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Tag: reflection

Nathan

Significant To Who?

Daily Post

When thinking about your significant original contribution it’s natural to think about why something matters. The results and conclusions in your thesis have value and it’s right that someone – like your examiners – would want to explore that in your viva.

It makes sense to reflect on why your work matters and how you explain that as part of your viva prep. It’s also a good idea to think about who your work matters to as well.

For example, my thesis contained algorithms I’d developed for calculating certain properties of mathematical objects. That’s my simplest explanation without invoking fancy terms and funny symbols! This work mattered because these properties were typically very time-consuming for people to calculate. My algorithms had limits but they were very quick and easy to use.

That’s the why. The who, the people who would be interested, was a little more niche.

People interested in my work might be people who needed a tool. Or people who were looking to develop their own. Or even people looking for a little inspiration. But my work wasn’t for everyone.

Explore why your work matters as you get ready but remember to think about who it matters to as well.

Nathan

Eight Years

Daily Post

April 18th 2017: I published the first daily Viva Survivors post.

April 18th 2025: today!

What’s in-between? A lot of words.

 

It’s been one of the best decisions I’ve made to do this daily blog. It helps me to think through what I need to say at work, finds new ways of exploring the viva, unpack questions that people ask and also just help me think.

I’ve had almost 3000 attempts to say something helpful. I’ve been writing Viva Survivors for over twice the length of my PhD journey.

After eight years a few things occur to me:

  • Writing a daily blog isn’t a lot of work so much as it is a lot of practice.
  • Writing a daily blog is a great way to develop ideas.
  • Writing a daily blog is not a fool-proof plan for fame and fortune!

And writing a daily blog for eight years is a lot like a PhD in many ways: the amount of work required is enormous but spread out over a long period of time. It can be easy to tell yourself at the beginning that it’s impossible because the scale is vast – but it’s also easy to tell yourself at the end that you just kind of bumbled your way to success because you can’t remember so much of what you’ve done.

In both cases you can only do it by doing it. It only exists because someone did the work.

I’m very happy to be eight years in on this ongoing project and looking forward to many more. I hope the same is true for you dear reader, whoever you are and whatever your project.

Thanks for reading!

 

PS: On this eighth anniversary post I have to mention the first issue of Viva Survivors Select – my curated zine series drawing from the daily blog archive! Issue 01 shares twenty posts from 2017 on viva prep, confidence and the viva process. It feels great to start an exciting project like this but it’s made doubly exciting by doing it around the anniversary of the blog. Check out the issue here – and again, thank you for reading 🙂

Nathan

Stress & Tensions

Daily Post

It’s a good idea to reduce stress ahead of your viva. A little pressure might motivate some people but stress never helps anyone. You can reduce stress by planning your prep so that you aren’t overwhelmed. You can reduce stress by reading regulations and asking others about their experiences. You can reduce stress for the viva by doing the prep you need to do so that you feel more ready.

On the other hand, it will help to accept that there are tensions around the viva – and the best you can do is acknowledge them and work with them. For example, the tension between not knowing the questions you will be asked but still being able to respond. There’s a tension between knowing that most vivas succeed but not knowing your own outcome until the end. There can be a tension between being nervous because the viva matters but being confident that you have done enough to do well.

Reduce stress. Accept tensions. In both cases, you need to find your way forward.

Nathan

Preferences

Daily Post

Your preferences for the viva matter.

They can have an impact on how you engage with the viva and with what happens there. Some preferences can be met much more easily than others. And if some aren’t met you will have to decide what to do regardless.

 

Your preferences for viva prep are probably the most easy to meet: if you need to prepare at a certain time in a certain way or use particular materials to annotate your thesis that’s not so hard to do. You might have preferences around rehearsal – a mock viva date or help from particular friends – and these could be trickier, but not hard.

Preferences for examiner selection are just that: you can prefer certain people but have no direct control over their nomination or acceptance. Supervisors might ask candidates for ideas, but ultimately they have to select who they think will be a good choice. Academics asked to be examiners have to weigh up their other work and responsibilities. You might really want someone or an academic with a certain kind of background but ultimately your preference could be unsatisfied.

You might prefer a 90-minute viva or one that begins with a particular question. You might prefer to feel a certain way or to know in advance what the outcome will be. And you might prefer that you didn’t have a viva at all! But you can’t really control any of these things. There are things you might prefer and then the reality of what happens: some of your preferences might be met and some might not.

 

So what does all of this mean?

First, again, your preferences matter. It will probably help your general viva readiness to be aware of and fulfil your preferences as much as you can.

Second, you have to work past any emotional friction you feel from preferences that can’t be met. That might not be easy but there isn’t anything else to do.

Nathan

What Does It Do?

Daily Post

A four word question to help you think about your significant, original contribution.

Four words that might help you get thinking quickly. What, practically, does your work do? What do your results do for others? We can spin a web of questions and connections from those four words.

Start with the simple and work out. Reflect, write and talk.

Get ready to tell your examiners all about the value of your contribution.

Nathan

Your Choices

Daily Post

A big picture perspective on the viva could give three driving questions:

  • Why did you do it? (the topic of your research)
  • How did you do it? (methods and approaches)
  • What was the result? (findings, conclusions, etc)

Naturally there are many questions that could follow from each of these. There are unique questions for every PhD candidate because every candidate’s research, thesis and circumstances are unique. These three driving questions are a good starting point for reflection and all three are related to your choices.

  • It’s possible your research area was an open problem that was worth studying – but why did you do it?
  • It could be the case that there were multiple ways for someone to explore your topic – but why did you choose the approach you did?
  • Results can be open to interpretations sometimes – and if that’s true for your work why did you make the choices you did?

Choices are interesting and nearly always worth talking about or understanding. Reflect on your choices ahead of the viva.

Nathan

No Fooling Around

Daily Post

No tricks, no pranks, no double-meanings and no jokes today!

You’ve come as far as you have on your PhD journey because you kept doing the work. You were good at what you did and you became better. Whatever your field you learned and explored and produced.

You get to submission by being good enough. You get to and through your viva by being good enough.

You might need to prepare a little and you might need to do something to build up your confidence, but don’t be deceived: you must be good enough if you have got this far.

And if you’ve got this far, keep going!

Nathan

What I Did

Daily Post

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

Questions About Your Thesis

Daily Post

What might an expert make of your thesis?

What would a non-expert be able to understand?

What does your supervisor say about your work?

How much would your friends and colleagues need to know to talk about your thesis with you?

What would you emphasise in a summary or seminar about your thesis?

What points from your thesis connect with the work of your internal examiner?

What points from your thesis connect with the work of your external examiner?

 

None of these questions are typical of the viva. All could be helpful to reflect on beforehand so that you can think about what your work means, how you’ve written about it and how you might explain it to others.

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