• About
  • Podcast Archive
  • Resources
  • eBooks
  • Books
  • Workshops
  • Elsewhere
  • Privacy Policy

Viva Survivors

lists

Best of Viva Survivors 2018: Lists & Questions

December 29, 2018 by Nathan

To finish 2018 I’m sharing my favourite posts from the last year. I find lists helpful. I find questions helpful. A list of posts about lists and questions should be super-helpful! Structure helps, and having organised sets of tasks can make prep or thinking about the viva better. Useful questions to dig into topics helps a lot too.

  • 20 Small Steps To A Better Viva – what can you do to make your viva better?
  • 7 Questions For Selecting Examiners – one of the topics I get asked about most when working with candidates!
  • 5 Questions To Ask Your Supervisor After Submission – your supervisor is one of your most valuable allies in preparation for the viva.
  • Top Ten Top Fives – a series of short exercises to get you thinking…
  • Ten More Top Fives – …which I enjoyed writing so much I came back to the idea again!
  • Eight Hows & Whys To Unpick Your Methodology – another topic I get asked about a lot in sessions with PGRs.
  • Nine Noes For The Viva – I often reflect on doing a podcast or talk which is just me reading a stream of edited posts. This one would probably be the final part.

A real mix of topics in today’s post. What did you like? What other areas would you like to see me explore? Drop me a line and I’ll add it to my musing for 2019. Do share this post if you think it will help someone else!

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
Posted in: Daily Post Tagged: best of 2018, lists, lists and questions, questions

20 Small Steps To A Better Viva

October 29, 2018 by Nathan

Your viva can’t be the best, but there are many steps you could take to make yours better.

  1. Proofread your thesis before submission.
  2. Read your institution’s thesis examination regulations.
  3. Take a break after submission.
  4. Put Post-it Notes in your thesis to mark the start of chapters.
  5. Do a little research on your examiners
  6. Plan how you will get to the viva on the day.
  7. Have a mock viva.
  8. Talk to PhD graduates about their viva experiences.
  9. Talk to your supervisors about the choice of examiners.
  10. Annotate your thesis.
  11. Read your thesis carefully at least once between submission and the viva.
  12. Take steps to boost and maintain your confidence.
  13. Reflect on your research contribution.
  14. Explore your bibliography a little.
  15. Re-read any sections of your thesis that are conceptually difficult or tricky to explain.
  16. Figure out why you’re stressed (if you are).
  17. Help your friends and family to understand what the viva is all about.
  18. Take a bottle of water to the viva.
  19. Remember how much work you’ve done to get this far.
  20. Plan how you will celebrate passing your viva.

How you feel in your viva is not down to luck. Do everything you can to make your viva better.

Little things add up.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
Posted in: Daily Post Tagged: 20 small steps to a better viva, confidence, lists, steps, the best viva, viva preparation

7 Questions For Selecting Examiners

October 25, 2018 by Nathan

Need some help thinking of who could examine you? Start with these six questions to get a list of names:

  1. Whose work have you built on in a meaningful way?
  2. Who have you met at conferences?
  3. Who has a good reputation?
  4. Who is an expert in your field?
  5. Who have you cited a few times?
  6. Who do you think you can trust to do a good job?

With these six questions you can get a long or short list quite quickly. Then you have to figure out how you narrow it down so that you can have a chat with your supervisors.

A more useful question perhaps: what are you really looking for in an examiner?

Once you know the answer to this, you can have a more meaningful conversation with your supervisors about who might be a good choice.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
Posted in: Daily Post Tagged: 7 questions for selecting examiners, examiners, lists, questions

Ten More Top Fives

October 15, 2018 by Nathan

Earlier this year I shared a list post, Top Ten Top Fives, that had ideas on how to get started with thinking about the viva and viva prep. A simple setup, prompts to get ideas flowing and start making notes.

Today seemed like a good chance to add some more prompts:

  1. Top Five Academics Who Would Be A Good External!
  2. Top Five Tips You’ve Heard For Viva Prep!
  3. Top Five Expectations For Viva Day!
  4. Top Five Questions You Think You’ll Be Asked!
  5. Top Five Help Requests You Can Make!
  6. Top Five Questions For Your Supervisor In Preparation!
  7. Top Five Challenges You Overcame In Your PhD!
  8. Top Five Annotations You’re Going To Make In Your Thesis!
  9. Top Five Unanswered Questions From Your Research!
  10. Top Five Things You’ll Do To Celebrate Passing Your Viva!

There’s inertia to overcome with thinking about different aspects of the viva. A little nudge, a good prompt, can get things moving.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
Posted in: Daily Post Tagged: lists, ten more top fives, top ten top fives, viva prep, viva preparation

Ten Questions For Pre-Viva Nerves

October 9, 2018 by Nathan

It’s understandable to be nervous, anxious or scared about the viva. It’s not just any other day of your PhD.

You can be nervous, and hope that it doesn’t affect you too much, or you can be nervous and think about what you can do to make things better. Here are ten questions to help you unpick and cope with pre-viva nerves:

  1. How nervous do you feel on a scale of one to ten?
  2. In what ways are your nerves getting in the way of your prep?
  3. What do you think lies at the root of your nerves?
  4. What could you do to make yourself feel one bit less nervous?
  5. What will you do?
  6. How many positive things can you think of to boost your confidence?
  7. What ones do you think you could try in the next seven days?
  8. What ones will you try?
  9. What are you feeling most anxious about the viva?
  10. What are you going to do about it?

“I’m nervous” or “I’m anxious” isn’t enough. You can’t stop there. You have to work past worry I think, not be stopped by whatever barriers are going up. It’s easy for me to just say that, but if you’re in that place you have to do something about it.

I hope these questions help. Take a look at the following tagged themes on the blog too – worry and viva anxiety – there may be something useful among these posts for you.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
Posted in: Daily Post Tagged: anxiety, lists, nerves, ten questions for pre-viva nerves, viva anxiety, work past worry

Summary Fundamentals

January 19, 2018 by Nathan

A summary is an answer to a question. For a postgraduate researcher with their viva in the future the question could be:

  • How can I describe this concisely?
  • How can I explain this to a novice?
  • How can I display this visually for myself?
  • How can I outline my thesis?
  • How can I arrange what I know to most help myself?
  • What’s the story of my research?
  • What are the essential facts of my thesis?
  • What does my thesis look like?
  • What matters most about my work?
  • What stands out about my research?
  • Why is this a valuable contribution?

There are many, many useful questions to help create summaries. And there are many ways that you can arrange or display the content of an answer to create a summary. The act of making a summary is a useful tool for viva preparation. If you ask a better question you can find a more valuable answer.

Reflect a little. What kinds of information formats help you? So what kinds of summaries could help you?

So what kinds of questions could help you?

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
Posted in: Daily Post Tagged: lists, questions, summary, summary fundamentals, viva prep

Top Ten Top Fives

January 8, 2018 by Nathan

I often encourage people to use “top fives” to start a summary or reflection. Get a list of five going and you have something to build on. There’s a lot you can think about when you’re preparing for the viva, so here’s my top ten list of top five topics!

  1. Top Five Contributions To Your Field That You’ve Made!
  2. Top Five Papers That You’ve Referenced In Your Bibliography!
  3. Top Five Questions You Might Like To Ask Your Examiners In The Viva!
  4. Top Five Pages You Want To Find Easily In Your Thesis!
  5. Top Five Things You Really Need To Remember!
  6. Top Five Questions You Don’t Want To Be Asked By Your Examiners!
  7. Top Five People You Can Turn To For Help!
  8. Top Five Steps You Need To Do To Feel Prepared!
  9. Top Five Proudest Moments Of Your PhD!
  10. Top Five Things You Can Do To Be Confident On The Day!

Lists are fun. Structure helps. What makes your list(s)?

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
Posted in: Daily Post Tagged: lists, questions, summary, top ten top fives

Why-How-What

September 22, 2017 by Nathan

If you’re looking for a way to share a summary of your research, as you might in the viva, think Why-How-What:

  • Why is your topic worth researching?
  • How have you gone about researching it?
  • What have you found?

Every time you give a summary of your work you get to try new ways to communicate what’s important. These questions are only the beginning, you might want to elaborate. You have to start somewhere though.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
Posted in: Daily Post Tagged: hows, lists, questions, summary, whats, why how what, whys

Five More

September 17, 2017 by Nathan

In workshops I ask people to come up with lists of five highlights in their thesis, or five important papers that they’ve used in their bibliography. For many this isn’t too tricky a task, three or four come quite easy and the fifth is the work of a moment to fill in the blank.

How about another five? Not as easy perhaps.

The top five come to mind easy because we’re human and we make patterns; chances are you’ve already got a bullet point list of highlights or important references. You’ve settled on your talking points.

It’s not enough to just make a lot of lists to prepare for the viva. Stretching yourself by making lists can be valuable. For the examples above, you can expand on what makes your thesis great, or dig deeper into the papers that helped build your work. You have to think to do this. Don’t settle for what always comes to mind. See how far you can go and what new connections you can make.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
Posted in: Daily Post Tagged: bibliography, five more, lists, viva prep

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe and receive new posts by email.

Join 111 other subscribers

Viva Survivors 2017 Bundle

All three ebook collections of daily blog posts from 2017 for £4!

Buy Now

Viva Prep eBooks

Buy Now Buy Now Buy Now

Viva Survivors Blog Books

Check out the quarterly collected editions of the Viva Survivors blog!

Buy Now Buy Now Buy Now

Recently…

  • The Slush Pile February 16, 2019
  • Scope February 15, 2019
  • ♥ Your Thesis February 14, 2019
  • Ask For Opinions February 13, 2019
  • Overprepared February 12, 2019
  • Behind The Curtain February 11, 2019
  • Things I Don’t Know February 10, 2019

Tags & Themes

acronym after the viva allies answering questions answers change the story confidence contribution corrections examiners expectations find confidence finishing the phd ideas interview list no accident phd podcast questions reflection research story summary talent talented the end of the phd thesis thesis annotation the viva tool twitter unpicking your research viva viva advice viva anxiety viva day viva expectations viva experiences viva prep viva preparation viva questions viva survivors viva survivors podcast worry

Copyright © 2019 Viva Survivors.

Omega WordPress Theme by ThemeHall

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Viva Survivors uses a few essential cookies to share this website with you. We don't track you or share anything about you with third parties.OK!Read more at our privacy policy page.