SWOT Your Prep
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...
Daily viva help for PhDs
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...
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...
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...
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...
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?...
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...
Sometimes stars can’t be seen. Over the vastness of space, things get in the way or distort the light. Instead the stellar body has to be inferred, the location and details figured out. It’s there, but unseen, sensed only indirectly....
I like my mini-vivas resource, a tool to create valuable practice responding to questions before the viva. I like the acronym BOOST for feedback – Balanced, Observed, Objective, Specific, Timely – a neat way to remember how to frame constructive...
Your examiners are important elements of your viva. Whoever they are, however much influence you have over their selection, it’s worth spending a little of your viva preparation time exploring what they do. Build your confidence for the viva by...
I like SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats – as a simple tool that provides a lot of direction for thinking. I’ve written about it before but today I want to explore how it could help you think about you as...