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Nathan

Sticky Note Suggestions

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Small sticky notes are about 4cm by 5cm. There’s not a lot to them; they’re a tiny stationery delight.

You could use them as bookmarks or to add short supplementary material to your thesis, but why not add some little messages during your viva prep?

  • “You can do this.”
  • “This is a good section!”
  • “Talk about this result.”
  • “Smile, breathe, relax.”
  • “Take your time.”
  • “Remember the journey.”
  • “Remember: you are good.”

What else might help ?

Practical, directly-related to your research prep is great, but perhaps you also just need a nudge to remember that you’re awesome.

Nathan

First Things First

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A little tip for viva prep that can also be applied to any project: whenever you finish a period of activity or a task, leave a note for yourself of the first action you’ll take when you do more work.

  • “Re-read the summary of my methods.”
  • “Email supervisor to arrange mock viva.”
  • “Check recent paper by external.”
  • “Gather stationery for marking up thesis chapters.”

Whatever you need to do next time, leave a note for yourself: a reminder, a prompt, a shove to get started well.

It’s easy to sit down and think “What do I do?” but hard to ignore a clear direction you leave for yourself.

Nathan

A Week Of Prep

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Let’s say you’re a few weeks away from your viva. You’ve read your thesis and it feels familiar. You’re busy with life outside of your thesis. You want to be prepared for your viva, you feel the need to do something this coming week, but you don’t know what.

Block out an hour for each evening of the week ahead and try the following:

  • Monday: annotate your thesis. Put a Post-it at the start of every chapter, and anywhere in your thesis that is important. Highlight important passages or references to make them stand out. Make your thesis more useful for you.
  • Tuesday: create an edited bibliography. Explore which are the most essential references, and capture a little detail for each to explore why it matters so much.
  • Wednesday: have a mini-viva. Either write notes about each of the questions or capture your thoughts with a voice-recording app.
  • Thursday: use the VIVA tool to analyse a chapter of your thesis. Pick a good one, and spend fifteen minutes for each of the four prompts to explore the chapter.
  • Friday: reflect on your mini-viva from Wednesday. What details would you add? What stands out from your mini-viva?
  • Saturday: switch to mornings. Meet a friend for coffee or an early lunch. Get them to ask you relevant questions about your research.
  • Sunday: take only 15 minutes to review what you’ve done. What has helped this week? How are you feeling about your viva? Now map out the week ahead. What are you going to do to continue your preparations?

This post is a little idea of how you could break your week up, doing different, useful tasks to prepare for the viva. Customise in a suitable way for you.

Don’t drift to your viva; go towards it with purpose.

Nathan

20 Uses For Post-it Notes In Viva Prep!

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Post-it Notes are some of the most useful things you can use to support your viva prep. They are excellent for helping to annotate your thesis. Raid the departmental stationery cupboard, then begin:

  1. Mark out the start of each chapter.
  2. Bookmark important parts of your thesis you want to be able to find easily.
  3. Stick in a small square summary at the start of a chapter.
  4. Stick in a small square conclusion at the end of a chapter!
  5. Highlight an important reference.
  6. Expand on a point.
  7. Explain jargon.
  8. Summarise key points in a section.
  9. List notable questions on a piece of theory.
  10. Use as a placeholder for a future correction or update.

And this is just a sample of what you might stick in your thesis!

You could also use Post-it Notes to:

  1. Map out your preparations.
  2. Jot down notes about examiners.
  3. List key points about aspects of your work.
  4. Make notes for your mock viva.
  5. Prompt your reflections.
  6. Remind yourself of important points.
  7. Leave an uplifting message for your future self.
  8. Draw attention to an important paper you need to check.
  9. Sketch out a step-by-step process.
  10. Count down the days until you’re all done!

As ever with viva prep, consider what you might need to feel ready for your viva, then what you might do to get to that feeling.

This Post-it Note post not sponsored by Post-it Notes!!! 😀