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Month: March 2025

Nathan

Just Yesterday

Daily Post

My life has moved on a lot since my PhD – but there are aspects of the first week of being a PGR that I remember as clearly with a pin sharp image and in 3D Surround Sound audio.

I remember what it felt like to walk in to my office for the first time. How it felt to get going again after a year’s gap from my Masters. Looking at half-remembered notes of a topic and rebuilding those ideas. The early conversations and confusion, “So what do I do?”

 

I can remember all of that well. With years of hindsight I see the difference between Nathan-in-October-2004 and Nathan-in-June-2008. The latter knew a lot more than the former! He had done a lot, but he didn’t think about it that way. He had results but he didn’t value them as much as he could have.

Both of those Nathans were quite different, except that both still continued to not feel confident.

 

At times the first day of my PhD and the first minutes of my viva seem like they were just yesterday. And sometimes they feel like a million years ago or that they happened to someone else.

I would encourage you to look back a little as you come to the end of your PhD journey. Hopefully you’ll look kindly on the former-you; at the very least realise that you have come a long way, growing in knowledge, understanding and skill.

And hopefully you’ll realise that that growth and achievement is a good foundation for feeling confident at your viva.

Nathan

Deleted

Daily Post

Or left out. Or removed. Edited. Excised. Not pursued after a certain point.

The many thousands of hours of work that lead to your thesis also produced things that did not make it into your thesis.

Your viva prep needs to focus on the research that’s in your thesis. You need to review the ideas, results and conclusions that matter but perhaps spare thirty minutes for the deleted.

Reflect and pick something that you left out and consider:

  • Why was it deleted?
  • How did you arrive at the decision?
  • What difference, if any, would it make to include it in your thesis?

You’ve not made a mistake by leaving something out; remind yourself of why your thesis has what it has – and why it doesn’t have what you have deleted. Review the case for presenting things exactly the way you have.

Nathan

Outside The Box

Daily Post

PhD researchers have to be creative in some way: a candidate is expected to produce a significant and original contribution through their work.

What makes your work original? In what ways were you creative throughout your PhD? How did you look at things differently? How did you find solutions to problems?

What did you do that no-one has ever done before?

And having stepped out of one box through your work, what does the new box look like?

(and how might you or someone else go further?)

Nathan

Guarding Your Research

Daily Post

It’s an easy enough mistake to hear “thesis defence” and believe that you have to guard your work.

Defence brings up ideas of protection, or courtrooms, of shielding and more.

An examiner might have a pointed question or comment, but you generally don’t need to worry about them piercing the armour of words and ideas you have fashioned during your PhD.

Defending your thesis means supporting your work. Defending your thesis means providing clarity. Defending your thesis means saying more after you’ve done a lot.

You don’t need to guard your research from your examiners. You do need to be ready to show exactly what it all means at your viva.

Nathan

Six Questions About Contributions

Daily Post

Examiners need to explore your significant original contributions to research at your viva.

In preparation for your viva it’s worth reviewing your contributions to think about how you would share them. There’s no right answer or script to use: the words you find in the moment will be enough. In preparation though, reflect on any contribution with the following questions to give you something to consider and speak about:

  • Why did you explore the contribution area?
  • How did you do that?
  • What did you find as a result?
  • When did you do this work?
  • Where did you do this work?
  • Who, if anyone, helped you?

The first three questions, Why-How-What, help to explore what makes the contribution valuable. The second three questions, When-Where-Who, reveal more of the context for the work.

Start with Why-How-What. Dig deeper with When-Where-Who.

No scripts. Just thoughts and ideas to draw from at the viva.

Nathan

The Seven Steps

Daily Post

I like details. I like tips. I like solutions.

I also like the big picture, like these seven steps to being ready for your viva:

  1. Submit your thesis.
  2. Sketch out a viva prep plan.
  3. Check the regulations and make sure you follow them.
  4. Ask for help when you need it.
  5. Do the prep work needed to be ready.
  6. Find opportunities to rehearse being in the viva.
  7. Reflect on the knowledge, capability and progress that has got you this far.

This is the big picture – and there over 2800 more posts on the Viva Survivors blog that dig deeper!

 

PS: I’ll be sharing a lot of advice and ideas at my Viva Survivor session on March 27th 2025. Registration is open now for my webinar and includes a catch-up recording if you can’t attend live.

Nathan

Viva Survivor, Thursday 27th March 2025

Event, Update

Every day I share at least one helpful thought through the Viva Survivors blog. There’s a lot in the archives but it could take a long time to put together a full picture of what to expect and what to do by reading the last 2800 posts.

If you want a good idea of what to expect, what to do, how to get ready and how to build confidence then take a look at my upcoming Viva Survivor session on Thursday 27th March 2025. For three hours I’ll be sharing what vivas are really like, what effective viva preparation can look like and how someone can engage well with their examiners.

For three hours on Zoom you’ll get direct help from me through a live session that I have shared and developed with thousands of PhD candidates over the last fifteen years. I have a full plan, plenty of time to take questions from attendees, great follow-up resources and a catch-up recording in case anyone can’t stay for the whole time.

I love doing this session (I’ve delivered it almost 400 times!) and I hope that you’ll take a look at the registration page if you are looking for viva help. If you have any questions please get in touch – and do please pass on information of the session to anyone who might be looking for viva help.

One last time: Viva Survivor session on Thursday 27th March 2025!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Nathan

End Well

Daily Post

The simplest way to end your viva well is to:

  • Check that your examiners have no more questions for you.
  • Check that you have no questions that you need to ask them.
  • Listen carefully to what your examiners are telling you through the process.

Vivas tend to conclude with short breaks for examiners to confer.

They tend to result in minor corrections for candidates.

And they tend to end after several hours of challenging discussion about interesting and potentially difficult topics of research – which is why it’s useful to breathe, take your time and make notes if you need to.

No-one wants a really long and drawn out viva process. At the same time, no-one benefits from rushing through the final stages. End your viva well.

Nathan

Red Carpet Treatment

Daily Post

There are no silly questions for a PhD candidate to ask about the viva.

I’m continually saddened though that PGR culture – and regulations and supervisors – haven’t stopped candidates believing that their examiners are some higher order of human and thus need very special treatment at the viva.

Here are three questions I’ve been asking the last six months:

  • “Do I need to arrange catering for my viva?”
  • “Is it appropriate to buy gifts for my examiners?”
  • “Is there a formal way that I’m supposed to talk to my examiners?”

Again, these aren’t silly questions: these are stressed questions by people who desperately want to do the right thing. There’s a mystery to the viva process. There’s a substantial amount of work leading to it. It’s all important so there are a lot of motivations for a lot of questions that any candidate might ask.

To the questions above: catering might be welcome, but it’s not your job to arrange it; no gifts; being polite and friendly is enough.

 

Your examiners are professionals. They’ve come to do a job. It’s an important job, no more than that.

They don’t need a red carpet rolling out.

Expect them to be prepared. They expect the same from you.

Leave the formalities there.

Nathan

Airbrush

Daily Post

There’s a lot you might need to focus on from your PhD journey as you prepare for your viva: your contribution, the work you put in, time invested in building your skills and knowledge.

As you take time to prepare consider that it could be time to let some other things go.

Let go of disappointments. Don’t dwell on your failures, except what you learned from them. Airbrush out things that drag on your confidence. Leave behind past frustrations that aren’t helping you get ready.

What do you need to forget from your PhD journey? What can you leave out of the story you tell yourself of how you got this far?

You don’t have to focus on your whole PhD journey to find confidence and feel capable for your viva.