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Nathan

Verbs For The Viva

Daily Post

You will survive – manage to keep going in difficult circumstances – because you’ve done that throughout your PhD. You will most likely thrive too – grow, develop and be successful.

Prepare rather than perfect. You can get ready for the conversation you’ll have but you can’t be a paragon.

You can expect certain things will happen but you can’t assume that everything will play out that way.

You can respond to every question. You might not be able to answer every question.

Words matter. Verbs matter. Check that yours are right for how you think about the viva and how you engage with it when it’s your turn.

Nathan

Survive & Thrive

Daily Post

Let’s start with dictionary definitions:

  • Survive: manage to keep going in difficult circumstances.
  • Thrive: grow, develop and be successful.

I get into conversations on a semi-regular basis about whether or not survive is the right verb for the viva. Thrive sounds good. Thrive sounds better than survive in many ways. Perhaps it would be better to rebrand, both myself and my advice…?

I don’t think so: for one thing, “viva survivor” rhymes and there’s nothing quite like a good rhyme for latching into someone’s memory!

Secondly, more importantly, I don’t think survive and thrive are mutually exclusive. Why not do both in the viva? Who says you can’t manage to keep going in difficult circumstances to grow, develop and be successful?

The viva is an exam and a conversation. You play the dual role of expert and student. You can be prepared for it and yet unaware of what exactly is going to happen. The viva is lots of things, all at once.

There’s room for you to survive and thrive.