You Are Enough
You don’t have to work every hour of every day to prepare for your viva. You don’t have to be word perfect in your viva to succeed. You don’t have to be perfect. You can be you and that’s enough.
Daily viva help for PhDs
You don’t have to work every hour of every day to prepare for your viva. You don’t have to be word perfect in your viva to succeed. You don’t have to be perfect. You can be you and that’s enough.
Remember that you don’t need to be perfect to succeed in the viva. Remember that you will have invested a lot of time, effort and energy into becoming practised at all the things necessary for you to succeed. You have...
You don’t need to have done perfect research. You don’t need to have written the perfect thesis. You can’t have done every possible task in preparation. You don’t need to have an answer for everything. You don’t need to be...
There are PhD games that people play that are ultimately not fun or helpful. They’re founded in perfectionism and not knowing what’s expected. Playing them seems like a good idea sometimes, but is ultimately frustrating. Don’t play those games. Don’t...
There’s always a chance you’re wrong about something. There’s always a possibility your examiners believe you’re wrong. Until they ask they won’t be able to know either way. Being wrong or being asked something because you might be wrong is...
You can’t be perfect: you can be good. You can know enough and do enough to be good enough for your PhD. You can show enough in your thesis and in your viva to convince your examiners that you’re good....
Three ways I think about the same point of viva preparation. Instead of pushing yourself to get better in advance of your viva, decide on what you can do to get ready. Better is a never-ending chase for perfection. Ready...
Actually, it’s impossible. Trying to be perfect for your viva will only cause you pain, stress, worry and other feelings of falling short. Perfection will always be ten steps ahead of you, but ready can be right by your side....
Perfect is impossible. You’ve never make your thesis perfect. You’ll never be the perfect researcher. You’ll never be perfectly ready for your viva. And all of that’s fine. The standard you need is to be good, not perfect. Aim for...
You can’t – and shouldn’t – assume there are problems in your thesis. It’s worth checking through it carefully after submission. Read your thesis well to make sure that it holds up, that nothing has slipped through. Find something unclear?...