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Compare your experience and knowledge to your examiners and you might feel pretty small. They’ve had longer to see more, learn more, do more and know more. A candidate could easily worry as a result. But more is not the...
Daily viva help for PhDs
Compare your experience and knowledge to your examiners and you might feel pretty small. They’ve had longer to see more, learn more, do more and know more. A candidate could easily worry as a result. But more is not the...
In The Wizard Of Oz, Dorothy’s friends all thought they were missing something. The Scarecrow didn’t have a brain, the Tin Man lacked a heart and the Lion had no courage. Dorothy takes them to see the Wizard, thinking that...
In your viva, remember: Every question you get is because of something you’ve done. All of your answers are because of something you’ve done too.
“What determines your fate in the viva?” is one of the more unusual questions I’ve been asked in seminars. Could it be your topic? Perhaps you need to choose something that resonates with your examiners and others. In which case,...
That’s how long my PhD was, from the day I started to the day I had my viva. 1345 days is just over three and a half years. That’s a long time! I didn’t work every day. I took holidays,...
What are your resolutions? What are you changing? In particular, what efforts are you going to make to ready for your viva? Change can be good, but it’s worth asking whether or not you need to change in the first...
If it helps, why wouldn’t you have something lucky with you in the viva? My good day socks were a story I told myself for years – “wear these socks and it will be a good day” – my viva,...
You could be enthusiastic but untalented at the start of a PhD, and unsure but hardworking in the middle. The only explanation for getting to the end is that you’ve done the work and done it well. It’s not an...
Luck or random chance don’t dictate the outcome of the viva. It’s not down to the examiners’ whims. It’s not an exam about “some” book and research. That book and research didn’t just appear. You didn’t just wake up to...
It’s tempting to build up the viva as an epic once-in-a-lifetime event. Make-or-break, do-or-die, all-or-nothing… What about the 1000+ once-in-a-lifetime PhD days that lead up to the viva?