Daily viva help for PhDs
Don’t wait until your viva day to think about how you explain your contribution.
Don’t wait until your viva day to wonder about what your examiners might ask.
Don’t wait until your viva day to experience what it’s like to be asked a question about your work.
Don’t wait until your viva day to find out what vivas are like.
Don’t wait until your viva day to know whether or not you’re ready.
If you feel ready for your viva then you probably are!
So ask yourself two questions, just to be sure:
If you can honestly answer no to both of these then the third question is simple: what will you now do to hold on to this feeling of being ready?
That’s the viva. You’re doing something you have done many, many times throughout the last few years – thinking about and talking about your research and your ability as a researcher – and this is the last time you’ll need to do that.
(you might want to do it again, you might want to be a researcher or have a career that involves this – but you won’t need to do it after your viva)
At your viva you need to discuss your research contribution, your PhD journey and what you can do as a researcher. These are all things you must necessarily have done a lot during your PhD. The viva is a particular challenge which requires particular prep, but it’s not so different from the rest of your PhD experience.
The viva means doing it one more time. Maybe the last time.