Respond Well
Two words that really summarise what you need to do in the viva. Respond: you don’t have to have an answer for every question. You may or may not have an idea or opinion that’s fully formed. The viva is...
Daily viva help for PhDs
Two words that really summarise what you need to do in the viva. Respond: you don’t have to have an answer for every question. You may or may not have an idea or opinion that’s fully formed. The viva is...
Where peers are your friends, colleagues, acquaintances and whatever other titles you can think of! Ask about their vivas. Ask about their experiences. Ask what they know about the viva. Ask them what they did to get ready and if...
Preferences are the things that we’d like, but which we could work around if needed. Preferences for your viva and viva prep might include: Starting in a morning; Reading your thesis with a fresh pot of coffee; Knowing your external...
You could have many things to do when you’re getting ready for your viva – work, family life, responsibilities and obligations – and viva preparation might not break into your top ten time commitments. It won’t help to be stressed....
Or, a handy guide to the scope and scale of various viva preparation activities! Small Tasks Downloading regulations for your institution. Putting a sticky note at the start of each chapter of your thesis. Bookmarking the staff pages of your...
No PhD candidate gets to their viva or passes because they are lucky. When we reduce the situation to the simplest terms, a PhD candidate submits their thesis and succeeds in the viva because they work hard and enough of...
You have an opportunity during viva prep to make your thesis as useful as possible for you. Thesis annotation doesn’t just mean writing notes in the margins. Perhaps using colour could help, for example: You could underline typos with red...
Viva preparation is a big part of getting ready. It takes time for a candidate to make sure their thesis is ready and that they feel prepared to sit down and talk with their examiners. Lots of practical tasks and...
The viva isn’t the top of the mountain. It’s not the hardest challenge, the last thing to do or the most difficult conversation. The stakes aren’t raised to such a height that you are risking everything when you talk to...
A few loose thoughts… Viva regulations are impersonal. They give structure. Section 2, paragraph 3, check appendix 2A. Regulations say yes and no. They specify and describe: this is a pass, this is a fail. But viva outcomes...