A Little Help
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...
keep going
Not That Different
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...
Hold On To Confidence
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...
A Little Announcement
(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! 101 Steps To A Great Viva is a short...
Manage To Keep Going
Survive means manage to keep going in difficult circumstances. Just difficult. Not negative. Not a struggle. I use the definition a lot in my work to emphasise that surviving the viva doesn’t mean the situation is automatically bad or overwhelming,...
This Is Your Year
It’s just begun. Off in the distance is the finish line and there’s no-one racing but you. You get to decide how fast you will go. You get to decide when you pause. You get to plan how you will...
Best of Viva Survivors 2022: Surviving
Well done! If you’re reading this you did it. You made it through another tough year. You survived 2022. Was it more challenging than previous years for you? How are you coping? And how ready are you for 2023? 2022 was the...
Best of Viva Survivors 2022: Confidence
Years of work, weeks of prep and then… How will you feel at your viva? Feeling nervous isn’t wrong but it doesn’t feel right. It’s a recognition that something matters: your viva and the outcome matter a lot. What can you do...
Best of Viva Survivors 2022: Short Posts
I very rarely set out to write a long post. Viva Survivors posts tend to be around 200 words, but sometimes they can be a lot shorter, as with these six posts on a range of topics: Remember You Are...
Best of Viva Survivors 2022: Reflections
We continue the review of the year today with some of my favourite reflections about the viva. I like these sort of posts, though I don’t tend to write them every day. They often involve noticing something about the viva that is odd,...