eBooks

101 Steps To A Great Viva (June 2023)

Cover of 101 Steps To A Great Viva

101 Steps To A Great Viva is a 24-page A5 zine to help postgraduate researchers as they prepare for their PhD viva. I share 101 actions that any PhD candidate can take to help them get ready for and have a great viva.

Created during a successful Kickstarter campaign in May 2023, 101 Steps To A Great Viva is my attempt to get someone to think proactively about their viva: what can you do to put yourself in a good position? What will you do?

I cover the viva from expectations to preparation, confidence-building to engaging with examiners. I’m extremely proud of the result and very grateful for the support I had to make it a reality. I created 101 Steps To A Great Viva as a print guide, but am very happy to make it available as pdf download too.

  • Buy and download 101 Steps To A Great Viva for £5 as a pdf from Payhip here.

Keep Going – A Viva Survivors Anthology (released May 26th 2022)

Since April 2017, I have published a new post every day with the aim of helping PhD candidates feel ready for their viva. To celebrate five years of daily blogging, I’ve collected my favourite writing from almost 1800 posts and created Keep Going – A Viva Survivors Anthology.

Keep Going collects posts about viva expectations, viva prep and examiners, as well as:

  • reflections on the PhD journey and confidence;
  • practical steps for getting ready for the viva;
  • thoughts on what it really means to survive the viva.

Over 150 posts from five years of writing, carefully curated and edited to be a valuable guide for every postgraduate researcher with a viva in their future. You can find and buy it for £9.99 from the following places:

  • In the UK, Keep Going is in the Kindle Store here.
  • In the UK and around the world, Keep Going is available from Payhip here.

Fail Your Viva – Twelve Steps To Failing Your PhD (And Fifty-Eight Tips For Passing)

The cover of my first ebook!

Fail Your Viva grew out of the Viva Survivor workshops that I have run since 2010 and from my work producing the Viva Survivors Podcast. PhD candidates kept telling me that they were worried that they would fail their viva, and that thought really stuck with me. How would you go about doing that? What would you do if you wanted to fail? And more importantly, what could you do to prepare for the viva?

In this short guide I cover twelve steps that will surely lead you to failing your PhD – and fifty-eight practical tips for preparing yourself for the big day. The ebook was first published in January 2013. You can find and buy it for £4.99 from the following places:

  • In the UK, Fail Your Viva is in the Kindle Store here;
  • In the UK and around the world, Fail Your Viva is available from Payhip here.

The Viva: Who? What? How?

"The Viva: Who? What? How?"

The Viva: Who? What? How? answers the most frequently asked questions about the PhD viva in the UK. I deliver viva preparation workshops, and over the last five years I’ve got a great understanding about the questions that distract PhD candidates. This book helps eliminate those distractions. Specific questions answered in The Viva: Who? What? How? include:

  • What makes a good examiner?
  • Is a mock viva essential?
  • Is there a “standard” viva format?
  • How can I avoid nerves?

There are twenty-seven chapters in the book, covering twenty-seven questions: all answered. The Viva: Who? What? How? was first published in May 2015. You can find and buy it in various DRM-free file formats for £5.99 from the following places:

  • In the UK, The Viva: Who? What? How? is in the Kindle Store here.
  • In the UK and around the world, The Viva: Who? What? How? is available from Payhip here.

Viva Books Bundle

BundleCover

From Payhip you can also buy the Viva Book Bundle – getting .mobi and .epub editions of The Viva: Who? What? How? and Fail Your Viva for only £8.99, wherever you are in the world. This bundle is only available via Payhip, it’s not available anywhere else. Click here to get it!