Clearing
Clear your mind as you consider viva prep. Get a pen and paper and unload all the bits and pieces that you’re carrying around in your brain. What do you need to do? Who do you need to ask for...
Daily viva help for PhDs
Clear your mind as you consider viva prep. Get a pen and paper and unload all the bits and pieces that you’re carrying around in your brain. What do you need to do? Who do you need to ask for...
Some numbers are magical for the viva, and some can only cause you to worry. Don’t think about how long your viva might be. It’s not worth obsessing over how many pages of references you have in your bibliography. And don’t check...
Viva prep necessarily involves reading your thesis, making notes and checking things out. For all the help this work brings, it doesn’t match the mode of work you’ll be engaged in at the viva. In the viva you have to...
If you’re post-submission and trying to prepare for your viva but finding it hard then remember: you could not have got this far unless you were good. Could you keep going for this long and this far if you were...
A viva is not a random collection of questions and comments from your examiners, strung together by whatever you say in response. Your university has regulations that govern the viva. Your department has expectations for what a good viva “should”...
There’s a knock at your door. A courier leaves a package in your arms. It’s not heavy, but it has a strange heft to it. You don’t remember ordering anything. You’re not expecting something. But here it is, addressed to...
Candidates are always concerned about viva length, worried that theirs will be long – or too long, however that might be defined. Remember: the longest viva will be shorter than the longest work day of your PhD. It has to...
The verb that could most clearly summarise what you have to do at the viva is demonstrate. Your examiners have read your thesis. Now they need you to give them more in the viva. You have to share what you...
Ugh. The most common response to thinking about thesis corrections. Of course, any kind of corrections – minor or major – are unwanted, but they’re not bad in themselves. Examiners require corrections for lots of reasons: typos, clarity or because...
There are tricky things to explain in your viva. There will be times when you struggled. There are probably questions still to answer and problems to solve. But you don’t have to exclusively reflect on all of that during your preparation....