Nathan

A Different Perspective

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It would be great to know what your examiners think about your thesis. So awesome to know what questions they’re going to ask. Probably a relief to know what the viva is going to be exactly like.

But.

You can’t ask your examiners for help. You can’t know what questions they will ask. You can’t know how they will go about running the viva.

But.

You have a supervisor. You may have more than one. All of them have PhDs. They probably act as examiners too. So ask them questions.

Ask them what they do when they read a thesis. Ask them if there are any questions that they always have in mind. Ask them what they would want to know about your research.

You can’t know your examiners’ perspective in advance. But you can get your supervisors’ thoughts: not the same, but they’ll come from experience and will be valuable.

Nathan

Friction

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Google around and you’ll find lots of articles about problems with making positive changes. People don’t eat well because they don’t buy good foods. People don’t exercise because they don’t have an environment around them that supports exercise. People don’t practise with a hobby because they keep their materials shut up, and so on.

One way to get around this is to get rid of friction in the situations: actually buy healthy stuff, use books as free weights, keep your paints or guitar out where they’re in reach. Organise yourself so that you free up time to do what you want. Then you can’t rationalise your way out of doing what you need.

What are the sources of friction in your viva prep environment?

  • Is it having space, time and quiet? What can you do to address that? Who can help?
  • Do you need journal articles and certain knowledge? How are you going to get it?
  • Feel like you want the “right kind” of stationery to make notes or summaries? Where can you get what you need?

Once you get rid of the friction you can get to work. Without these kinds of friction you’ll work better too.

Nathan

Five Stars

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What would a well-reviewed viva look like? Given that there’s two parties, what would they say about each other? I wonder…

Best examiners ever! Felt like they had really read my thesis and asked me lots of interesting questions. Was such a thrill to talk about my work with them. Gave me a lot to think about too, but all good. Would totally recommend to future candidates!

What kind of examiners would you give this review to? What are you looking for? Who might fit this description?

Stellar candidate, five stars! Took the time to think through our questions and answer our concerns. Clearly well-prepared: confident responses, excellent research. We wish them all the best for the future. Congratulations.

What would you need to do between now and the viva to get a review like that? What are you going to do?

Nathan

Who’s Who

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For some time I’ve suggested that researchers make an edited bibliography as part of their viva prep. If you have 200 references, what are the 20 most important? Make a list and add a few details to each of them: which chapter they’re most important to, why, and so on.

Last month at a workshop in Leeds, a participant gave me a brilliant hack of this idea. Think about the main researchers you’ve included in your bibliography, or who are big names in your field. Make a list and write a couple of sentences for each to summarise their research or opinions. Creating the list helps you to think about your field, and afterwards you have a resource to refer to as you prepare for the viva.

Nathan

Let’s Pretend

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I am a huge fan of role-playing games. I love everything about them, from playing them to running them, investigating how they work and the kinds of play that they can produce. I have a side project as a role-playing game publisher, although my ambitions to date have been quite modest.

Anyway! One of the things I like most about them is the opportunity they give people to pretend to be someone else. You’re no longer a mild-mannered skills trainer, you’re a warrior-wizard with strange powers and a thirst for revenge! For a few hours you can step back from the real world and be someone else, somewhere else.

An element of role-playing could be really useful before the viva too. A mock viva is a kind of role-play, but there are other opportunities.

  • Imagine you’re an examiner. How do you read a thesis? What questions would come to mind?
  • Imagine you’re your supervisor. What advice would help a researcher? What could you do to help?
  • Imagine you’re one of your friends. Do you know what a viva is? What questions do you have for your friend? How can you help?
  • Imagine you’re you in the viva. How is it going? How are you feeling?
  • Imagine you’ve succeeded. How did you do it? What helped you pass the viva?

Some people act when they role-play; others just think and imagine. Try it out for yourself. Reflect on what questions or ideas come up, and see how they can help you be ready for the viva.

Nathan

Do Not Forget

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You did all the work that you got this far.

Whether it’s your transfer viva, a conference presentation, your viva, walking across a stage somewhere to shake a hand and collect a scroll – you did that. No one else. On Day One of the PhD you were supposed to be there. On Day 1000 you were supposed to be there. Keep going, and when you get the chance, tell people about it. Your story might help someone.

Nathan

More Than Gold Letters

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After the dust of my examiners’ questions had settled and all the corrections were done I got to make some pretty nice hardbacks. My name and the title of my thesis was in gold on the cover! I was done! My thesis was great!

Except… I thought I would feel something. I was happy, sort of, I guess… And I knew that finishing my PhD was a milestone. I wasn’t expecting fireworks, or a band to strike up, but I thought I would feel something.

The end of my PhD was an anticlimax, I didn’t feel much of anything. At the time. As the months went on I realised that it was something big. It opened doors for me. It gave me a skill set that I use and develop nearly a decade later. It helped to give me a perspective on the world and shape my values. I co-authored a couple of papers and contributed to my field too.

My story might not mirror yours: it may be that you are totally over the moon after your viva. But you might not. Just a friendly word: it might take a while to sink in. Regardless, I think most PhDs, in time, come to realise that the PhD is so much more than a book with your name in gold letters on the cover, however cool that looks.

Nathan

9 Questions For The End Of The PhD

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How often did you reflect during your PhD? Here are nine questions to help with some end of PhD reflection. Write or record answers for them. Your examiners are unlikely to ask some of these, but perhaps you’ll find some new insights.

  1. What’s your PhD worth?
  2. What does your PhD mean?
  3. What will you do next?
  4. What can you do now that you couldn’t do at the start?
  5. What do you know now that you didn’t know at the start?
  6. What was the greatest challenge you overcame?
  7. How did you do it?
  8. What did you leave unfinished?
  9. How do you feel now you’re at the end?

Come back to your answers after the viva. See if any of them have changed. If they have, why?

Nathan

Hierarchy of Worries

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I record every question I get asked in workshops. The text document runs to over 15,000 words now. Over time I see trends and themes, and they help me to think about how I evolve the workshop.

In particular I see the worries of candidates collect in three groups:

  • First, people worry that there could be something wrong with their research;
  • Second, they worry that they may have made a mistake in the write-up;
  • Third, they worry that they may not be able to answer a question from their examiners.

I get lots of questions related to all these areas, and I think they’re arranged in a hierarchy. I think people are more worried about the second kind of worries than they are the first; I think they’re more worried about the third kind than the second. It makes a certain kind of sense. Research takes a long time to mature – you know everything you’ve done, everything you thought of doing, you learned from so many mistakes and successes. You know your research. Writing up took less time – however much you know about your research, there’s a chance that you’ve made a significant typo or forgotten something. You may have expressed something in a clumsy way. It’s not all that likely.

Whatever you did in your research and write-up though, you have no way of knowing exactly what your examiners will ask. There are lots of common questions, but your viva is a custom exam: you can’t predict every question or how you might respond.

Three common groups of worries, but some are more worrying than others. What do you do?

  • Worried that something is wrong with your research? Map out your methods. Check the core literature. Test your assumptions again. Try to explain it to someone who doesn’t know that much.
  • Worried that you’ve slipped up somewhere in your thesis? Get more feedback. Read it closely, line by line, no skimming. Ask a friend to proofread. Read it aloud to check that it makes sense.
  • Worried about your examiners’ questions? Practise answering questions. Have a mock viva. Use a list of common viva questions and record your answers. Get friends to ask you any and every question about your research.

Feeling worried? That’s OK. Work your way past the worries.

Nathan

Cheatsheet

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What if you wanted to tell a friend about your research and you only had one sheet of paper? What would you put on this cheatsheet?

Would it have lots of pictures? Bullet-points? Would your abstract feature? And would it be black and white or full colour?

What would you leave out? What must you include? Do they need to know anything else in order to understand what you’re telling them?

Your friend would probably thank you, it’d be a neat insight into what you do.

If you do this, make two copies and keep one. You do valuable prep in creating the cheatsheet and then have a resource to refresh your memory later.

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