stuff doesn’t mean you need to know everything.
  • Knowing your stuff doesn’t mean you are expected to have a fast recall of every detail.
  • Knowing your stuff doesn’t mean having read every paper.
  • Knowing your stuff doesn’t mean guessing every question your examiners might have.
  • Knowing your stuff doesn’t mean knowing all of your examiners’ stuff too.
  • Knowing your stuff doesn’t mean figuring things out quickly.

At the viva, knowing your stuff means being knowledgeable, capable and being willing to engage with your examiners’ questions and the discussion that follows from them.

To get as far as you have you must know your stuff: it’s the only way anyone could get to submission.

 

PS: want to know more about the viva process and expectations? Take a look at my Viva Survivor session. Registration is live for my March 27th 2025 webinar and includes follow-up resources and a catch-up recording if you can’t attend on the day.

Nathan

The Build-up

Daily Post

At submission sketch out a viva prep plan.

You might not know your viva date but that’s OK: you know your current situation. You know how busy you are and you know what responsibilities you have. With a little reflection you can also get a good feeling about how you need to approach getting ready.

A sketch of a plan can take account of busy-ness and obligations. Do you need two weeks to get ready or is it safer for your stress and your time to have a month? Sketch how you would do the work.

Start small and build. Day one of viva prep doesn’t have to mean reading your whole thesis, checking ten papers and having a mock viva. Build up to that. Read a little and then do more the next day.

The last week of viva prep will probably be busier than the first – but the last day might be more relaxed as you realise you’ve built up everything you need for meeting your examiners.

After all, you’re building on solid foundations.

Nathan

Keep Going In Difficult Circumstances

Daily Post

How did you do it?

An assumption: however enjoyable, rewarding, satisfying and interesting a PhD journey can be, there are always difficult circumstances that are part of the process.

So given that assumption, how did you do it? How did you manage to keep going in those difficult circumstances?

Or, to simplify, how did you survive?

 

I’m not suggesting that any difficult circumstances are fair, right, justified or should be shrugged away. Difficult covers a wide range of things and some situations can’t be excused.

Whatever they were, you made it this far.

You managed to keep going. Part of that is knowledge, capability and work. You applied yourself. Effort lead to results in one form or other.

Part of it is simply determination: if you made it through it’s because you kept going.

Whatever the situations and however you did it you have found yourself on a path to success. You submitted your thesis. You’re doing the work to get ready for a successful viva.

 

It’s easy sometimes to think of these things like knowledge, capability, work and determination as somehow separate.

We can put them at arm’s length, other things, when in fact it’s you.

How did you survive? How did you manage to keep going in difficult circumstances?

Every answer may be unique but at the core there is always a simple truth.

You did it – and that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Nathan

Density

Daily Post

Thousands of hours of work, spread out over hundreds and hundreds of days.

How much thinking? How much practical work? How much reading?

Now all squashed into several chapters, a few hundred pages maybe.

Your thesis is dense.

In preparation for your viva you need to dig in to it.

Read what you wrote. Reflect on what it means. Review what you need to so you feel ready.

And remember that dense substances are often very valuable.

Nathan

Arguing The Point

Daily Post

Defending your thesis doesn’t mean that you need to argue throughout the viva. Defending can simply be supporting what you’ve done and written, providing clarity if something isn’t as clear as you hoped or confirmation if your examiners just need a little more.

There is a possibility though that you might need to argue. You might need to say that you believe or know that you are right. You might need to say that you believe or know that your examiner’s opinion is not correct, incomplete or not seeing the whole picture.

Remember that arguing the point does not need to be assertive. You don’t need to dial your speech up to 11 to win!

Ask questions. Listen carefully. Think even more carefully. Speak clearly to get your reasons across. And be sure you know your examiner’s reasons before you argue against their point or opinion.

Thesis defence does not imply that it is under attack. It certainly doesn’t mean that you are under attack.

Nathan

Goodbyes

Daily Post

Goodbye to your office and officemates perhaps, to a community of fellow travellers on the road to academic success.

 

Goodbye to the piles of paper and folders of files. Whatever your future plans you might be letting go of a lot of stuff.

 

Goodbye to your institution? Maybe. Goodbye to where you live now? Perhaps. There can be a lot of logistics and a lot of feelings that go with moving on from the PhD.

 

Goodbye to the You-That-Was-A-PhD-Candidate. Hello to the You-That-Is-A-PhD-Graduate.

Hello to You-Who-Survived – you managed to keep going in difficult circumstances.

 

At some point after your viva you’ll have to say some goodbyes. And at some point you have to figure out what all of that means for you. Take your time.

Say your goodbyes. Be ready for the feelings. Be ready to say a few hellos too.

Nathan

Imperfect Metrics

Daily Post

Viva success is not based on how many days you showed up to do your work.

Success isn’t determined by the number of chapters you have written, the number of papers you cited, how many conference talks you’ve delivered or whether you have several publications out there.

All these numbers can give a boost to your confidence though. The numbers mean you did something, repeatedly, and over a long period of time.

You need to look a little deeper for proof of your knowledge and capability as a PhD candidate, but a good starting point might be the imperfect metrics of a few numbers that show you did the work.

They count for something.

Nathan

The Biggest What If

Daily Post

What if it happened at my viva?

Whatever it is, there would be consequences. That’s a simplified way to look at the situation, but it’s the most accurate. The most dire “what if” differs for everyone; depending on the exact details the consequences could vary a lot.

It might be forgetting something. In which case you could take time to recall. You could annotate your thesis to help you remember. There’s something to do.

It might be worrying about saying “I don’t know” – which is a common viva worry. Saying “I don’t know” is not the end of the viva. Rehearsal before the viva helps a lot. Remembering you can pause in the viva to think about why you don’t know.

It might be anxiety about failing. Failure at the viva is rare. This might be the biggest what if: which means that if you worry about it then you have to do something to move on.

If you’re really worried that you might fail then you need to explore why. You need to talk to your supervisors or someone you trust. You need to figure out what’s at the root of the worry. You need to do something.

It doesn’t just happen. You don’t just think about it for no reason. If you can figure out what’s causing you to wonder “what if…?” you can then take steps to move past it.

Nathan

Contributions Matter

Daily Post

“How would you define your significant, original contribution?”

That’s a hard question for a lot of reasons.

It asks for specifics, your opinion and makes an assumption that there is one big thing you’ve done through your research. Personally, I would struggle to respond because I didn’t have a single focus during my PhD: my thesis was a collection of results, not one overall idea that I explored.

It’s a hard question, but it could be rewarding to unpick nonetheless. Reflecting might reveal some helpful ways to share your research with your examiners (and others).

It’s also helpful to reflect on all of your contributions, big and small. Look back over your PhD and think about your results, achievements and victories. What do they all amount to? Whether or not there is a single headline conclusion to point to, what do your contributions mean?

Remember that contributions can be a stepping stone to confidence: recognising what you’ve achieved can be a helpful way to boost how you feel.

 

PS: exploring confidence is a big part of my Viva Survivor webinar – alongside expectations, viva prep and the whole viva process. Registration is open now for my March 27th 2025 session and includes a catch-up recording if you can’t attend live!

Nathan

Qualified

Daily Post

Three qualified people is what you have, at a minimum, at your viva.

Every viva in the UK has one candidate and at least two examiners.

The latter are qualified because of how they are selected. They need to meet criteria, such as having a doctorate, experience and training. There will be a specific reason why they were asked to be your examiners rather than someone else.

You are qualified because you did the work. You invested the hours. You made something. So you’re capable now and qualified to be at your viva.

 

Remember: qualified is not a synonym for perfect. No-one at your viva is perfect or is expected to be perfect. You’re all just continuing to demonstrate your best and most capable selves.

1 2 3