Final Chapter
Following Wednesday’s post, you could be a person, in a place, with a problem at the end of your PhD too. The mammoth task of submitting your thesis is done, but then you wonder: What if my examiners don’t like...
Daily viva help for PhDs
Following Wednesday’s post, you could be a person, in a place, with a problem at the end of your PhD too. The mammoth task of submitting your thesis is done, but then you wonder: What if my examiners don’t like...
I had a great time last week sharing Viva Survivors: Getting Creative with PhD candidates dotted all around the UK (and the world!). It was really fun to take my creative prep ideas and see them connect: it was just...
Our washing machine broke a few months ago and blew a fuse. The power was off all around our house. In the moment, I knew the sort of thing I needed to do in our fusebox, but couldn’t tell which...
Your Worst Critic? It’s probably you. Pulling yourself down for slips, failures and mistakes. Overly critical of things that could be better. Berating yourself for things that are difficult. And the Worst Critic within is self-perpetuating, it’s hard to get...
PhD student or postgraduate researcher? Examiner or academic? Expert or experienced? Prepared or ready? The labels we use make a difference. They’re a part of the story we tell ourselves about a situation. Some labels help and others don’t. What...
…not perfect. Today I’m delivering my 218th Viva Survivor workshop. I still get a little nervous, but only a little. I’m more likely to be anxious about travel arrangements than talking or presenting. I make a point of giving the...
What’s your vision of your viva? Lewis Carroll is misquoted as having written, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” He didn’t write that, but it’s a neat way to summarise a short exchange...
This is a question I didn’t realise I was asking myself before my viva. All of my friends told me I would be fine. They’d passed their vivas, they told me I would pass mine. It would be OK. Why?...
Years ago, my friend Dr Aimee Blackledge shared with me one of the most useful rules for receiving feedback I’ve ever come across. There are lots of models and ideas about giving feedback, but not so many concepts for receiving...
Confidence takes time and experimentation. There isn’t a set process. Rather than press a button to start an engine, we have to think of it as turning dials and pulling levers on a great, glorious machine. Try something, then check...