A New Viva Alphabet!
I try every day to share something useful about the viva, but there are a lot of topics to be covered! Back in June 2017 I shared A Viva Alphabet as a way to start thinking about many of the...
Daily viva help for PhDs
I try every day to share something useful about the viva, but there are a lot of topics to be covered! Back in June 2017 I shared A Viva Alphabet as a way to start thinking about many of the...
Each year I finish my blogging by sharing some of my favourite posts over a few days. I try to keep my daily posts as brief as possible, but sometimes it takes more than a hundred words to get to...
When you make the long trek up the hill of your research, and reach the summit of completion, you’re more or less ready for your viva. To stretch the analogy a little further: Explore the route that you took. Was...
I like the tool GROW – Goal, Reality, Options, Will – as a tool for coaching and development. It is a nice framework for exploring future plans, but helpful for reflection too. The four prompts could really resonate with looking...
During my PhD I became aware of the Katamari Damacy series of video games. They’re odd games, really colourful, really lively music – I used to write for hours while listening to the soundtracks! – and lots of fun. The...
Noun. Expert skill or knowledge in a particular field. You are the best in the world on the subject of your thesis. You did the research. You wrote the thesis. Thousand and thousands of hours of work. It will take...
You don’t have to have a mock viva. You don’t have to have a conversation with your supervisor about your examiners. You don’t have to read your thesis beforehand. You don’t have to talk to people about their experiences. You...
Viva preparation is not about speed, but sometimes a quick task is useful to break the inertia. I’ve shared a few “top fives” posts before, but here are ten quick tasks to get things moving. Top Five Places To Bookmark...
Be happy, be sad, Be both or neither, it’s fine: You will be better. However you feel at the end of your PhD, remember: you are definitely more talented, more capable and more knowledgeable than when you started. (check...
I re-read my thesis now and cringe! There are long, waffly sentences that need serious editing. The diagrams look amateur. The structure of the thesis barely supports how I frame my ideas. It could be so much better – and...