In The Break
You can ask for a break at any point in the viva. Bathroom breaks, medical-related breaks or for any other reason if you need one. As well as attending to the need at the time, take sixty seconds in the...
Daily viva help for PhDs
You can ask for a break at any point in the viva. Bathroom breaks, medical-related breaks or for any other reason if you need one. As well as attending to the need at the time, take sixty seconds in the...
Every viva is different because every thesis and candidate are unique. Your thesis and experiences will to some extent ensure that your viva is different from every other viva before or after yours. Every viva follows patterns because of university...
Six years of the Viva Survivors daily blog. Wow. Time flies when you’re planning, writing and publishing an original and helpful blog post every day! What stands out to me from the last six years? As time goes by I...
Smile! Enjoy yourself. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Things we don’t often say to someone when they have a viva soon… But isn’t that a shame? Yes, there’s work to do and an exam to pass, questions to respond to...
Very simple viva directions! There’s a process and prep, a thesis and a candidate, two examiners with questions and comments and expectations and – – really you just need to sit down and talk. Have a conversation. A discussion. A...
Plan your prep. You’re busy, you’re tired and you have 101 things to do. Plan your prep so that the work doesn’t add to any stress and pressure you already feel. Accept your mistakes. Typos and clunky sentences don’t mean...
You don’t need to be afraid of finding typos. For the most part when someone finds a typo, at worst, it will distract them. A very, very, very minor frustration. For an examiner it is something to record in some...
The most common viva situation in the UK includes two examiners, one internal and one external. Some universities have independent chairs to steer and confirm the process, and in most cases a supervisor is allowed to attend with the candidate’s...
There are so many pages in your thesis. The pages contain the best of your research, told as well as you can; they hold facts and/or figures, opinions and conclusions, details and digressions and everything that you think is needed...
Realising that you’ve made a mistake doesn’t feel good. Spotting a typo, a mis-quote, an error or a problem in your thesis could send you into a panic. Or being told by your examiners that they have a question and...