The First Day Of Viva Prep
It’s not the day you submit, or the day after. It’s not the first time you read your thesis after submission, or when you start to get ready for a mock viva. It isn’t even when you really start to...
getting ready
For The Hundredth Time
It might take a lot of re-reading to remember something that you need to know. On the morning of my viva I knocked on my supervisor’s door to check the definition of something I had been using in my work for...
Whatever
Whatever challenges you faced during your PhD, they helped you get to submission and to the viva. Whatever prep you do it will build on a solid foundation of knowledge and ability that you have developed. Whatever disruption you encountered...
The Minimum
What’s the minimum amount of viva prep I can get away with? There are no bad questions in webinars, no stupid questions, but there are questions that surprise me! What’s the minimum? A core set of tasks perhaps –...
Find Your Way
That’s the key to getting viva preparations done. There are core tasks and activities, but no blueprint for when, where and how you do them. You need to read your thesis. Do you do that in an afternoon? For an...
Not Too…
How much preparation do I need to do? Not too much. How long will the viva be? Not too long. How tough will the questions be? Not too tough. How critical will my examiners be? Not too critical. How often...
Scrawl
“Scrawl” is a great word to describe how I used to annotate papers during my PhD. I hated reading papers. I much preferred doing maths: balancing equations, defining functions, exploring little curiosities that popped into my head. It never occurred...
Nervous & Confident
Nervous and confident aren’t polar opposites. If you feel nervous about something – like, say, your viva – then you’re recognising it’s important. Nervous isn’t the same as being anxious or being worried, although it might not be comfortable. Nervous...
3 Kinds Of Viva Prep
Rushed: done in a hurry in the days leading up to the viva. Worried: done while wondering whether or not the right things are being done. Overinvested: a LOT done, far more than needed, either through concern something will be...
What’s Important?
Two words to prompt reflection on nearly every aspect of the viva and viva prep. What’s important… …about your thesis? Explore it chapter by chapter with a notebook in hand. Make notes about anything that stands out to you. …about...