Three Mugs Of Tea
On any week day, before work really begins, I need to have had three mugs of tea. There’s nothing super fancy about the tea I drink. It’s not a special blend, made in an ornate pot or served with a...
Daily viva help for PhDs
On any week day, before work really begins, I need to have had three mugs of tea. There’s nothing super fancy about the tea I drink. It’s not a special blend, made in an ornate pot or served with a...
(I couldn’t think of a snappy name!) Except for the odd Christmas Day off here and there, I’ve now written and published 2000 days of posts on: viva expectations; viva prep; examiners; the PhD journey; and viva confidence. And a...
You have to have a lot for your viva. You need some research, developed over several years or more. You need a thesis, written to an appropriate standard. You need one or more supervisors to help along the way. You...
Three or more years of research and writing. Two to four weeks of preparation time. One day with a challenge. Put the viva in the right perspective.
To prepare for the viva well it helps to do the right things. You don’t need to cover your thesis in notes and extra scribbles in every margin. Be targeted to make a better version of your thesis. You don’t...
That’s the time after your viva, after corrections, after your final thesis submission but before you actually graduate with your PhD. Are you a Doctor at that point? Technically no, but you might not let that stop you from changing...
There are lots of questions you could be asked at your viva, including questions you’ve never been asked before! But by the time you get there you will have had lots of practise responding to questions, certainly enough to do...
If before your viva you feel an abundance of nervousness, then you have to look a little and find reasons to feel confident. Confidence doesn’t eliminate nerves, but it does help to put those sorts of feelings into perspective. Nervousness...
I’ve written before about INTRO, a neat acronym for structuring the start of a presentation: Interest: start by sharing something that will grab the audience’s attention. Need: say why what you’re going to talk about is important. Title: share the...
Outside of ghost stories and horror movies, there’s not a lot to be scared of on Halloween. The frights are all make believe, costume and shadows serving to send shivers down our spines. For a moment, perhaps, we feel a...