Elevate Your Pitch
It’s unlikely that you will have to give an elevator pitch of your research at the viva. I’ve never heard of examiners asking for a polished thirty-second or two-minute overview of 3+ years of work. But that said, exploring a...
summary
Why Write A Summary?
You’ve written your thesis, read it in preparation for your viva and maybe made notes on pages. So why would you write anything else about it? Why would you write a summary as part of your viva prep? To gather...
What’s Important?
Two words to prompt reflection on nearly every aspect of the viva and viva prep. What’s important… …about your thesis? Explore it chapter by chapter with a notebook in hand. Make notes about anything that stands out to you. …about...
Two Reflections
Today: two series of questions that could help as one gets ready for the viva. First a reflection on your research: Why is your research contribution valuable? How did you do your research? What was the result? Second, a reflection...
A Helpful Acronym
If you’re looking for some help reflecting on your research ahead of the viva, consider reading one of the chapters in your thesis and then respond to the following questions: What is valuable in the chapter? What difference does it make?...
Make A Note
Make a note of any papers that have helped your research develop. Make a note of the times that you remember great success during your PhD. Make a note of what you know about the viva. Make a note of...
Right Summaries
I’ve shared a lot of thoughts on the importance of writing summaries as part of viva prep. They can be a useful way to explore an aspect of your work. They can help to focus attention and simplify complicated ideas....
The What
What did you do? It’s unlikely your examiners will ask you as simple a question as this to explore your PhD research but the thought will be there. What did you do? When your examiners ask about your research, remember...
Valuable, Interesting, Vague, Ask
Around 2013 I invented a series of prompts to help a candidate reflect on their thesis. Through not-so-subtle phrasing I got these keywords to spell out VIVA. The tool is used to explore the contents of a thesis chapter. All...
Preparing A 3-Minute Summary
Three minutes is not long to share something of your work, whether on stage for a competition or as part of your viva. Depending on how quickly you talk and the emphasis you give to things, you have between 300...