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Nathan

A Non-Trivial Pursuit

Daily Post, Sabbatical

Viva candidates pretty much have all the answers. That’s not because the viva is easy or the questions are predictable or because candidates can somehow prepare for every possibility. The viva’s not a quiz game.

Some questions in the viva might be trivial in the sense that they are easy for you to answer. The fact that something seems easy to you doesn’t diminish it in any way.

The viva generally is non-trivial. It’s not a game. Any ease you might feel with questions is down to your hard-earned talent.

 

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 July 2nd 2018.

Nathan

Answers & Questions

Daily Post

Practice for the viva, through a mock viva, a mini-viva, a meeting or even just a chat with friends, is essential: you have to build confidence that you can respond to questions. But even more important is building confidence that you have the ability to do well in the viva.

You don’t know what answers or responses you’ll need in the viva; you can’t know for certain what questions will be asked. But with confidence you can be certain that you can respond to every question that you’re asked.

You can do this.

Nathan

Crossing The Swamp

Daily Post

I am here today to cross the swamp, not to fight all the alligators.

A quote from The Art of Possibility by Ben and Ros Zander; it popped up several months ago in a newsletter I subscribe to. I love a good quote, and this one is apt for the viva.

You just need to get to the other side. That’s your job. Your job is not to defend every idea to the death, your job is not to respond forcefully to every criticism, you don’t have to fight-fight-fight your way through.

Questions and comments could suddenly pop out of the water and you might need to make a full response for some. For many you could just say, “OK, thank you. Thanks for letting me know. That’s interesting. Could you tell me more?”

You don’t have to fight all of the alligators in your viva. You need to get to the other side – to being done.

Nathan

Nowhere To Hide

Daily Post

A candidate told me they were afraid because they had nowhere to hide in the viva.

Examiners would have spent lots of time reading their thesis and so the candidate worried they would be unable to evade questions on the day.

Literally in the viva room as well, there is nowhere to hide. On viva day it’s just you and your examiners: talking, discussing, figuring out what the thesis means and what that then means for the end of your PhD.

So yes, nowhere to hide…

…but also no need to hide.

Why hide in the viva? You have your work, your thesis, your ideas, your know-how, your talent. Why would you need to hide?