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Nathan

Best of Viva Survivors 2023: Short Posts

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I like to limit these round-up posts to five links, but as every link today is for a short post I thought I’d add an extra one!

And that’s all for today. Five posts on confidence tomorrow!

Nathan

Viva Views

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Your viva is a lot of work, both in prep and on the day.

Your viva is one day at the end of a thousand or so.

Your viva is likely to be a difficult but not insurmountable challenge.

Your viva is an event that you can feel nervous and confident for.

Your viva is yours and yours alone, unique compared to every other that’s gone before.

Your viva is similar to many other vivas that have happened (and will happen in the future).

Your viva is not the end of the PhD, but you’re getting close.

Nathan

Best of Viva Survivors 2022: Short Posts

Daily Post

I very rarely set out to write a long post. Viva Survivors posts tend to be around 200 words, but sometimes they can be a lot shorter, as with these six posts on a range of topics:

And how about one more? Making A Difference – something you must do over the course of your PhD!

There are two more days of my review of 2022. Tomorrow we explore confidence and the day after we finish the year by looking at the topic of surviving.

PS: the Viva Survivors blog celebrated five years of daily posts earlier this year! To mark the journey so far I wrote and published “Keep Going – A Viva Survivors Anthology” – a curated collection of the best of the first five years. If you’re looking for viva help then this blog is and always will be free – if you want to support the blog and get an awesome book as well, then take a look at the options at the link. Thanks!

Nathan

Best of Viva Survivors 2021: Short Posts

Daily Post

There’s only a little of 2021 left, so today’s best of is nice and short: in fact these posts are among the shortest I’ve written and published on Viva Survivors!

Tomorrow we have the final Viva Survivors post of the year and on one of my favourite topics. If you haven’t already, perhaps subscribe to get it – and a daily email of viva help – in your inbox.

Nathan

Short Thoughts On Viva Prep

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Viva prep takes more than a day but less than a month.

Prep isn’t knowing everything, but believing you know enough. Read your thesis, make notes, check the literature and find opportunities to practise.

Know who your examiners and what they’ve done – but more importantly know who you are, what you’ve done and what you can do.

You’re not superhuman, but you are superpowered. You can do things that no-one else can.

Prepare for your viva to be able to show this on the day.

Nathan

Similar/Different

Daily Post

A thought: you and your examiners are more similar than you are different.

Similar: all researchers, all interested, all capable, all talented, all there in your viva for a good reason.

Different: they have more experience than you, you have more expertise than them. They’ve read your thesis, you wrote your thesis.

All of these points help the story of confidence you can tell yourself about the viva.

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