Category: Daily Post

It’s my birthday, and it dawned on me that I’ve put a lot of myself into the daily blog since I started it in 2017. I recorded an episode of the Viva Survivors Podcast a long time ago with my best friend interviewing me, but I’m all over the place in the blog, bits and pieces of me cut out and glued into this scrapbook of viva help.

So here are a few of my favourite posts where a part of me makes up the idea of the piece:

• Sleepless In New Brighton – the night before my viva, and what that was like.
• Per Scientiam Ad Meliora – my old school motto and why I think it matters.
• World’s Largest Prairie Dog – a story from a road trip.
• Katamari PhD! – one of my favourite video games and how it connects to the PhD!
• Why I Do This – some of the inspiration behind doing this blog.
• The Knack – a very personal story about my dad, my childhood, and the end of the PhD.

I don’t think you can do something like this, for nearly a thousand posts, without bits and pieces of yourself creeping in. I’m happy that I’m here and there throughout the blog. I hope you find these posts interesting, and in some cases entertaining too!

Now, while I go and celebrate not-quite-being-40-just-yet, if you have time reflect on what I’ve been reflecting: where can you find yourself in your work? Where are you in your thesis and your research?

After the viva there’s a few more things to do – corrections, completion, graduation – like an epilogue or a mid-credits scene at the end of a movie. You have more time to show your talent. Your viva is an ending, but not the end.

Keep going!

In preparing for the viva you have your thesis, your knowledge, your talent…

…and a lot of things potentially in your way, stopping you from getting ready! Busy days, family ties, worry, uncertainty over what to do – there’s lots to slow you down!

Thankfully, there’s a few simple steps you can take to remove the obstacles in your way:

1. Make a plan. Just a short one, just an idea of when you need start, when you need to stop and what you need to do.
2. Get your materials together. You need your thesis, some stationery, some paper and some papers you’ve referenced too. Get it all together, don’t leave things for later when you can procrastinate and avoid prep because you don’t have that paper you need.
3. Find a prep space. It might be your dining table, it could be your office, it could be a cafe. But find a space that you can work well in.
4. Tell others what you need. Probably, you need them to leave you alone from time to time! Get the space you need.
5. Do at least one thing every day. Read a chapter, write a summary, check a reference – do something so it becomes a habit. Small tasks add up.
6. Make a task list for your plan. What are all the tasks you have to get done? Cross them off as you go to see your progress as it happens.

Be practical. Don’t stay in your head with worries, doubts, procrastinations. Work better by removing things that create friction as you get ready to pass your viva.

How did you get interested in this area? How would you summarise your research? Could you tell us about your most important contributions?

There are other potential opening questions. None are trivial, all rely on a deep knowledge and talent that you alone have.

Opening questions often ask for summaries, considered opinions and so on. Your examiners don’t ask because they imagine you have ten short monologues prepared. They ask because they expect you will have been asked questions like these many times before. Responses should flow relatively naturally as you’ve thought about these ideas many times before.

They’re not asked because they’re easy. They’re definitelynot easy questions with easy answers. Instead, they’re asked because they give a natural way for the viva to start. Here’s a chance for you to start well. Here’s an opportunity for you to let your nerves and anxieties recede and let you knowledge and talent take the foreground.

You’re the only one who could give a great response to opening questions. Because of what you’ve done and what you know, you will give a great response to whatever question starts your viva.