Difficult ≠ Negative

It’s reasonable to expect your viva to be difficult.

Consider the work that you’ve done and how long you’ve been doing the work. Consider the level that you work at. Consider the years of work that yours is built on, the expectations of your discipline, the amount you’ve written and the general demands of a viva.

Consider that you might be nervous, anxious, worried or stressed.

It’s reasonable to expect your viva to be difficult – but that doesn’t mean it will be bad.

You might not like aspects of your viva or viva prep. You might not want to respond to certain questions or topics at the viva. And there might be general expectations of the whole event that worry you.

Still: does that mean your viva has to necessarily be a negative experience?

If you’re anxious, ask why. If you’re worried, ask why. If you’re stressed, ask for help.

 

It’s natural to be nervous. It’s right to expect your viva to be difficult.

Accept the situation, work in and around the parts that you need to. Don’t expect a box-ticking exercise but do expect that you can do well in a situation you can know so much about and prepare for.

And do remember that you’ve not got this far without facing a certain amount of difficulty – and making it through.

Challenges

Formally the viva is an exam.

Practically it could be described as a discussion.

It’s accurate to call it a challenge.

It’s not wrong to be nervous about exams, worried about talking or concerned about a challenge. It’s human to feel any of those things.

 

Remember that the viva is an exam conducted as a discussion – and only a challenge because that’s what you’ve made for yourself. The viva is one particular challenge after many that you have overcome. You’ve worked hard to do the work, do the research and write your thesis. Along the way you built yourself up as well, in your knowledge, understanding and general capability.

Remember that the work that has got you this far is what will get through the challenge yet to come.

Viva Help in 2025

“The session last week was so, so helpful. I really appreciated the practical guidance, which made so much sense and feels do-able and will help my confidence going into the viva. It helped that your manner in the training was calm, clear, concise, and full of empathy and understanding.”

I received these kind words in my inbox in mid-December, from a participant of my first independent Viva Survivor session. It was a really nice early Christmas present!

Viva Survivor is a 3-hour session I’ve now delivered to more than 7500 postgraduate researchers. Through it I help PhD candidates see that being ready for the viva is within their reach. They’ve done the work, they can learn what to expect and what to do and generally find confidence for the viva day.

I’m typically invited by universities and doctoral training programmes to share Viva Survivor with their researchers, but I decided to offer it up for open registration in December. One day, one time, any PhD candidate welcome to register. A 3-hour live session with follow-up supporting materials and a catch-up recording.

Would anyone be interested?

Thankfully yes! In fact, seven PhD candidates attended. There was a lovely atmosphere created by my cohort. It also felt good to write to people individually before and after the session. It might be impractical for university sessions, but I’d love to do more to recreate this in the future.

 

“Just a quick note to say I passed my viva with minor corrections! Your webinar was very useful and definitely helped to allay some anxiety regarding the whole process.”

My second early Christmas present was the above message: one of my attendees at the independent session had their viva within weeks of Viva Survivor and had succeeded! As you might imagine, it felt fantastic to have played a part in helping them get ready.

I want to help many more people in 2025. I’m happy to say that I have a lot of dates in my diary with universities over the coming months, including my 400th Viva Survivor – and I’m very happy to announce that registration is open now for independent Viva Survivor sessions on March 27th 2025 and June 25th 2025!

These are months away, but if your viva is this year do take a look at what I’ll be covering and what you get by registering and attending. If you have questions about the session or format then please email me. I’ll be happy to respond.

And if you know someone who might be interested in Viva Survivor please pass the details on!

Thank you for reading 🙂

Nathan

Keeping Track

If you keep track of your PhD journey you can see where you grow and how your work develops.

If you keep track of your viva prep you can see that you are moving closer to being done.

If you keep track of your own capability you can find a sense of confidence for your viva.

 

Doing things matters. Do the work, do the prep and do what you can to become a good researcher.

Keeping track matters too. Recognise what you have done and what that means for you.

Images Of Confidence

What do you think of when you think of “confidence”?

Do you think of a friend or family member? A famous person like an actor or sportsperson? Your supervisor?

I think of this image:

A single frame from a 1940s Superman cartoon. Partially silhouetted by light from behind against a general blue background. Superman stands with his hand on his hips, legs braced, back straight, chest out.

I used to watch 1940s Superman cartoons repeatedly when I was a child. It was the only video cassette we had! Somewhere along the way this image got lodged in my mind as a shorthand for confidence.

The more I’ve thought about it, the more I think it’s because despite the superpowers and general superhero associations, it represents a choice: “I want to do this” or maybe “I want to follow a specific path”.

Confidence is the result of a choice: you can’t choose to have confidence but you can choose to pursue confidence. The image above reminds me that I can take steps to develop and maintain my confidence.

What image do you think of when you think of “confidence”? And what does that image mean to you? And what else are you doing to build up up your self-confidence before your viva?

The Viva Roles

Examiners: two academics who accept the opportunity to examine your thesis and you. They have training, they prepare, they plan and they’re ready to do what’s required. They want to do the job well. They only take the role on if it seems interesting and right for them. They’re at your viva for a good reason, even if some of their questions might seem difficult.

 

Observers: a category that covers two particular sub-classes, the Independent Chairperson and your Supervisor.

  • The Independent Chair’s specific role is to make sure that the viva goes well. They might seem like a passive role – if they’re present at all, as not all vivas have Independent Chairs. They’ll steer the discussion if they think they need to. They’ll support newer academics taking on an Examiner role if that’s necessary.
  • If your Supervisor is observing then they are only observing; like the Chair they can’t ask or respond to questions. They sit back and watch. You get to decide if they’re present or not.

 

The Candidate: that’s you! How would you describe what you can do and what you’re there to do?

Mistakes Were Made

Mistakes are a natural part of the PhD process.

They might happen by accident or through ignorance. You might make a mistake and learn from it. You might make a mistake and be confounded by it. You might have a mistake and not realise it. It could be inconsequential like a spelling miskate mistake or require a fundamental change to your thesis conclusions.

(thankfully, the latter is very rare!)

Mistakes are a regular part of the PhD and so talking about them in some form at the viva is almost guaranteed. There’s no set formula for responding to mistakes, but perhaps the closest thing might be to consider:

  • Why the mistake is a mistake;
  • How it might be resolved;
  • What you will do as a result.

Anyone can make a miskate mistake. It’s what you do as a result, depending on the situation, that matters.

Up At The Top

I like a good analogy, but have never been fully convinced of comparing the end of the PhD to reaching the top of a mountain. Yes, it might be an uphill struggle at times, but hopefully it won’t leave you exhausted, struggling for air and wearing many layers of extreme weather clothing!

The one element I like in the idea though is the view.

The view from the top of a mountain must be pretty special. The view from the end of the PhD is pretty impressive. Looking back and looking down you could see the route you’ve taken; you might remember challenges you’ve passed, the paths you navigated well and maybe even the places you had to take advice from others.

The viva is not quite the end of the PhD, not really, but like the top of a mountain it’s a good place to pause and check out the view.

How far you’ve come, how you got there – and possibly where you might go next.

Differences Matter

I couldn’t decide what to title this post. I was thinking about Differences Don’t Matter, then Differences Do Matter and then Do/Don’t! Maybe you can decide at the end which word seems best. Hopefully you’ll appreciate why this needed a little thought – and I’m still thinking 🙂

 

Some differences don’t matter when it comes to the viva and viva prep. Your thesis might be bigger than your friend’s, but you still just need to get ready. That difference doesn’t make a difference to the work involved.

You might have an examiner who is an expert whereas your friend had someone more general. They had their supervisor present but you feel that that’s not the right approach for you. These are differences, but do they alter the viva’s purpose or process? I don’t think so.

Of course, two big and important caveats:

  • differences like those above might matter to you because they do change things for you. A larger thesis or a different format might change how you need to approach your prep. Examiner A or Examiner B might change the situation for you.
  • some differences might necessarily have an impact to time, resources and the approach you take; if you have particular requirements that need to be met for your viva or viva prep – for any reason – then that could change the situation for you compared to someone else.

Maybe it’s as simple as this: differences don’t change the what or the why of the viva and viva prep. You still need to get ready. The purpose and general process of the viva remain unchanged. Some aspects just are.

Differences could likely change the how of the viva or viva prep: a specific approach might be particular to you or any other individual. Your needs might alter a very practical element of your prep or the viva day. Sometimes a difference could be as simple as how you feel – and what you might then need to do as a result.