Good, Not Perfect
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....
manage to keep going in difficult circumstances
Best of Viva Survivors 2023: Surviving
Surviving the viva, surviving the PhD… It doesn’t mean overcoming obstacles or terrible trials. Survive means “manage to keep going in difficult circumstances”. You survive the PhD because you find a way to keep going. You survive the viva by...
Holding On
At the start of a new academic year I’m reminded of how much my life has changed over the last few years; while for the most part I am very happy with where I am now, I still remember vividly...
Surviving
Survive means manage to keep going in difficult circumstances. In some ways I feel like this is quite a mundane definition, almost boring: it doesn’t capture the flavour of what people tend to think about survival. Over time we have skewed...
Keep Going
Survive means manage to keep going in difficult circumstances. I often tell candidates that getting ready for the viva could be summarised simply as “keep going”. If someone has got to submission they must be talented, knowledgeable and determined. Whatever challenges...
The Viva Challenge
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....
Best of Viva Survivors 2021: Confidence
I finished my look back over favourite posts last year with the theme of “surviving” – a break with several years of tradition. 2020 was a hard year, 2021 has continued to be challenging, but it feels right to come...
Survive Sounds Scary
We hear survive and think of tragedy. Desperate situations. Almost impossible and yet somehow someone makes it through. Of course, given those associations, survive sounds scary. Survive sounds scary but survive means manage to keep going in difficult circumstances. Survive sounds scary...
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...
A Few Thoughts on Survive
After many years of working in this area I still think survive is the best verb to associate with the viva. Manage to keep going in difficult circumstances. Survive doesn’t mean it’s going to be a struggle, but it doesn’t...