If you’re looking for a way to share a summary of your research, as you might in the viva, think Why-How-What:
Every time you give a summary of your work you get to try new ways to communicate what’s important. These questions are only the beginning, you might want to elaborate. You have to start somewhere though.
I put slips of paper on the walls by my desk to inspire or motivate me; they’re like really low-tech motivational posters! I wish I had a gorgeous sunset with a quote, but they don’t make them with the quotes that motivate me. I have things to try to direct my projects and thinking. It helps prod and prompt me.
A recent addition is a quote attributed to Vince Lombardi, “The man on the top of the mountain didn’t fall there.” It resonates with a recurring theme on this blog: you can’t get to the end of the PhD by accident. If your viva is coming up, it’s because you did the work. You must have done.
Not all quotes or sayings work for everyone, but maybe you can find some words out there that will help. Maybe you already know a quote that helps you when you’re facing difficulties. Either way, if you find some words that help, share them!
You asked questions, read things, thought deeply, gave some talks, did research and wrote a lot.
Now your viva is coming up and… nothing changes. You don’t have to do all of these things with the same intensity, but you’re drawing on the same skills you must have used.
If you did your PhD, you can be ready for your viva.
I ask people how they feel about the viva at the start of viva prep workshops. It’s rare for candidates to say excited. Sometimes people will frame excitement as “excited that my PhD is almost over” but that’s quite different from “excited that I get to talk to my examiners about my research.”
You can’t cherry pick the discussion in the viva, and it’s not wise to only focus on the good stuff in your prep, but you can take control of where some of your motivation is coming from for the viva. If you ask the right questions you can inspire yourself. Maybe if you have any anxiety about it all, you can change the way that you think about it.
So, to start, what are you excited to talk about with your examiners?
I think most people feel nervous before the viva. That’s normal. But feeling nervous is different from feeling worried. Feeling nervous is a signal you know something is important. Feeling worried is like an investment in fear. What can you do?
Worry won’t help. Your response to it might.
In workshops I ask people to come up with lists of five highlights in their thesis, or five important papers that they’ve used in their bibliography. For many this isn’t too tricky a task, three or four come quite easy and the fifth is the work of a moment to fill in the blank.
How about another five? Not as easy perhaps.
The top five come to mind easy because we’re human and we make patterns; chances are you’ve already got a bullet point list of highlights or important references. You’ve settled on your talking points.
It’s not enough to just make a lot of lists to prepare for the viva. Stretching yourself by making lists can be valuable. For the examples above, you can expand on what makes your thesis great, or dig deeper into the papers that helped build your work. You have to think to do this. Don’t settle for what always comes to mind. See how far you can go and what new connections you can make.