Getting Help
Need help for your viva? Here are seven tips: Know what you need. It’s easier to get help if you can appreciate the gap that help helps with! If you’re not sure, reflect and try to put it into words....
Daily viva help for PhDs
Need help for your viva? Here are seven tips: Know what you need. It’s easier to get help if you can appreciate the gap that help helps with! If you’re not sure, reflect and try to put it into words....
Your supervisors, colleagues, friends and family can do more to help than simply wish you the best. Your supervisors can offer focussed support, a mock viva and the benefit of their experience. Colleagues can provide a sympathetic ear, share expectations...
I like asking this question at the start of a webinar. It’s fun to see whether people are in their university’s city or nearby, perhaps in another country or – in some cases – half the world away. It’s a gentle...
A year ago, just before the first UK lockdown, I wrote “Interesting Times” – an extra post for March 16th, recognising that difficult change was coming hard and fast. A year later, it feels like that change has never stopped....
There may be a disconnect between you and your friends and family when it comes to the viva. Colleagues, peers, your supervisors – they’ll all have an idea of the stakes involved in a PhD and what the viva means....
You are the only person who can pass your viva. That does not mean that you have to get ready alone. Who do you know who can help you prepare? Who do you know who can help you to feel...
I spent a long time indoors over the last six months or so. When I ventured back out again I decided I was going to explore my home town. Walk up and down roads I didn’t know. See every path...
…ask for it. This year, everyone needs help. Everyone is hurting somehow. Everyone is pressured, tired, concerned, and it could be tempting to think that it’s best not to bother people. What’s your viva compared to someone else’s troubles, worries, workload?...
At workshops I often advise people to talk to their colleagues when preparing for the viva: Ask about their viva experiences to get a sense of what vivas are like; Offer to take someone for coffee and use the time...
Two ideas that popped into my mind at a Viva Survivor workshop last week: If you and some colleagues are currently writing: go exploring in your department’s thesis collection. See what people have submitted in the last few years. Meet...