Improbable
How many times have you answered questions about your research? How many times have you read a paper and increased your knowledge? How often have you made a contribution to your field? How many times have you had a discussion...
Daily viva help for PhDs
How many times have you answered questions about your research? How many times have you read a paper and increased your knowledge? How often have you made a contribution to your field? How many times have you had a discussion...
In 2009 I went on a road trip across the USA. One day my friend and I saw a sign announcing, “PRAIRIE DOG TOWN!! See the world’s largest prairie dog!!” It was over one hundred miles away, and we laughed...
You asked questions, read things, thought deeply, gave some talks, did research and wrote a lot. Now your viva is coming up and… nothing changes. You don’t have to do all of these things with the same intensity, but you’re...
Submitting your thesis is a massive achievement. When you reach that point, take a couple of minutes to revel: you did it! You’ve come a long way and you’ve not far to go by comparison. It could still be difficult,...
My school’s motto. Those four Latin words have been rattling around my head for twenty-five years. We were told it meant “through knowledge to better things”. I’ve loved it since the headmaster explained it on the first day. Three thoughts:...
Universities have regulations about thesis examination, conditions that they expect. But every viva will be different from every other. Every PhD thesis and every PhD researcher is different from every other. Your viva won’t be like mine: it’ll have the same...
Are you going to give it 110% on viva day? Push it to the limit?! Go above and beyond the call of duty?? Are you going to give it everything you’ve got??? Hmm. Do you need to? Or by that...
I worry that simple is equated with easy too often. Too often I see people mistake the output for the process. It can take years of sifting through data, asking the right (and wrong) questions, or trying lots of things...
On Day 1 of your PhD you have promise. On Day 10 you might be worrying what you’ve let yourself in for, but you’re better than you were on Day 1. On Day 100 you might be struggling, but there’s...
On the one hand: your examiners will have read your thesis carefully, formulated an opinion, come up with questions to ask and be ready to examine you and your thesis. On the other hand: you did the research, you wrote...