The Epilogue
That’s the time after your viva, after corrections, after your final thesis submission but before you actually graduate with your PhD. Are you a Doctor at that point? Technically no, but you might not let that stop you from changing...
finishing the phd
A Long Time
In the year before your viva you don’t need to do much to get ready. Your focus is on finishing research, finishing your thesis and thinking about life after the PhD. In the month before your viva you can start...
The Last Post
I had an idea to do an “April fool!”-style post about this being the last day of Viva Survivors, but couldn’t bring myself to do it! 🙂 The last ever post. What would that look like? A summary? A thank...
When Do You Stop?
I remember knocking on my supervisor’s office door thirty minutes before my viva to check a mathematical definition. I know of people who took the day off before their viva and just relaxed. Some candidates will be checking notes almost...
Just Like That
Whatever stage you’re at during your PhD, sooner or later you’ll be finished. For a lot of researchers I talk to this seems to come around much, much faster than they thought it would. Sooner than expected they get to...
The Busy Final Year
In the final year of a PhD it’s not hard to get swept up in the emotions and actions of everything that you need to get done. Finishing research, finishing writing-up, working towards whatever will come after the PhD and...
No More
The viva means no more. No more time. No more writing. No more reading. No more meetings. No more experiments or interviews or models. No more prep. No more re-reading. No more wondering about what will or won’t come up....
The Knack
My dad passed away quite suddenly when I was 17. Today would have been his 70th birthday, and he’s been on my mind a lot lately. When I was little my dad was often self-employed. He had been made redundant...
No Shortcuts
There’s no secret path that takes you to the end of the PhD. There’s no list of amazing tips that dodges all of the work involved. You can’t hack your way past the necessary steps that got your thesis finished....
Two Weeks
Thesis done? Submitted? Take at least two weeks off. Take two weeks away from reading your thesis, making notes or trying to unpick what all that work has been about. There is plenty of time to prepare for the viva....