You Are Here

Tag: viva advice

Nathan

“This Is What I Did”

Daily Post

It helps to listen to PhD stories and experiences. It can be very useful to hear about how someone prepared for their viva, what they did and how it helped them. Often it can be enlightening to know that someone else had a good viva and the reasons why.

Advice can give options and stories can give directions but you have to take responsibility in applying the relevant points to your own circumstances. If you feel that following someone else’s advice and ideas seems like it is going to be the wrong approach for you then you’re probably right.

Ask for advice. Listen to stories. Apply the best of it all to your situation to help you be ready for your viva.

Nathan

Suggestions, Not Solutions

Daily Post

If someone says do X to help with your viva problem Y…

  • …you shouldn’t do X if you’re not confident it’s a good idea.
  • …you shouldn’t do X if you don’t think it will meet your needs.
  • …you shouldn’t do X if your problem was Z rather than Y!
  • …you shouldn’t do nothing either if X seems like it won’t meet your needs.

Advice isn’t an order. Advice is an option. Assuming that anyone you look to for help is offering it with good intentions, ideas are still suggestions: they are not definite solutions to a problem.

Getting ready for the viva can be a stressful time for many reasons. Don’t let suggestions that aren’t suitable add to that.

If you can, be precise when making requests for help; if you receive suggestions that aren’t solutions to your situation then you have to decide on the next step.

Do you adapt the advice? Do you continue exploring options with the person who made the suggestion? Or do you look elsewhere?

 

PS: I’ll be offering a lot of helpful suggestions at Viva Survivor, my live webinar on Thursday 5th December 2024. I’ve delivered it for university groups for over a decade – to more than 7000 PhD candidates – and this is my first independent webinar. Do take a look and see if it might be a help – just a suggestion of course! 🙂

Nathan

Whatever You Need

Daily Post

Your university will say, rightly, that you need to take a copy of your thesis with you to your viva.

The regulations will say that you need to have two examiners.

Good advice says that you need to invest a little time in viva prep and getting ready.

These are all general needs though. What do you need in order to succeed at your viva?

Make a list. Then consider how you could meet those needs. If you need to ask for help then ask. If you need to do something then do it. When your needs are all met you can feel better for your viva.

Figure out what you need to succeed at your viva – then figure out how to get as much of that as possible.

 

PS: if what you need is a little more help or a little more knowledge then take a look at Viva Survivor, my live webinar on Thursday 5th December 2024. Registration is open now and the fee includes a catch-up recording if you can’t attend the whole session.

Nathan

The Exceptions

Daily Post

Viva expectations have exceptions. Aspects tend towards certain patterns, like viva lengths and opening questions. A thesis topic, the candidate, the day or the examiners could all have an impact on what actually happens.

Good ideas of viva preparation have exceptions. A mock viva is almost-universally seen as a great piece of preparation work but you might know for you, your supervisor or your situation it won’t be a help.

Advice about the viva follows certain well-intentioned tracks but there can be exceptions. Do this, unless… This is great, but…

Exceptions can be frustrating but you have to grapple with them. If there is a common idea for a typical situation (expectation, prep, advice and so on) then when you meet an exception you have to consider:

  • Is the common idea a specific detail of a broader idea?
  • Is it completely unhelpful to the exception or can it be adapted?
  • And whatever the case, what can we do?

That last question is key. Whatever the general situation, whatever the exception, what can we do?

Because, whatever the exception, we – the candidate, the helper, the person on the internet writing a blog post – have to do something. That’s the only way forward.

Maybe there are no unique solutions but there are also no impossible situations – no exceptions!

Nathan

Sixteen

Daily Post

My viva was sixteen years ago today.

I’ve written about it many times over the last seven years on the blog and spoken about it probably thousands of times in seminars. For whatever they’re worth, here are sixteen things I remember about my viva day:

  1. I was tired.
  2. I was nervous because I was so tired, but this feeling only came ten minutes before we started.
  3. My examiners were friendly, polite and professional.
  4. My examiners were clearly prepared.
  5. I was very prepared!
  6. My examiners had asked me to prepare a presentation, but started asking me questions while I was working through that.
  7. I remained standing by the chalkboard for the entirety of my four hour viva.
    • Note: I have never met anyone else in the last sixteen years who has had this experience!
  8. My examiners had a lot of questions for me.
  9. My examiners had specific criticisms of the structure of my thesis.
  10. My examiners were fair with their questions and gave me plenty of space to respond.
  11. My viva had a single break around the 2 hour and 30 minute mark.
  12. I remember only one panic-inducing moment when a particular statement from my internal examiner really caught me off-guard: In Chapter 7 you detail your failure at something. That’s interesting.
  13. I felt exhausted as we got to the end…
  14. …but those four hours did seem to go by very quickly.
  15. My examiners asked me to leave the room and I then spent a slightly-nervous seventeen minutes waiting for them to call me back in.
  16. My examiners told me I had passed with minor corrections and congratulated me.

Sixteen things after sixteen years.

What do you think you’ll remember in the years after your viva?

What do you want your viva to be like?

What will you do to steer your viva to be closer to how you imagine?

Nathan

Red Flags

Daily Post

Are there any red flags for examiner selection? Are there people I should try to avoid?

Let’s start with a caveat: there are people in every sphere of life who build up a clear reputation for behaving badly. In academia, these are the people who everyone knows at conferences as making long self-serving comments rather than asking questions after seminars. Perhaps they’re known for arrogance or for being thoughtless and rude.

People like this have a Semaphore Guilds-worth of red flags around them.

Clear signs of this behaviour are worth avoiding if possible – if asked for examiner suggestions by your supervisor – so that you can avoid the possibility of that behaviour in your viva.

 

Beyond that: I can’t think of any real red flags that people have shared with me or from the general expectations and patterns of viva life.

Anecdotally, new academics could be more thorough in the viva. They may ask more questions if it’s one of their first times acting as an examiner. That’s not bad: they’re trying to do the job well. It’s not a reflection on you or your thesis. A longer viva could simply be a little uncomfortable by the end.

Beyond bad behaviour there are no real red flags unless they’re personal ones. Maybe you would prefer someone you’ve cited; a personal red flag would be someone who has no direct contact with your research. Or perhaps you want someone who could be a future collaborator. A red flag would be someone who might not connect well with your future research goals.

You don’t get to choose your examiners. You might be able to make suggestions to your supervisors. It’s worth considering who would be a good choice if you do have the opportunity – and what might be a red flag for you.

If you have red flags, who might that exclude from a list of potential examiners? More importantly, who might be a good choice for you?

Nathan

Advice = Options

Daily Post

If you’re finishing your PhD then you will know a lot of people who have advice for you (sometimes whether you want it or not).

Friends, colleagues, supervisors, researcher-development staff, random internet people with their daily blogs… How do you decide who to listen to and what to do, particularly when it’s for something as important as getting ready for your viva?

First, consider the source: do they have experience, knowledge or understanding of what they’re talking about? Or are they just repeating what they’ve heard on the grapevine?

Second, consider the context: is the advice specific or vague? Did you ask for it or was it just offered? Does it meet your needs?

Third, consider your situation: can you put this advice into practice? Do you feel that it will be of benefit?

Let’s be charitable and say that any advice you’re offered is, in some way, well-intentioned.

Advice gives you options: it gives ready-made ideas for what you could do, but you might need something different. You don’t have to accept it. You can say thank you but leave it to one side. You could be inspired to do your own thing and make your own option.

Ask for advice, listen to advice but make sure the option you take fits your needs and circumstances.

Nathan

On Viva Wisdom

Daily Post

How many of the following bits of viva wisdom have you heard before?

  • The first question will be easy, the last one won’t be.
  • No-one fails.
  • Your examiners will just be your supervisor’s friends, so there’s nothing to worry about.
  • You just need to read your thesis.
  • Your supervisors wouldn’t let you submit if your thesis wasn’t good enough.

I’ve heard them many times – although, to be fair, I have worked in this area for over a decade and spoken to a lot of people about vivas! None of the points above are strictly true – the first and last, while veering closest to reality, lack a lot of context.

Viva wisdom is often shared as a means to defuse worries and anxiety. It’s an attempt to cover everyone or every situation. Viva wisdom often falls short because it doesn’t address specific concerns.

I’m not a fan of typical viva wisdom.

Advice? Tips? Practical approaches? Yes!

Wisdom? No.

Look for help, not simple statements. If a piece of advice or wisdom about the viva seems too simple or too good to be true, look deeper.

Look for the actions you need to take, because getting ready for the viva involves taking steps and doing things!

Nathan

A Little Announcement

Update

(because The Big Announcement will be in a few weeks!)

The Headline: I’ve written a new publication and I’ll soon be running a Kickstarter campaign to fund producing a print run!

Cover of 101 Steps To A Great Viva!
My draft cover!

101 Steps To A Great Viva is a short guide to the many things that a PhD candidate can do to work towards a great viva. From understanding expectations to building confidence, via planning your viva prep and asking for help, the guide covers 101 actions that any candidate can do. I share a concise and simply-framed statement for each followed by an exploration of what that means, how someone might do it and what it does for being ready for the viva.

101 Steps To A Great Viva is the publication I’ve been thinking about for years: an original, short guide of viva help. Bite-sized help built on my experiences of working with over 7500 postgraduate researchers and writing the Viva Survivors daily blog for more than six years.

I’m really pleased with what I’ve developed and 101 Steps is 95% complete. A few more edits and it will be ready to be printed. Which is where I need help!

Draft of Page 7, Getting Started
Draft of Page 7!

A few weeks from now I’ll launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund producing a print run of 101 Steps To A Great Viva. I need people to help me by pledging money – and in return I’ll be offering rewards, from copies of the guide, ebooks and print copies of my last publication and even 1-2-1 Zoom conversations with me! If everything goes well enough with the crowdfunding, I’ll be sending out the first copies of 101 Steps in July 2023.

If this sounds at all interesting to you today, here’s how you can help: please go to this link and use the “Notify me on launch” button. That way you will be emailed on the day I launch the campaign, which I’m expecting will be Tuesday 9th May 2023. Using the “Notify me on launch” button won’t obligate you to pledge any money at all. The campaign will run for about three weeks after that, but early interest really helps with the algorithms that help organise these services.

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you check out 101 Steps To A Great Viva!

Nathan

Viva Prep Heuristics

Daily Post

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to preparing for the viva. As every thesis and candidate are different, and every set of circumstances for viva prep are different too, so every person has to decide for themselves how best they are going to approach things – rather than listen to someone on the internet telling them what to do.

With all of that said, here are some general ideas from someone on the internet that might help you – or not!

  • Plan your prep in advance and allow two to four weeks to do the work.
  • Start your prep by reading your thesis.
  • Ask friends from your discipline about what helped them get ready.
  • Read the regulations to get a feel for viva outcomes.
  • Arrange a mock viva.

And very importantly: test any advice against how you feel about something. There is a lot of good advice, a lot of well-meant advice and support for the viva, but it doesn’t apply to every situation.

A mock viva is regularly seen as the gold standard, “best way to rehearse,” but it might not be what you need (for lots of possible reasons).

Read the rules of thumb, explore ideas that have worked for others and then square all of that with your experience, your preferences and your needs. It’s helpful when others share advice, but ultimately you have to find a way to do the work.

1 2 3 4