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Nathan

Generalisations

Daily Post, Sabbatical

Be careful when you come to generalise your probable viva experience.

Regulations, viva stories and hearing about vivas from your department all have a role to play in building up your personal expectations. Be sure you have enough suitable information to build your expectations.

This idea also counts for when you think about your work.

You can’t generalise past experiences and responses to your research directly to your viva. Seminars, and past discussions don’t dictate what your examiners might make of your research. If you’ve had tricky meetings or difficult conference talks in the past that doesn’t have to define your future viva experience.

 

Read regulations, ask people you can trust and build up a good picture of what to expect. Reflect on your journey and remember that you have grown throughout the process.

You are capable, you are good enough and you must have made something by now.

That’s a reasonable generalisation to make about someone close to their viva.

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on November 11th 2023.

Nathan

Fear Of The Unknown

Daily Post

There are two steps to removing fear or worry about unknown aspects of the viva.

The first step is to try to accept that your viva will be an unknown in some ways until you experience it. You won’t know how long it is, you won’t know what questions will be asked and you don’t know how you’ll feel until you’re there.

The second step is to build up a reasonable sense of the general expectations before you get to the viva. Read your university’s regulations, learn about other viva experiences and ask your colleagues about their recent experiences. These different aspects can fill in many of the blanks you might have.

You can have a good sense of what happens at vivas. This is a massive help both practically and emotionally, even if you can’t know the exact details of your viva until it’s your time.

Nathan

Whispers About The Viva

Daily Post

Vivas are long.

Examiners ask tough questions.

Corrections are terrible.

Conditions are harsh.

There’s nothing you can do but hope.

Whispers about the viva are everywhere. They thrive because we don’t talk enough about what happens in vivas, at least not clearly.

Silence allows the whispers to creep in: the half-truths, the unexplored contexts and the unsubstantiated rumours.

Whispers can cause a lot of unnecessary worry. It’s not wrong to be nervous or worried about the viva, but the whispers aren’t worth your concern.

Ask more people more questions about their experiences. Talk to your supervisors. Read the regulations.

Beat back whispers with certainty. Bring your focus back to what matters.

Nathan

Behaving As Expected

Daily Post

PhD candidates can get a sense of what to expect for their viva from reading their institution’s regulations, learning about general viva experiences and asking about recent vivas in their department.

Together these create expectations.

Some expectations will be really clear, like knowing the people who will be examining. Others will cover a range of possibilities, like expecting the viva to be longer than two hours. Some aspects may be unknown but a candidate can still get a sense of the situation: you might not know the first question but will still have an idea of what examiners typically ask.

Viva expectations prompt behaviour. This sort of thing will happen so I will do this to be ready.

Consider what you know about the viva and how that can help you as you prepare.

Nathan

Find Out More

Daily Post

A lot of viva worries come from not knowing what to expect – so find out more.

Read the regulations. Ask your supervisors. Talk to friends, talk to post-docs, talk to people who have been down the path to the viva before and succeeded.

Check online. Read a blog or two. Listen to a couple of podcasts. Explore the many resources produced by your institution and others.

It’s not wrong to be worried about the viva. There’s work to do and academic culture makes the viva seem a bit daunting.

There’s a little mystery in the process and what to expect, but a wealth of information in so many places that can help take away any worries you have – or at the very least help you to figure out what you can do to beat those worries back.

If you feel worried about the viva, go find out more.

Nathan

Generalisations

Daily Post

Be careful when you come to generalise your probable viva experience.

Regulations, viva stories and hearing about vivas from your department all have a role to play in building up your personal expectations. Be sure you have enough suitable information to build your expectations.

This idea also counts for when you think about your work.

You can’t generalise past experiences and responses to your research directly to your viva. Seminars, and past discussions don’t dictate what your examiners might make of your research. If you’ve had tricky meetings or difficult conference talks in the past that doesn’t have to define your future viva experience.

 

Read regulations, ask people you can trust and build up a good picture of what to expect. Reflect on your journey and remember that you have grown throughout the process.

You are capable, you are good enough and you must have made something by now.

That’s a reasonable generalisation to make about someone close to their viva.

Nathan

Vivas Have Structure

Daily Post

Every building has multiple blueprints or plans. On one plan are the walls, but another diagram shows where pipes and cables go.

If you compare building plans for different buildings you’ll notice similarities and differences, but look closer and you’ll see common structures.

Certainties for what you would find.

 

Vivas are based on regulations, expectations and norms.

  • Universities set thesis examination regulations.
  • Expectations rise from the general stories in academic culture.
  • Your department finds norms, the “good practice” ways of the viva.

All three give the viva structure. Every viva is unique because every thesis and candidate are unique but vivas tend towards patterns of experience.

You can make predictions and have expectations of what your viva will be like. You’ll have to wait until viva day to know exactly what it’s like.

Every viva is unique – but that doesn’t make yours a big unknown.

Nathan

Surprising Questions From Candidates

Daily Post

I’m enjoying a nice summer break, but while I do I am missing sharing viva help in webinars. Before 2020 I’d already delivered viva sessions and workshops for a decade.

With all of that combined experience – as you might imagine – I’ve been asked a LOT of questions about the viva. From the hyper-specific to the incredibly-vague and the super-practical to the ultra-hypothetical, thirteen years later I’m still asked questions that I’ve never been asked before.

And I’ve been asked more than a few questions that really surprise me. For example:

  • Can I have a break if the viva is long? Yes, in fact you can always have a break!
  • Can I take my thesis with me to check details? Yes, you’re expected to have it with you!
  • Will I know who my examiners are before my viva? Yes, this is arranged well before the date!
  • Will my examiners fail me if I forget something or don’t know something? No!
  • How mean will my examiners be? They won’t be, that’s not what they’re there to do!

Sometimes, when I’m asked a question, the person apologises, “Sorry, this might be a stupid question-” and I always cut them off. There are no stupid questions when you’re looking for information or trying to learn more, particularly at a webinar about the PhD viva.

There are no stupid questions, but there are questions that are surprising to me.

I’m surprised that some of what people don’t know about the viva isn’t just shared by supervisors. I’m surprised it’s not passed on through peer groups. I’m surprised that candidates don’t know that they can have a break, for example, or that examiners aren’t trying to be mean.

But they’re not stupid questions. I’m always glad to make a space that could help.

I would encourage you, to help your communities and culture, do pass on what your viva was like. Share to help build up the general sense of what to expect.

Nathan

Examiners’ Choice

Daily Post

Candidates don’t choose examiners. For all the good ideas you might have about this person or that person to examine your thesis and you in the viva, you don’t choose them outright.

Your supervisors choose your examiners. They might ask you for your ideas and they might respond positively to your suggestions but they don’t have to. They are responsible for nominating the academics who will examine you.

Your university has to approve the nominations. They have to check the details of who your supervisor selects to check they are suitable. There are criteria that examiners have to satisfy.

And after all of this two people have to say yes.

They can say no if they’re busy. They can say no if, for whatever reason, they feel it doesn’t seem like a good fit for them to be your examiner. They don’t say yes to tick a box. They don’t say yes because they know your supervisor.

When your examiners are confirmed then you can prepare. You can make a choice at that stage to be ready to talk to them at your viva.

That’s the choice you make.

Nathan

Always Check The Rules

Daily Post

A simple plea for a Saturday: always, always read the regulations for thesis examination at your institution. Read the rules for the viva at your university.

They might be a little dull in places, but you will get confirmation about who does what, when you find things out and see estimates on how long things like the submission period will take.

There may even be things you don’t expect: a candidate told me recently that they had to take proof of their identity to their viva!

Always check the rules. It won’t take much to find them and won’t take long to read them.

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