Unnecessary Prep
You don’t need to work from dawn until dusk every day between submission and the viva in order to get ready. You don’t need to read and re-read your thesis multiple times. You don’t need to check every paper you’ve...
submission
Almost There
You’re so close at submission. It may not feel it, but the vast, vast majority of the work you need for your doctorate is done. Months upon months of hard work and you’re almost there… …but you’re not yet. Yet....
3 Questions To Ask Your Supervisors Before Submission
Viva preparation starts after submission, but the right questions – asked in advance – can help you submit well and set up your success in your preparation and viva. Before submission, ask your supervisors the following and build on these...
A Haiku For Submission
Done? Sort of… Almost. Hard work done, but still ahead, One challenge remains. Submission is a milestone, but not the end of the journey. You’ve done most of the work of your PhD, but there are difficult things to...
The Busy Final Year
In the final year of a PhD it’s not hard to get swept up in the emotions and actions of everything that you need to get done. Finishing research, finishing writing-up, working towards whatever will come after the PhD and...
The Last Thing
One of my favourite questions to ask final year PhD researchers is “What’s the biggest challenge in the way of you finishing?” It’s good to focus. It’s good, even if it is something scary, to get it out in the...
Done or Finished?
Two words that people use a lot around the end of the PhD. Finished makes me think that something is over. But there’s always more! More experiments, more words, more questions. So I don’t like finished for a thesis, a...
The Path To The Viva
There is a weird disconnect for some people around submission. They imagine submission is like jumping over a ravine between here and there, between almost- and now-submitted. They take a breath and jump and hope it will all work out,...
Checklist for Submission
I’m trying something a little different for the next few days’ posts. Each post will be a checklist of things to do for a different part of the viva process, starting today with the Checklist for Submission! Are you just...
5 Questions To Ask Your Supervisor After Submission
When it comes to asking for help from your supervisor a lot of focus is given to mock vivas. While these can be valuable, there are other questions you could ask that will help a lot. Here are five valuable...