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Tag: acronym

Nathan

Considering Prep

Daily Post

If you’re trying to explore any problem or project then remember SWOT:

  • What strengths do you have that could help?
  • Do you have any weaknesses that could make this more difficult?
  • What opportunities might you take advantage of in this situation?
  • Are there any threats to your success?

In particular, when it comes to viva prep, you could apply the questions to consider the following:

  • What could you consider as strengths for getting ready? (resources, knowledge, skills)
  • What weaknesses do you need to address? (resources, circumstances, perspectives)
  • Are there opportunities you could use to help you get ready? (people, events, resources)
  • Are there any threats to getting the work done? (events, risks, situations)

Exploring each of these could help you plan your viva preparation.

Remember that while your plans might not go exactly as you want, given the momentum you have from your PhD journey so far and the talent you have built up there are no real threats that could stop you being prepared for your viva.

Nathan

Swotting Up

Daily Post

Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats – or SWOT, a neat acronym for prompting thoughts about plans, innovation and getting things done.

It’s not enough to simply look at the good points or strengths of an idea: what are the weaknesses? Are there other opportunities to explore? What potential threats can be foreseen?

 

I find that a good acronym is often useful when applied to radically different areas as well. Consider your examiners:

  • What strengths do you have when it comes to discussing your work with them?
  • How can you address any perceived weaknesses in your knowledge or understanding?
  • What opportunities can you find in going through the viva experience with them?
  • Do they pose any real threats to your viva success?

If you worry about your examiners, who they are, what they do and how they might be at your viva, then consider reflecting on the questions above to give yourself a little peace.

Remember your own strengths too because there must be a lot! Remember any weaknesses that you’ve worked past. Remember the opportunities that you’ve managed to fulfil. Remember that whatever threats you’ve faced, you are now close to finishing your PhD journey.

 

PS: I’ll be talking about examiners a lot at Viva Survivor, my live webinar on Thursday 5th December 2024. Check out full details at the link on what else you can expect there!

Nathan

Easy-To-Remember

Daily Post

Here’s a short, easy-to-remember, viva prep exercise for when you read a chapter of your thesis.

Take a sheet of paper and divide it into four equal parts. Reflect on each of the following four points and make notes on the paper:

  • When you think about the chapter what is valuable to others?
  • What was interesting to you? What sparked your fascination when you were doing it?
  • Were any points in the chapter vague or unclear as you read them now? Reflect on what could help you to explain them to others.
  • Finally, is there anything you would like to ask your examiners? The viva is a conversation so what would you ask?

I first thought of this idea over ten years ago and have been developing the concept ever since. I’ve written about it a few times before on the Viva Survivors blog (here are some other times). I like it because it’s an easy-to-remember exercise with an easy-to-remember acronym.

  • Valuable to others;
  • Interesting to you;
  • Vague or unclear;
  • Ask your examiners.

See, easy-to-remember! 🙂

Nathan

A Constellation Of Confidence

Daily Post, Sabbatical

As you prepare for your viva think about a Situation where you did something well. What was the Task that you were trying to accomplish? Was there a goal you were aiming for or a problem that needed a solution?

Whatever the circumstances, what Activities were you engaged with? And when you had finished what were the Results of your work?

Reflecting on a story where you describe the Situation, Task, Activities and Results helps to create a useful narrative for exploring your capability with others. It can be a big help for job applications, interviews or pitching yourself.

Reflecting on a STAR can also help a lot with building confidence. It’s a foundation of knowing that you are good enough.

And you aren’t limited to one story. Find as many as you can and build a constellation of stories that you can look at when needed, to show yourself that you are good.

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on January 11th 2023.

Nathan

SWOT Your Prep

Daily Post

SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It’s often used to help assess a situation where you need to come up with a plan. By exploring each area you have all the information you need to plan your next steps.

So why not apply it to viva prep?

  • Strengths: What do you have taken care of? What resources do you have? What can help you as you prepare?
  • Weaknesses: What are you currently lacking? What are you not looking forward to? What are you less sure of?
  • Opportunities: Who can help your preparation if you ask for support? Are there events in the near future that could help you get ready?
  • Threats: Are there things that might get in the way of your preparation? What obstacles do you have to avoid as you prepare?

Taken together, all of these explore the environment you have for getting ready – and can help you figure out the environment you need for viva prep.

Nathan

Seven Reflection Questions

Daily Post

When inspiration is not flowing there are tools you can use to unstick thinking. SCAMPER is one of those tools: an acronym to prompt looking at things differently. I knew I had written something about it on Viva Survivors before but was surprised when I checked that it was over five years ago!

Time flies, eh?

I was looking for inspiration for today’s post and SCAMPER stood out to me as a way to prompt a series of questions to explore different aspects of someone’s research in advance of the viva. These questions could help to find useful thoughts or parts of your research for further reflection.

  • Substitute: could you have used a different method to do your research?
  • Combine: what ideas did you bring together?
  • Adapt: how could someone use your research in the future?
  • Magnify: where would you direct someone to focus their attention in your thesis?
  • Put to other use: what other conclusions or questions can you find based on your work?
  • Eliminate: what did you have to take out of your plans as you did your research?
  • Rearrange: what changes would you make to your research process if you could?

After any of these questions you could also go deeper by simply taking your first response and asking, “Why?”

Nathan

A Constellation Of Confidence

Daily Post

As you prepare for your viva think about a Situation where you did something well. What was the Task that you were trying to accomplish? Was there a goal you were aiming for or a problem that needed a solution?

Whatever the circumstances, what Activities were you engaged with? And when you had finished what were the Results of your work?

Reflecting on a story where you describe the Situation, Task, Activities and Results helps to create a useful narrative for exploring your capability with others. It can be a big help for job applications, interviews or pitching yourself.

Reflecting on a STAR can also help a lot with building confidence. It’s a foundation of knowing that you are good enough.

And you aren’t limited to one story. Find as many as you can and build a constellation of stories that you can look at when needed, to show yourself that you are good.

Nathan

INTRO To Prep

Daily Post

I’ve written before about INTRO, a neat acronym for structuring the start of a presentation:

  • Interest: start by sharing something that will grab the audience’s attention.
  • Need: say why what you’re going to talk about is important.
  • Title: share the title of the talk.
  • Range: talk about how long you’ll speak for, what you might cover and how you will take questions.
  • Objective: close your introduction by sharing the goal of your presentation.

There’s a nice flow to this process, both for planning and delivering a talk. As with so many tools like this, I think there are wider applications that spring forth with a little reflection.

What about planning for viva prep? Take a blank sheet of paper and consider the following points:

  • Interest: start by writing a few lines about the value of your research.
  • Need: write five key points that you need to address in your viva prep.
  • Title: clearly print “All of this will help me become Dr Somebody!” on the sheet of paper!
  • Range: think carefully, then write one or two possibilities for how you could structure your time to get the work done.
  • Objective: for each key point expressed so far, write a clear goal that leads to progress.

From one sheet of paper we have the beginnings of good viva prep. And with INTRO we have a useful way of starting a presentation.

Nathan

A Helpful Acronym

Daily Post

If you’re looking for some help reflecting on your research ahead of the viva, consider reading one of the chapters in your thesis and then respond to the following questions:

  • What is valuable in the chapter? What difference does it make? How does it add to your significant, original contribution?
  • What do you find interesting about the research? How did you connect with the topic? What could you do well?
  • Is there anything vague in what you’ve presented? With hindsight could something be clearer? How could you speak about it when talking with your examiners?
  • Are there any questions you think you’ll ask your examiners based on the work? Is there anything you think they’d like to know? Can you do anything to prepare for possible questions?

There’s a lot more that you could do to get ready for the viva than simply consider the valuable, the interesting, the vague and the questions someone might ask. To start reflection these four words can be very useful – and very easy to remember when you spot the acronym they make!

Nathan

Valuable, Interesting, Vague, Ask

Daily Post

Around 2013 I invented a series of prompts to help a candidate reflect on their thesis.

Through not-so-subtle phrasing I got these keywords to spell out VIVA. The tool is used to explore the contents of a thesis chapter. All of these reflections combined then create a useful summary of the thesis.

The four prompts (and associated questions) are:

  • Valuable (to others): what would someone else find valuable in this chapter?
  • Interesting (to you): what interests you about your work?
  • Vague (or unclear): what doesn’t seem clear when you read it?
  • Ask (your examiners): what questions would you like to ask in the viva given the opportunity?

I shared VIVA for years in seminars. Switching to webinars I couldn’t find the right way to share this tool in a session. I’ve felt sad about this for a year now. There are other tools, but this one really speaks to me. I’ve done some reflecting on why this is the case:

  • Valuable: as a set of prompts I think it intuitively allows a candidate to find the key ideas that are going to be useful to them, both in the prep and in the viva.
  • Interesting: for me, it was always fun to present and not mention the acronym at the start, only drawing attention to it at the end. Acronyms are fun!
  • Vague: or “unclear” – I had to add this word because vague was a little too vague at times, not as known a word as I thought.
  • Ask: I like that the tool invites and prompts questions. It is a little open-ended and allows a candidate to dig deeper and engage with the thesis and research – just like a candidate would have to do in the viva.

I would encourage every candidate to spend a little time in advance of their viva using VIVA to reflect on and analyse their thesis.

Every chapter of your thesis has something valuable in it. Everything you’ve done springs from something you found interesting. Find what’s vague so you can make it clearer in your thoughts for the viva. Consider what you might ask your examiners – and thus how you’ll play your part in the viva.

And find more thoughts on VIVA at this link!

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