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Author: Nathan

Nathan

Questions About Your Thesis

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What might an expert make of your thesis?

What would a non-expert be able to understand?

What does your supervisor say about your work?

How much would your friends and colleagues need to know to talk about your thesis with you?

What would you emphasise in a summary or seminar about your thesis?

What points from your thesis connect with the work of your internal examiner?

What points from your thesis connect with the work of your external examiner?

 

None of these questions are typical of the viva. All could be helpful to reflect on beforehand so that you can think about what your work means, how you’ve written about it and how you might explain it to others.

Nathan

The Important Tasks

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When someone asks me about the most important viva prep task that they need to do, I offer a lot of encouragement and I ask  a few questions.

The truest response for a lot of questions about the viva begins with “It depends…” because there are always lots of factors.

Viva prep helps someone get ready for the particular challenge of the viva. In general, it’s important to plan first to reduce stress as you prepare. It’s important to have a clear idea of your thesis and the contribution. It’s important to annotate your thesis but also important to create summaries to help you think. And it’s really important to feel confident about being in the viva – so it’s important to make time for rehearsal.

By asking someone questions I might be able to give some more specific suggestions to them. I can tailor all of the general points above to the person: everyone needs to rehearse, but a mock viva might not be the best choice for someone. Annotation is key but everyone has different needs for a well-annotated thesis.

While a lot depends on the unique situation and individual, every PhD candidate benefits from remembering that the most important tasks are the ones that have lead up to submission. Every candidate creates a unique body of work, a unique thesis and a unique set of circumstance that leads to their viva. But no candidate gets that far without overcoming challenges, learning a lot and doing a lot.

The important tasks of viva prep help someone be ready for the particular challenges of the viva. The important tasks of the PhD journey help someone be ready for facing difficult challenges in general.

Nathan

72 Hours To Go

Event, Update

In three days I’m sharing my Viva Survivor webinar live on Zoom. I do this regularly for universities and doctoral training programmes around the UK, but this is only the second time that I’m offering the session with an open registration. After the first time I got some lovely feedback in the days after:

“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.”

UCLAN PhD Candidate, December 2024

 

Viva Survivor is my attempt to help PhD candidates feel like they are going to be OK at the viva. Afterwards a person will know:

  • what to expect – and what to focus on;
  • what they need to do – and know that they can do it;
  • how to engage at the viva – and know they will do it!
  • how to build confidence – and how to get started on that.

A 3-hour live webinar, a full and helpful session, plenty of time for questions, follow-up resources and a catch-up recording in case you can’t stay for the full time.

Registration for Viva Survivor is open for the next few days and the session starts at 10am, this Thursday 27th March. If you’re looking for help please do take a look – and if you know someone who might be interested do please pass this news on.

Thank you for reading 🙂

Nathan

When You Have To Stop

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There’s a moment coming when you will start your viva.

All of your preparations will stop. You will have to be ready.

What do you want that moment to be like? How would you like to feel? What would you need to know by then?

 

Whether your viva is a week away, a month from now or some date later this year take a little time to reflect on the questions above. You can’t directly control how ready you’ll feel but you can decide on and take steps that lead you in that general direction.

So what steps will you take? How do you want to feel when you have to stop?

Nathan

A Plan For No Corrections

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Become a good writer.

Think carefully about the material for your thesis and how you might best present it.

Write your thesis.

Proofread your thesis carefully.

Ask for feedback from your supervisor or someone else you trust.

Rewrite based on your feedback and according to what you think is right.

Use a good spellcheck and read your work aloud to make sure that it makes sense.

Make final edits and submit your thesis.

 

All of which makes a good plan, but not a foolproof one. You can invest the time, follow the steps, be careful and still get corrections requested by your examiners at your viva.

You might misspell a word. You might forget something. There may be another way of looking at a situation.

And if that were the case you’ve not missed anything in your plan or in your effort. Writing is hard. Writing a thesis is really hard.

You’ve not done anything wrong. Your effort shines through. The corrections you’re asked to complete are simply one more round of effort to get your thesis as good as it can reasonably be.

 

The plan above is not one that leads to no corrections. The general points could help you write a good thesis for submission.

Happy writing!

Nathan

Zero Chance

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The failure rate of the UK PhD viva is not zero but it’s very close. An incredibly rare event might still be enough to make someone worry, particularly when the outcome is so important.

If you are worrying at any stage before your viva then please consider:

  • If you did the work that means something.
  • If you wrote your thesis, reviewed, revised and redrafted, that means something.
  • If you learned what to expect that means something.
  • If you prepared well that means something.
  • If you show up with even a small amount of confidence to meet your examiners that means something.

If you have all of the above then you have nothing to worry about. You can work past worry ahead of your viva. You can do your best over a long period of time. The overall failure rate might not be zero but your actions can put you in a category all of your own.

If all of the above points are true for you, what are the chances that you’re really headed towards failing your viva?

Nathan

Status Bars

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How close am I to levelling up? How much more do I need? When do I get the next thing?!

Video game status bars tickle my brain in just the right way. Not every game has them, but they help me a lot when I’m playing challenging games. They track experience and help me know I’m moving forward, even if sometimes I still have a lot to do.

As a PhD candidate, you can be sure your personal status bar has been moving in the right direction for a long time. As you get closer to submission and the viva it could feel like there’s always more to do – or things you could have done but have missed.

Just like most video games you don’t need everything in order to be complete. You don’t need every achievement in order to be good enough. The status bar leading up to your PhD completion needs to be fairly full but you don’t need to be superhuman to succeed.

By the time you get to submission and your viva you’ve levelled up enough.

Nathan

What Are Your Numbers?

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I track the number of people I have worked with directly on their viva.

I keep a tally of the number of sessions I have delivered.

I record every daily post I’ve published here.

(and record a word count too!)

These are stats and they don’t mean much to anyone else but they help remind me. Knowing that I have published more than 2800 posts gives me confidence to write more. Remembering how many sessions I’ve done in the past helps me when I feel nervous about doing a webinar for someone new or trying something different.

 

My numbers are not the whole story. They’re a starting point or prompt for my confidence.

What are your numbers? What numbers could you track to help your confidence?

  • Could it be the number of papers you’ve read or cited?
  • The number of days or hours you must have spent on your PhD?
  • How many times have you spoken in a seminar or at a conference?
  • How often have you overcome challenges?

Find some numbers that matter and that help you. Record them and remember them: they’re a powerful confidence booster.

Nathan

Future Feelings

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What do you think it will feel like to wake up the day after your viva?

How might you feel if you were to look at a list of requested corrections?

What do you think it will feel like to be told you’ve passed?

How will you feel when you shake someone important’s hand at graduation?

 

And assuming that some of the above are positive or good expected feelings, what are you going to do between now and your viva to get to that reality?

Nathan

Careful Prep

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Is there a danger that I could be overprepared for my viva? Do I need to be careful?

No to the first question, yes to the second.

I don’t think a candidate can do so much preparation that they can harm how ready they are for their viva – as if they were driving so fast in one direction that they missed their destination. Of course, a candidate could be over-invested: prep is necessary but it’s a means to an end.

Being careful means making a plan and trying to follow it. Sketch out the things you need to do, ask others for a little help or guidance and then do the work. Leave yourself time so that you aren’t stressed. Don’t fill in the hours with more and more work just so you feel busy.

You can’t be overprepared for your viva. Be careful that you don’t spend more time than you need or leave yourself too little time to feel really ready.

 

PS: want to know exactly what kind of work goes into being prepared for your viva? Take a look at the details of my Viva Survivor session on March 27th 2025. I’ll be covering a lot at my live webinar next week and providing a catch-up recording too!

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