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Tag: keep going

Nathan

For The Hundredth Time

Daily Post, Sabbatical

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 over two years. I tried and tried but it just wouldn’t stick.

It’s not trivial to build up a mental model of the knowledge you need for your research. What’s harder is building up the certainty and confidence that you are good enough, that you’ve done enough. You might need to repeat that over and over to yourself. You might have to reflect and review and consider many times to see that you’ve done enough.

Survive means manage to keep going in difficult circumstances. If you get to submission, if you’ve got this far, then you’ve got through enough to show you can succeed in the viva.

For the hundredth time: if you’ve got this far then keep going.

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on November 10th 2021.

Nathan

The Viva Challenge

Daily Post, Sabbatical

The viva is a challenge because you don’t know what will happen.

It’s a challenge because you don’t know what your examiners think.

It’s a challenge despite the vast majority of candidates passing.

It’s a challenge because the outcome matters.

It’s a challenge even though you have the right skillset and knowledge base to succeed.

It’s a challenge even knowing that it all springs from your work and research.

Perhaps the best thing you can do is simply accept the challenge. Remember that you have done well and done enough in the past. Believe that you can succeed again.

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on January 12th 2022.

Nathan

The Nightmare Viva

Daily Post

What’s the worst thing that could really happen at your viva?

Failure is a very, very remote possibility. If you have real concern you should talk to your supervisors and friends – and unpick whether failure is more than a very, very remote possibility for you.

So then, what’s the worst thing that could really happen at your viva?

Perhaps you could be asked to complete corrections that you weren’t expecting or don’t want. That would be a nuisance but corrections come after the viva, after you’ve passed. You need to do the work to complete your PhD, but that’s all. Do them and you’re done.

What’s the worst thing that could happen?

Maybe an examiner could make a comment that you don’t like or ask a question you don’t want. It might be an uncomfortable moment but it wouldn’t stop you passing.

What’s the worst thing you could find at your viva?

Your viva could be long. It could have questions you don’t like. You might freeze or forget something. Your viva might not follow the trends of expectations you had heard about.

 

And yet: you’d still succeed. Because whatever happens, you still would have done the work. You still would have prepared. You still would be ready.

Maybe none of the things above match what you think the worst thing might be at your viva. It’s all hypothetical. Some or none of the above and perhaps none of your deepest worries might come true. They’re just traces of nightmare fuel for you, secret concerns that perhaps you’ve missed something in some way and that will spell the end.

It won’t be.

There is an end coming – the end of your PhD – and it’s a good thing. It might be different than you expect and it might have surprises you don’t like, but they’ll pass. You’ll be on to whatever you’re dreaming of next.

Nathan

What Do You Do?

Daily Post

What do you do if something goes wrong in your viva?

  • What do you do if you’re feeling nervous?
  • What do you do if you’re feeling unsure of what to say?
  • What do you do if you’re feeling forgetful and the right thoughts seem out of reach?
  • What do you do if you panic in your viva?

The most simple response to any of these is that you keep going. In a very real sense there isn’t anything else you can do. You’re in your viva and you’re trying to succeed. You have to keep going to do that.

 

The simple response is to keep going, but to be more specific:

  • If you’re feeling nervous you could try to pause and breathe. You could remind yourself of something helpful. You could ask for a break to compose yourself.
  • If you’re unsure then you could acknowledge that. Tell your examiners you’re not sure and why. Or start by asking yourself why you’re unsure and take a moment to think.
  • If you’re feeling forgetful then you can take a break to check something. Explain that the information has slipped your mind but you really want to talk about this.
  • If you panic then ask for a break. Find a way to calm. If you can, check what has caused that panic and see what steps you can take to address it.

You have to keep going. You have to do something. Perhaps the simplest thing to suggest is that you pause, read your thesis, drink some water, make a note and talk with your examiners.

Keep going.

Nathan

Good, Not Perfect

Daily Post

Good is the standard you need to meet for your thesis and your viva.

  • You don’t need to have thought every thought.
  • You don’t need to have followed every idea.
  • You don’t need to have an answer for every question.
  • You need to write a good thesis but it could have typos despite your best efforts.
  • You need to be ready to engage with every question but that could still mean saying “I don’t know” sometimes.
  • You need to get ready for your viva but you don’t need to be perfect.

How did you get this far? By being good.

Keep doing that.

Nathan

Hitting A Milestone

Daily Post

Today is the 2500th daily post of Viva Survivors. I take a few days off each year for Christmas and with sharing the occasional webinar and my Kickstarter last year there’s been more than two-and-a-half thousand blog posts, but today is “officially” Post Number 2500.

 

When I decided to start a daily blog I didn’t have an endpoint in mind. I only wanted to share a post every day to provide some help. In that regard: mission accomplished!

I see every day as another chance to try something. Every day is another little reminder that I am the person I want to be, that I choose to be. 2500 is a big number, but every day is a milestone.

I do the work and pay attention and remind myself that I did it.

 

You can do that too. Do the work – whatever your research is – pay attention to the fact that you showed up and got things done and take time to remind yourself. The foundations of confidence in your capability rest on being aware of what you do and what that means. This helps with your viva and with your everyday life.

So show up. Do the work. Treat every day as a chance to do good work. Treat every day as a milestone towards your goal.

 

And whether this is your first Viva Survivors post you’ve read, or your twentieth or even your 2500th, thank you for reading!

Nathan

A Little Help

Update

I’ve been publishing Viva Survivors for over six years. In writing more than 2300 posts I’ve shared why candidates succeed, what they can expect, what they can do to prepare and how they can find the confidence to believe that it will all be OK on the day. If you need a little help for your viva, you can probably find it in the archives of this blog

If you need a little extra help then remember the community you have around you: you know people who have examined vivas, who have prepared recently or who have succeeded in the past. There’s a lot of help close at hand if you look for it.

And finally if you have your viva coming up and you still feel like you need a little more help, then please take a look at the Viva Help Bundle of ebooks – which is on a very special sale until the end of November.

The Viva Help Bundle contains:

  1. Keep Going, my collection of 150+ posts from the first five years of the Viva Survivors daily blog.
  2. 101 Steps To A Great Viva, my guide to practical steps that every viva candidate can take to help themselves.
  3. How You Got Here, a short reflective writing game to look back over the PhD journey and find confidence.

Actually, there’s a lot of help packed into the Viva Help Bundle – and it is available for £6 until Thursday 30th November 2023. If you think it might be the help you’re looking for, please take a look. And if you want to know more, please get in touch 🙂

Nathan

Not That Different

Daily Post

A lot of viva prep – and the viva itself – is not that dissimilar to many things that you will have done during your PhD.

Many prep tasks draw on the same skills and knowledge you have used throughout your research. They are focussed on something different perhaps, but you already have everything you need to read your thesis, annotate it and get ready for your viva.

Success in the viva depends on you continuing to do what you have done all through your PhD journey. Talking to examiners is not that different from talking to your supervisor. Or from responding to questions in a conference or seminar. You have knowledge, talent and experience. You can bring everything to the challenge you’ll find in your viva and succeed.

The viva is different, of course, but not that different from everything else you’ve already done.

Nathan

Hold On To Confidence

Daily Post

It’s not wrong to feel nervous before your viva. It’s really important! It comes at the end of years of work and you want to succeed. It’s almost certain that anyone would feel a bit nervous, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be confident too.

Confidence follows your actions. It grows as a result of the things we do. Once you realise it for yourself, in and amongst all of the things you do and the success you achieve, you need to hold on tight. Don’t let it get away.

Remind yourself why you feel confident of your ability. What do you do? What have you achieved? What stats or highlights help you remember?

Keep doing the things that help you to be confident, and keep reminding yourself of how far you’ve come and why you’ve made it this far.

Keep going.

 

PS: At the time of publication there is a little under eight hours to back 101 Steps To A Great Viva on Kickstarter! This really is your last chance to be one of the first people to get my new helpful little guide. Take a look and back it now if you want to be sure to get a copy.

Nathan

A Little Announcement

Update

(because The Big Announcement will be in a few weeks!)

The Headline: I’ve written a new publication and I’ll soon be running a Kickstarter campaign to fund producing a print run!

Cover of 101 Steps To A Great Viva!
My draft cover!

101 Steps To A Great Viva is a short guide to the many things that a PhD candidate can do to work towards a great viva. From understanding expectations to building confidence, via planning your viva prep and asking for help, the guide covers 101 actions that any candidate can do. I share a concise and simply-framed statement for each followed by an exploration of what that means, how someone might do it and what it does for being ready for the viva.

101 Steps To A Great Viva is the publication I’ve been thinking about for years: an original, short guide of viva help. Bite-sized help built on my experiences of working with over 7500 postgraduate researchers and writing the Viva Survivors daily blog for more than six years.

I’m really pleased with what I’ve developed and 101 Steps is 95% complete. A few more edits and it will be ready to be printed. Which is where I need help!

Draft of Page 7, Getting Started
Draft of Page 7!

A few weeks from now I’ll launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund producing a print run of 101 Steps To A Great Viva. I need people to help me by pledging money – and in return I’ll be offering rewards, from copies of the guide, ebooks and print copies of my last publication and even 1-2-1 Zoom conversations with me! If everything goes well enough with the crowdfunding, I’ll be sending out the first copies of 101 Steps in July 2023.

If this sounds at all interesting to you today, here’s how you can help: please go to this link and use the “Notify me on launch” button. That way you will be emailed on the day I launch the campaign, which I’m expecting will be Tuesday 9th May 2023. Using the “Notify me on launch” button won’t obligate you to pledge any money at all. The campaign will run for about three weeks after that, but early interest really helps with the algorithms that help organise these services.

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you check out 101 Steps To A Great Viva!

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