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Tag: my viva

Nathan

Sixteen

Daily Post

My viva was sixteen years ago today.

I’ve written about it many times over the last seven years on the blog and spoken about it probably thousands of times in seminars. For whatever they’re worth, here are sixteen things I remember about my viva day:

  1. I was tired.
  2. I was nervous because I was so tired, but this feeling only came ten minutes before we started.
  3. My examiners were friendly, polite and professional.
  4. My examiners were clearly prepared.
  5. I was very prepared!
  6. My examiners had asked me to prepare a presentation, but started asking me questions while I was working through that.
  7. I remained standing by the chalkboard for the entirety of my four hour viva.
    • Note: I have never met anyone else in the last sixteen years who has had this experience!
  8. My examiners had a lot of questions for me.
  9. My examiners had specific criticisms of the structure of my thesis.
  10. My examiners were fair with their questions and gave me plenty of space to respond.
  11. My viva had a single break around the 2 hour and 30 minute mark.
  12. I remember only one panic-inducing moment when a particular statement from my internal examiner really caught me off-guard: In Chapter 7 you detail your failure at something. That’s interesting.
  13. I felt exhausted as we got to the end…
  14. …but those four hours did seem to go by very quickly.
  15. My examiners asked me to leave the room and I then spent a slightly-nervous seventeen minutes waiting for them to call me back in.
  16. My examiners told me I had passed with minor corrections and congratulated me.

Sixteen things after sixteen years.

What do you think you’ll remember in the years after your viva?

What do you want your viva to be like?

What will you do to steer your viva to be closer to how you imagine?

Nathan

My Atypical Viva

Daily Post

Later this year I’ll “celebrate” fifteen years since I had my viva, and remembering that makes me realise one more time just how different my viva was to everything I’ve heard since about vivas.

Before I had my viva I was quite ignorant about the process. It didn’t occur to me until a few years afterwards that my viva was a bit odd:

  • My viva was in a quiet seminar room at the end of a corridor, but it was a room big enough for thirty.
  • I had been asked to prepare a presentation, not very common but an established viva practice. However, within two minutes of starting one of my examiners asked a question, which started the discussion. This was my viva: lots of questions, weaving occasionally back to my presentation.
  • My viva was four hours with a short break, which is quite long but manageable…
  • …but I was stood at the front of the room for the duration, near the projector and blackboard. My examiners were sat as if they were in the front row of a lecture. There was no chair at their table for me and I was never invited to sit down at any point.

On that last point I have, so far, found myself to be unique in my viva experience.

And despite all of that:

  • My viva followed the flow of the information in my thesis, like most do.
  • I had two examiners, like most vivas and they were clearly very prepared, as was I.
  • They asked lots of questions and treated me and my work with respect, even when they had criticisms.
  • I received minor corrections, like the majority of PhD candidates in the UK.
  • It felt like it was all over much more quickly than it actually was, time just flew by!

Every viva is unique. Some are more different than others! But all vivas follow key expectations and regulations. Read the rules, listen to stories and build up a good general picture that you can prepare for.

Nathan

The Room Was Hot

Daily Post

For all the prep I did, it never occurred to me to think about where my viva was going to be.

It was early June, but a warm week. The seminar room, which I was very familiar with, was on the side of the maths building that got the sun first thing in the morning.

When we started at 10am it was already warm. Two hours later and it was hot.

It was another two hours before we finished.

By then it was almost unbearable!

 

The location for your viva might be a small thing to consider next to your thesis contribution and all the preparation you might do, but it is still something to think about. You will know where it is in advance and can then think about what you need to do in order to be at your best in that room.

What could you do? What could you take? How might you dress? What do you need to do to help that space be a good one for you to work in?

Once you know the location, think about what – if anything – you need to do in response. It’s a small thing, but thinking about it can really help with your viva.

Nathan

Now I Forget

Daily Post

I remember checking in with my supervisor half an hour before my viva and asking him about a key definition. I don’t remember seeing him at all later that day, but he must have been there. Right?

I shared an office with four other people at the time, but don’t recall any of them being there on my viva day. Isn’t that strange? A Monday in early June and no-one was around. Did that happen? Or do I just not remember?

I started my viva with a presentation. I remember my examiners asking me questions almost immediately, as I was sharing a summary. I remember difficult questions about my explanation for some results. However, I don’t remember any questions at all about the key result of my thesis. Isn’t that strange?

I remember passing but have a hole in my memory until that evening, a celebratory dinner in a restaurant with my family. I don’t know if my examiners gave me a list of corrections after my viva. I don’t know if I saw any friends around the department. I don’t know if I called or texted anyone to let them know I was done.

 

I’m starting to forget my viva. I remember a story, a fragment of what happened, but not the day.

Maybe it means my viva really wasn’t that big a deal compared to everything else in my PhD. Maybe it means I’ve finally finished thinking about that day – unlikely as that may seem!

Why am I sharing this? To offer a little perspective, for those who have their viva in the future. It matters. Your viva is important. But it won’t be the most important thing you ever do.

The viva is one day on your journey to getting your PhD.

And maybe one day you’ll realise you’ve forgotten all about it.

Nathan

“That’s Interesting”

Daily Post

Two words, spoken by my internal examiner, as we approached the end of my viva.

Two words that came after he had summarised my final chapter.

Two words that followed a summary of “In Chapter 7 you detail your failure at solving a problem.”

“That’s interesting.”

Two words that seemed as if they were followed by a yawning void of time as I tried to understand what he meant.

Two words that I realised were not, in fact, a question.

Two words that were a simple comment, an observation.

Two words that I responded to by saying why I had felt it important to include preliminary results, why it still might help someone.

Two words from him, two minutes of talking from me and then a simple response of “OK” afterwards.

 

Two words or two sentences or two minutes of talking from either of your two examiners could make your heart skip a beat as you wonder what was meant and ponder what to say.

Take a breath, think, try to understand. What do they mean? Then respond.

Sometimes a simple comment is simply a comment: you don’t need to say much in response at all.