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Tag: the wrong thing

Nathan

The Wrong Thing

Daily Post

There’s a chance that you could do something wrong in relation to your viva.

  • You could say the wrong thing in response to a question.
  • You could believe the wrong thing about what to expect.
  • You could remember the wrong thing about an examiner.
  • You could do the wrong thing to prepare.
  • You could think the wrong thing about yourself and your ability.

Any of these are possible. So what can you do?

You could rehearse to get more practice at responding to questions and more generally prepare. You could learn about what to expect of the viva process and have a conversation with your supervisors about your examiners. You could take your time to prepare and be ready. You could reflect on your journey to be sure of who you are and what you can do.

All of these steps could help guard against doing the wrong thing.

Realistically though, if you did something wrong, how negative could that be for you?

For all the little things that could go wrong you’re much more likely to be doing the right thing at your viva.

Nathan

Saying The Right Thing

Daily Post

In the viva, no candidate wants to say the wrong thing. No-one wants to misremember a detail or misquote a paper. No-one wants to go blank and say the first thing, the silly thing, the wrong thing.

No-one wants to say the wrong thing, but remember there might not be a right thing.

Not every question has an answer. Not every question is probing for truth. A question could be exploratory. A question could be to clarify a point. A question could be seeking an opinion if there is one.

In the viva you could definitely say the wrong thing; depending on the question you might not be able to offer a right thing. You can always take your time and offer your best. Listen to the question, pause, think and respond.

Nathan

The Wrong Thing

Daily Post

I can’t imagine what someone could say in the viva, without going to flippant extremes, that would be so wrong as to lead to a terrible outcome.

Wrong couldn’t be saying too little or too much; your examiners will help steer the conversation.

Wrong couldn’t simply be factual error – your examiners would rather check details than simply let an inaccuracy through.

Wrong couldn’t be the result of nerves: your examiners are human and would understand. They’d give you space to get past nerves.

Wrong couldn’t be simply saying “I don’t know” – that wouldn’t be wrong, that would just be not knowing something.

It would be wrong to be arrogant, it would be wrong to pick a fight, it would be wrong to assume that you know what’s what for everything connected to the viva!

But would you do that?

If you are worried, consider what you could do to lessen those worries. If you’re nervous, explore how to build your confidence.

And if you’re still worried about being wrong, remember that it’s far more likely that you would say the right thing than the wrong in your viva.