Nathan

The Right Words

Daily Post

The right words of feedback from your supervisor or a trusted colleague can make a huge difference to your work or your wellbeing. Think about what you ask for, when you ask for it and who you ask it from.

The right words of annotation on the pages of your thesis – by you – can make a huge difference to how ready you are for viva day. Think about what you need to add during prep, how you will do it and what the result will be.

The right words in the right way can make a huge difference to your PhD and your viva.

 

PS: looking for more about viva prep and getting help from others? These are two topics I’ll be talking about at Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. Registration is open now for my 3-hour live webinar – all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready – and attendees also get access to a catch-up recording and follow-up materials. Take a look at the details to see if this session might help you.

Nathan

Viva Survivor webinar, June 25th 2025

Event, Update

If you want to know about the viva then you could ask friends and colleagues. You could talk to your supervisor about examiner expectations. You could explore the support that your institution provides.

You can also look through the 2900+ posts on this daily blog about the viva, all freely accessible, or explore the different publications I’ve produced. There is a lot of support around you to get an idea of what the viva is about and what you might do to get ready.

 

And if you want to go deeper then register for my upcoming Viva Survivor session on Wednesday 25th June 2025. Three weeks from today I’ll be sharing what vivas are really like, what effective viva preparation means and how someone can engage well with their examiners. We’ll be exploring the practical steps to take before and after submission, building confidence and a lot more.

For three hours on Zoom you’ll get direct help from me through a live session that I have shared with over 8000 PhD candidates. We have plenty of time to explore questions from the group, I have great follow-up resources including some of my publications and a catch-up recording in case you can’t stay for the whole time.

I love sharing my Viva Survivor session – so much so that I’ve delivered it over 400 times for universities and doctoral training groups all over the UK.

“The session last week was so, so helpful. I really appreciated the practical guidance, which made so much sense and feels do-able and will help my confidence going into the viva. It helped that your manner in the training was calm, clear, concise, and full of empathy and understanding.” – UCLAN PhD Candidate, December 2024

Please take a look at the registration page if you are looking for viva help. There are full details there but please get in touch if you have any questions. Please pass on information of the session to anyone who might be looking for viva help.

One last time: Viva Survivor session on Wednesday 25th June 2025!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Nathan

Reflect & Review

Daily Post

“Plan, Do, Reflect, Review” is a simple framework for getting things done. Plan what you’ll do, do it, reflect on what happened and review things formally so you have a better understanding.

If you’re reading this post then hopefully you followed a similar process during your PhD. There are lots of systems, resources and processes that use Plan, Do, Reflect, Review to underpin how they work.

As you get close to your viva you’ll be leaning much more on reflect and review. Give yourself time to really take in what you did, what happened and what that means. Ask yourself questions and find answers that will help you communicate what matters to your examiners.

(reflecting and reviewing your journey also helps your confidence to grow by bringing your progress and capability into the spotlight!)

Nathan

Helpful Factors

Daily Post

Viva prep needs reading, reviewing, rehearsal and a lot of practical work on your part. There is also a lot you can do to help your preparations be as productive as possible.

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of helpful factors for viva prep:

  • Make a small plan. Sketch out what needs doing in the weeks leading up to your viva.
  • Meet your needs. Make sure that your plan actually addresses what you need.
  • Make time. Planning is great but you need the time to do it. Figure out when works well for you.
  • Be flexible. Leave room in the plan because something will need to change at some point. That’s life!
  • Find support. Ask for help before submission and be clear about what you need from others.
  • Review your progress. Take ten minutes every few days to check that you’re on track.

And rest. Remember that all of the work will be better if you are as well-rested as you can be.

Nathan

Maybe & Definitely

Daily Post

Maybe you didn’t get all of the results you were hoping for.

Maybe writing your thesis was harder than you expected.

Maybe your external examiner isn’t the person you would have picked.

Maybe there’s something tricky in your third chapter that you find hard to remember.

And, who knows, maybe your viva will be longer than you would like.

 

Definitely: You did the work. There are regulations and expectations that create a knowable viva process. You can take time to prepare in a way that helps you. Your examiners will be known well in advance of your viva. You have time to get ready.

 

Every viva has maybes. Whatever maybes you can think of for yours, these are more than covered by the things that you will know and can do definitely.

Nathan

Asking About Examiners

Daily Post

When your supervisors have decided on your examiners make sure to have a conversation about those choices, even if you’ve already asked them before. Make sure, for your own peace of mind, that you explore the following:

  • Why do your supervisors think that these two people are the right choice?
  • How can you prepare for meeting them in the viva?
  • What, in particular, do your supervisors think these two examiners might ask about?

Exploring that last question in general might be too big a problem to consider, but with two individuals, known to your supervisors – who know about your work – there might be some specific questions to unpick as part of your viva preparations.

Nathan

Replacements

Daily Post

If you could replace one chapter in your thesis what would it be? Why does it need changes?

If you could replace one approach you took in your research what would it be? Why would you want to make that change?

Of if you could replace one of your examiners with someone else, who would it be? Why?

You probably can’t make any of these changes! But being aware of them tells you something.

There’s an issue that’s bothering you. Replacing a chapter or a person isn’t possible but there will be something you can do to help you feel better about the situation. You can learn more about your examiners or unpick what’s not quite right about your work.

You can do something more than fret about changes that you can’t make.

Nathan

The Confidence Formula

Daily Post

As a former pure mathematician I suppose it was only a matter of time before I started thinking about confidence as a formula. I’m not saying that this is the final work on the topic, but here’s what I have so far:

Confidence = Hard Work x Good Fortune x Self-Reflection

Of-course, this is a simplification, but hopefully a useful one! It’s more accurate to say that confidence is a function of three variables (hard work, good fortune, self-reflection) but this simplification is enough to get the point across.

Real confidence in something is earned, so needs hard work. Good fortune amplifies hard work. Self-reflection builds things further when you realise the impact of your work.

We could try to unpick this more, maybe add terms involving deliberate practice or other confidence-building activities but the above expression is probably enough to get started.

The more important thing to consider is: if you have your viva in the near future, how does this formula help?

By now you’ve done the hard work, save for a little viva prep. You’ve had all the good fortune and success you can. So the thing that can make a difference now is self-reflection: looking back over your work, what happened, what that means and exploring the real difference in yourself since you began your PhD.

Hard work, good fortune and self-reflection can take you a long way towards the amount of confidence you need for your viva – and for life in general.

 

PS: I’ll be exploring this topic and many more at Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. I’m regularly invited to deliver this session to PhD candidates all around the UK, but this is only the third time I’ve opened up registration. A 3-hour live webinar, catch-up recording and follow-up materials all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready. Do take a look and see if it might be for you! 

Nathan

Ticks

Daily Post

Every few months I make myself a simple desk calendar. One page of A4 in my notebook, week-by-week, each day lined out in pencil, dates in the top right corners and a small space to capture any work or life commitments. At a glance I can see what’s coming up and that helps.

What helps me more is that I tick off each day when it is done: whether I’m working a lot that day or a little, or even if it’s a non-work day and I’m with family, I tick the day off. I did it.

It’s been a very helpful practice in recent years to help as a reminder: you’re doing it.

I have to-do lists of course, both big and small, long term and short term, but the ticks on my calendar help a lot. When I’ve finished with a daily or weekly to-do list I review it and recycle it. I keep my calendar because they’re evidence for me. They remind me that I showed up and did something.

All of which is a long pre-amble to encourage you to do the same, at least as you work through your viva prep. A regular to-do list might be helpful, but reminding yourself of that bigger picture – “I showed up and did the work” – is a simple and direct boost for viva confidence.

Nathan

The Ideal Viva

Daily Post

Defining an ideal viva is really tricky.

Do we start from the outline descriptions that emerge from considering the regulations? Or base our idea on the general expectations that rise from the many stories of viva experiences?

Would it be better to take notes from a candidate and see what they want? Or follow the experience of examiners and allow them to set out what a good viva would be like?

There could be more perspectives to take onboard too. These four alone make for an interesting collage of ideas. If you’re reading this post I’d assume you’re most likely a PhD candidate. What does this mean for you? Is it even possible to figure out anything related to the ideal viva?

Maybe it’s as simple as this: learn all that you can. Read the regulations and learn about expectations so you have a good sense of perspective of the general viva. Explore what examiners do to get a sense of what a good viva might be for them.

And finally explore what you want or need from your viva. If that aligns closely with everything else you’ve learned then great! But if not, what do you do?

 

PS: one thing you could do, if you’re trying to find out more about what to expect, is take a look at the second issue of Viva Survivors Select. This is my monthly pdf zine sharing curated collections of writing from the Viva Survivors archive. The Uncertainty Issue was released two weeks ago and contains advice, practical suggestions and reflections to help with a lot of viva uncertainty.

And if you’re looking for even more help the first issue is still available and The Preparation Issue is due on Wednesday 11th June! 🙂

Thanks for reading.

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