Well Known
Read your examiners’ recent publications to check that you know how or if their work connects to yours. Find out what they are interested in and what you know about those topics. Read your thesis and be certain of what...
the PhD journey
A Recipe For Viva Stress
Take several years of difficult and demanding work. Sieve together with months of writing. Stir in vague half-truths and uncertain expectations. Add two experienced academics to the mix. Fold together with nervousness, worry, future plans and, depending on circumstances, pandemic-related...
To Be Continued
After submission you need to prepare for your viva – but you also need to prepare for life after the PhD. For some that could be simple (or welcome!) but for all candidates, particularly those who have attachments to physical...
Framing Limitations
Limitations in your research are constraints, parameters and requirements. They could arise from setbacks and problems or be a result of the project specifications for your PhD. You might acknowledge them, regret them or be frustrated by them. They could...
Three Things
Do you want a simple task to help how you feel about your viva? Every day after submission, take five minutes to write down three things about your research: things that you know are good, that you’re proud of, that you...
Recognise Your Strengths
As you prepare for your viva, take an hour to think about how you have changed during your PhD journey. What can you do better now than when you started? What have you learned how to do? What methods, processes...
One Day, Not Day One
The viva is a single day when you have to rise to the occasion – but not the first day of the journey that you’re on. Your viva could be difficult. You can expect to be challenged, but that challenge...
Comments & Corrections
A comment from one of your examiners does not automatically become a correction that you have to make to your thesis. A correction you receive is not always something that needs to be commented on in the viva. A comment doesn’t...
Examiners’ Choice
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...
A Piece Of Paper
When your PhD journey is finally finished you get a piece of paper. It will be quite fancy with official words and special ink. One page that says: you did it. Before graduation, before your viva even, you might need...