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Tag: manage to keep going in difficult circumstances

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

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

Best of Viva Survivors 2023: Surviving

Daily Post

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 continuing in that way.

Like confidence, surviving is a topic I find fascinating to explore in the context of the viva. I hope you find these posts helpful.

Next year will certainly have challenges, possibly including your viva. How you survive will depend on what you do. It won’t just happen but you can decide how you will approach your year.

How will you manage to keep going in difficult circumstances?

Nathan

Holding On

Daily Post

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 how sharp and how stark things have been at times.

Survive means manage to keep going in difficult circumstances – and while it doesn’t have to be dire to be difficult it helps to reflect a little and remember how you have made it through.

If you have survived this far that means you kept going. How? What did you do through your PhD to make it so far when things have been so tough? What have you learned about yourself? How did you adapt?

As your viva comes closer, whatever else you feel, remember that you persisted. Whatever bad times you’ve had, you held on, you made it through. You were determined, often enough, to get to the end. How did you hold on? And what you can do now to keep holding on until your viva is done?

Nathan

Surviving

Daily Post

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 survive to only mean situations where life is threatened and nearly all hope is lost.

Survive implies, I think, a challenge that is being worked through. It feels like the best verb to describe the kind of challenge being overcome in the PhD viva: it’s not a new challenge, it’s not impossible, it’s not supposed to be a struggle. It applies to the PhD as well, of course, though the challenge is bigger, for longer and can take many forms.

Manage to keep going in difficult circumstances sometimes doesn’t capture the nuance of the difficulty or the challenge. It doesn’t account for how someone might feel about their PhD or viva. It’s still the best verb I can think of for describing how someone can engage with the circumstances of their viva.

Nathan

Keep Going

Daily Post

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 they’ve faced they have done enough: if they keep going then they will succeed at the viva.

Hence, one could simply offer advice on viva prep as “keep going”.

But…

This advice doesn’t mean “just keep going without finding out more about the viva”.

It doesn’t mean “keep going even if you’re worried or anxious”.

You can’t simply “keep going” if you are overstretched or overwhelmed.

And I’m definitely not suggesting that anyone “keep going” alone when they need support.

Keep going is an encouragement: “Keep going because you made it this far.” If your situation now is such that you need help, support, advice, direction then ask for it. Find help and then carry on.

Nathan

The Viva Challenge

Daily Post

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.

Nathan

Best of Viva Survivors 2021: Confidence

Daily Post

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 back to confidence. Confidence makes a real difference for the viva and how a candidate engages with it. Here are some thoughts from this year:

  • Confident or Arrogant – the difference between the two. (it’s a big difference!)
  • The Basics – a lack of confidence for the viva sometimes comes, very simply, from not having a good picture of what the viva is like.
  • A Few Thoughts On Survive – while confidence is the theme for today, it feels appropriate to share a few thoughts on this too.
  • Clearing Out Viva Doubts – confidence blossoms when we remove doubts.
  • Be Brave – a little extra step you might need to take.

Survive means “manage to keep going in difficult circumstances”. If you’ve made it through the last few years and your viva is some time in 2022 then you can be confident that you can rise to the challenge.

If you have managed to keep going so far, you can continue. You’ve not come this far by being merely lucky.

Keep going.

Nathan

Survive Sounds Scary

Daily Post

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 but it doesn’t have to be life and death. It could be much less serious.

It could be difficult to meet with your examiners. All you feel about your work. All you’ve done. The anticipation and the nervousness making you uncomfortable.

But how difficult has your PhD been already? You’re still here. You survived. You managed to keep going in difficult circumstances.

Survive sounds scary. For the viva the simple thing to hold in your mind is you need to keep going.

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