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Tag: plan your prep

Nathan

Better Than Busy

Daily Post

I was really busy when I was getting ready for my viva.

I’m thinking about the volume of work I did. About six weeks, 9am to 4pm with lunch breaks: reading my thesis, reading papers, making notes, planning a presentation, talking with my supervisor and trying to throw away hypotheticals that would pop into my mind.

Here are some things I did not do during those six weeks:

  • Apply for jobs;
  • Work at a job I already had;
  • Have to manage a household or substantial responsibilities;
  • Manage any health conditions;
  • Think about life after the PhD.

I did a lot of work to get ready for my viva and a lot of it was useful. But I look back and see that I did more than I needed to so that I kept busy. I kept the feeling going for myself that I was getting ready.

I did that partly because I could hide in busy-ness, partly because I was unfocussed in my life then and partly because I didn’t know what to expect from my viva.

 

I’m going to assume that you have to commit a serious amount of time to at least two of the items on the list above right now. Your life and time is not as open as mine was. I’m going to assume as well that, if you’re reading this post, you have at least some idea of what to expect from the viva.

You don’t have time to keep busy with your prep. In some ways that makes you fortunate compared to 2008-Nathan. You can be effective in your viva prep instead.

Sketch out your prep plans. Check you know what to expect. Ask for help. Don’t throw yourself into stress and rush and busy. Work out how to get the work done alongside your life.

You can do better than busy.

 

PS: if you’re looking for more helpful ideas about the viva then take a look at Viva Survivors Select – my new curated zine series collecting great posts from the daily blog archive. The first issue is available now here. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Small Prep

Daily Post

Reading your thesis cover to cover might take hours. Reading a page might take a few minutes.

Having a mock viva will take several hours of prep and several hours on the day. Responding to a question from a friend might take five minutes.

Carefully reviewing your thesis for what to annotate will take time. Adding sticky notes to the start of each chapter will take two minutes at most.

 

All of which is to say that there’s a lot of big prep but many small tasks that will make a difference.

You can’t focus solely on the latter and hope it’s enough, but if you’re tired or overwhelmed you can give yourself some small easy wins to help you get back on track.

Use small bits of prep to help move you closer to being ready.

Nathan

What I Did

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I remember reading my thesis a lot after submission. Without thinking about the purpose too much I remember adding a lot of notes to my thesis margins. I would circle or mark jargon terms that I had trouble with in the hope that I would be able to remember them at the viva. I stuck sticky notes at the start of chapters to help me navigate my thesis.

I had a weekly meeting with my supervisor throughout my PhD that we continued after I submitted my thesis. Each week we talked about one chapter in my thesis. I don’t recall a particular purpose, we weren’t exploring “What might an examiner ask?” – the conversation was more general than that.

I read a survey paper on a topic my external was interested in. My supervisor thought this would be helpful because my external would want me to explain whether my work could connect up with this hot topic area. My supervisor was 100% correct in this belief!

I prepared an overview presentation of my thesis because I was asked for that by my examiners; I knew that that was how my viva would start and so that gave me something to focus on.

I also:

  • Didn’t really ask about what vivas were like.
  • Didn’t have a mock viva.
  • Didn’t check over any recent papers to see if there was anything relevant to my work.
  • Didn’t reflect on my own journey.
  • Didn’t rehearse for responding to questions.

And I knocked on my supervisor’s door with fifteen minutes to go before my viva so that I could check a definition one more time, because I had suddenly gone blank.

 

What does all this mean? I don’t know. I was very busy getting ready, but could have been more effective. I did a lot of work but with no thought about whether it was the right thing to do. I don’t think I did anything unhelpful but I know missed things that could have made a real difference.

I was ready for my viva but with a bit of thought I could have been much more well-prepared.

Nathan

Careful Prep

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Is there a danger that I could be overprepared for my viva? Do I need to be careful?

No to the first question, yes to the second.

I don’t think a candidate can do so much preparation that they can harm how ready they are for their viva – as if they were driving so fast in one direction that they missed their destination. Of course, a candidate could be over-invested: prep is necessary but it’s a means to an end.

Being careful means making a plan and trying to follow it. Sketch out the things you need to do, ask others for a little help or guidance and then do the work. Leave yourself time so that you aren’t stressed. Don’t fill in the hours with more and more work just so you feel busy.

You can’t be overprepared for your viva. Be careful that you don’t spend more time than you need or leave yourself too little time to feel really ready.

 

PS: want to know exactly what kind of work goes into being prepared for your viva? Take a look at the details of my Viva Survivor session on March 27th 2025. I’ll be covering a lot at my live webinar next week and providing a catch-up recording too!

Nathan

A Part Of You

Daily Post

Yes, your viva matters. Yes, you need to pass.

But it is only one thing in your life.

  • Read your thesis – but make time for rest.
  • Create summaries – but create space to do other things as well.
  • Have a mock viva with your supervisor – and have a good catch up with a friend.

The viva, your thesis and your research all matter.

You matter more. Take care of yourself.

Nathan

The Build-up

Daily Post

At submission sketch out a viva prep plan.

You might not know your viva date but that’s OK: you know your current situation. You know how busy you are and you know what responsibilities you have. With a little reflection you can also get a good feeling about how you need to approach getting ready.

A sketch of a plan can take account of busy-ness and obligations. Do you need two weeks to get ready or is it safer for your stress and your time to have a month? Sketch how you would do the work.

Start small and build. Day one of viva prep doesn’t have to mean reading your whole thesis, checking ten papers and having a mock viva. Build up to that. Read a little and then do more the next day.

The last week of viva prep will probably be busier than the first – but the last day might be more relaxed as you realise you’ve built up everything you need for meeting your examiners.

After all, you’re building on solid foundations.

Nathan

Final Preparations

Daily Post

My last viva prep task was to knock on my supervisor’s door with fifteen minutes to go, “Hi Hugh, just to check one more time, a genus 2 mutant can be defined as….?”

What will your final prep be?

Perhaps you’ll just check you have everything in your bag. Maybe you’ll focus on re-reading something one more time. Your last prep step could be to relax with a cup of coffee.

Or like me, your last task will be to stress at the last moment.

 

There’s an element of choice involved. You can plan your viva preparation. Sketch out a plan when you reach submission. You don’t need to account for every minute of every day until your viva, but by looking ahead you can remove stress, rush and a lot of doubts.

The last step in getting ready for your viva could be tiny or could be a big task. It’s better if it’s not panicked or stressed.

Nathan

Your Viva, Your Prep

Daily Post

There are regulations, trends for the viva process and departmental good practice which can give you an idea of what your viva might be like – but then your viva will be one of a kind, unique and never repeated.

There are a lot of well-founded good ideas for the general process of viva preparation, both in terms of what someone could do to get ready and when – but your situation is unique, your preferences are your own and you have to make it work well for you.

 

Vivas are unique to the individual, their research, their thesis and their circumstances – even while there are lots of things that can be certain or expected about the process.

Viva prep is the same: unique to the individual but grounded on good practice and useful ideas that are applicable by any candidate.

What do your PhD circumstances mean for your viva? What do they mean for your viva prep?

Nathan

Set Your Course

Daily Post

Good viva prep is like embarking on any long trip or expedition (or any project): you plan, figure out a direction and get started.

Good viva prep is planned. It’s less effective and more stressful if you improvise completely. It takes time to do and a little time to first consider how you will do it. You can decide when, where, how and so on. As you plan you can figure out sticking points or stumbling blocks.

You can set your course – but you also have to be ready to adapt if circumstances change.

If you have a bad day, if something goes wrong, if you forget something then the plan changes and you go with the changes. This is just what you would do with any long trip or expedition – or any project – or the viva itself!

Set your course, but be ready to adapt.

Nathan

Why You Rehearse

Daily Post

An incomplete list of reasons why a PhD candidate would benefit from rehearsal before the viva.

To know how it might feel to be in the viva, minute to minute.

To get a sense of what you might do when you’re asked a question.

To get a sense of how you might feel and what you might do when you’re asked an unexpected question.

To practise what you might do when asked a question.

To practise talking about your work with a good audience.

To review how you did afterwards.

To explore your work.

To explore how you describe your work.

To ask questions about your work and how others see it.

To revise your plans for your viva prep.

To build your confidence for the viva.

To hopefully feel better about your viva.

To experience what it feels like to say “I don’t know.”

To demonstrate to yourself that you can do it.

 

Rehearsal isn’t limited to a mock viva. There are many other opportunities like having a chat, coffee with friends, giving a seminar or having a mini-viva.

And the list of reasons above is incomplete. Why else might you rehearse for your viva?

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