They matter. But the little things that evade memory or fast recall probably don’t matter as much as you think they do.
You’re primed to notice the little things you forget more than you notice all of the things that you easily remember.
If nerves about remembering everything before the viva appear, banish them by thinking about all of the things you do know, rather than the tiny fraction of details that don’t snap into focus.
Luck or random chance don’t dictate the outcome of the viva. It’s not down to the examiners’ whims. It’s not an exam about “some” book and research. That book and research didn’t just appear. You didn’t just wake up to discover it was viva day. Candidates don’t just “suddenly” fail.
Eliminate the impossible and we’re left with the truth.
You created your thesis through talent, work and time. You earned your place in your viva.
You pass because of who you are and what you’ve done.
It’s tempting to build up the viva as an epic once-in-a-lifetime event.
Make-or-break, do-or-die, all-or-nothing…
What about the 1000+ once-in-a-lifetime PhD days that lead up to the viva?
Earlier this year I shared my directed thinking tool, VIVA, which is really useful for analysing chapters of your thesis in preparation for the viva. My general suggestion for VIVA is to take a sheet of paper and divide it into four sections. Then in each section make notes about the chapter you want to reflect on but directed by a specific keyword:
This kind of directed or prompted thinking can build a really interesting reflection and summary. It’s enough to simply reflect and make notes, see where your thinking takes you. You can go much deeper if you want to though. First, simply asking “Why?” after each of your responses helps:
Why would they find that valuable? Why are you interested in that way? Why is it not clear? Why do you want to ask those questions?
Or for Valuable you could dig into different audiences: is there more than one kind of value that someone could look for? Has the Interesting component of your research changed over time? How can you make something Vague more clear? If there was only time to Ask one question of your examiners, how would you prioritise?
Questions lead to answers sometimes. In my experience they nearly always lead to more questions. That’s not a bad thing if you’re trying to think deeply about something. If you use VIVA, think about how you can use follow-up questions to reflect on your research.
You’re in the viva to pass it. You did the work, you built the ideas, you put it all together in your thesis.
You are where you are meant to be.
Imagine your thesis is an iceberg.
You can see it floating in a sea of knowledge. Big and beautiful, possibly dangerous! A hazard for other ideas, crashing and crushing, but approached carefully you can study it. Someone can think about how it relates to other icebergs/theses, what it means. They can dream up questions about it. Depending on who that someone is, depending on their experience – their own icebergs – those questions could be tricky…
But there’s more than what’s on the surface.
If an examiner or anyone else reads your thesis they see the surface iceberg. Your research and experience are underwater: a massive bulk of knowledge, skill, time, patience, talent, persistence. Quietly hidden, but there all the same.
Your examiners can ask about what they see on the surface, make guesses perhaps at what else is in the watery shadows.
You appreciate it all though; the surface iceberg-thesis and the experience-knowledge-skill-time-patience-talent-persistence-ice-mountain of research beneath the surface. It’s all there for you when you need it, hiding in the depths.
(with thanks to Sylvia Duckworth and Hugh Kearns for inspiration!)
An examiner is an examiner. It doesn’t matter if they’re your internal or external, physically close or based overseas; it doesn’t matter if they’re near to your research area or far away. Treat them the same for your preparations. They may have different roles and different perspectives they bring to the viva, that’s fine. You might view them through different lenses, but make sure you cover the basics for both in your preparation:
Remember that you too are justifiably an expert now. Whatever their questions and wherever they come from, you have a particular expertise that you can use to take part in the discussions of the viva.
How long will the viva be? How long should it be? If it’s long – or short – is that bad?
There are norms – two to three hours is quite common – but you can’t know in advance. It could be less, it could be more. Many candidates, I think the majority, feel like their viva passes in the blink of an eye.
The length doesn’t indicate something good or bad. There’s no correlation between the length of the viva and the outcome.
A successful viva is not a function of how long it takes. The time isn’t as important as you are.
How serious do you need to be about your viva?
It’s an exam. You might think of it as the exam, but it’s still a test. People prepare for tests. They don’t, if they’re serious about them, just shrug their shoulders and say, “Oh well, que sera, sera!” But if they go too far the other way, think of it as life and death, then they get in the way of their preparations and their potential enjoyment.
You can look forward to it, people do. You can get ideas from the conversation, make new connections. You can do more than pass.
Your viva could be enjoyable!
So how serious do you need to be? Enough to motivate you to ask some questions – to reflect, to prepare, to think for yourself what you need – but not so much you treat it like a sign of the coming apocalypse.
A little serious then, not Serious.
A potent strain of viva-anxiety virus breeds in the mind and says:
Faster, faster, faster!
Question. Answer. Question. Answer! Quest-ANSWER!
What if you take too long? What if it doesn’t come quickly enough? You “should” know it, right? RIGHT?!
Your research didn’t come that quickly. Recovering a memory or a fact might be quick. Analysing and thinking might not be.
There’s time available in the viva, and you can use it well. You can do this because you have experience, knowledge and skills, developed over time. Not thrown together ASAP, but brought forth through patient, deliberate effort.
Don’t listen to the virus if it crowds your thoughts. Pay attention to your experience. Take a little time to think before you answer.