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Tag: viva expectations

Nathan

Absence of Expectations

Daily Post

I don’t know what to expect.

An absence of viva expectations still gives someone something to expect: they expect the unknown, the scary, the negative. If you don’t know what to expect for your viva you’ll probably feel that it’s going to be bad.

I’m always happy to respond to questions in webinars or over email and help people build up a picture of the viva…

…but I’m always slightly sad that they’ve not asked someone sooner. I’m sad that they’ve let themselves get stressed so much. They’ve not realised that there are many others around them they could probably ask for help.

If you don’t know what to expect then that’s your cue to find out more. Don’t continue to sit with the scary feeling that something bad is probably going to happen at your viva.

Nathan

When To Get Ready

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Get ready for the specific challenge of your viva after taking a short break from your research and thesis submission.

Get ready by making sure you sketch out a plan for your viva prep. Give yourself enough time to read and review your thesis. Take time to reflect on what it all means and rehearse for meeting your examiners.

Get ready during this period by building up your confidence. Recognise that you are a capable researcher. You must be: that’s the only way you could have developed as much as you have.

And recognise that while you are preparing for the specific challenge of your viva, in reality you’ve been getting ready for your viva for a very long time.

 

PS: you don’t need to get ready for the viva until after submission. For help with all of the work and days leading up to submitting your thesis, check out Final Year Focus – my 1-hour live webinar running TOMORROW! Figuring out priorities, getting clear on plans, writing up, thinking about life after the PhD and more. Full registration details are on Eventbrite and there will be a catch-up recording if you can’t attend live. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

What To Expect

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Viva expectations are hard to pin down sometimes.

Every viva experience is different, but there are patterns in the stories. Viva regulations vary between institutions but there is consistency around key practices.

More than anything you can build up a general impression of the tone of vivas; you can get an idea of what areas are discussed and what topics examiners focus on. You can get a better sense of all this if you get a feel of what vivas are like in your department or your research area.

It’s important to remember that expectations aren’t guarantees. Past experiences don’t automatically drive future events.

Expectations are a feeling: you feel that your viva will likely go a certain way. Ask enough questions, read enough regulations, see enough stories and you can get a good sense of what your viva will be like. Eventually you know what to expect.

Nathan

Take Time To Speak

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The viva is not a quiz, an interview, a game show or a Q&A.

It’s a discussion: your examiners have prepared and you’ve prepared. They will facilitate a conversation about your research, your thesis, your contribution, your capability and anything that they think is relevant.

They have questions but aren’t limited to them. They have key points but might want to talk about a lot more. It depends on what you say, what strikes them in the moment and what needs to be talked about.

Take your time in the viva. There’s no rush. There’s no time limit for each question. There’s no perfect answer required for every question. No scripts to read from.

Take your time to think and take your time to speak. If your examiners have heard enough they’ll let you know. If they need more they’ll ask for more.

Take your time to do your best and make the most of your viva opportunity.

Nathan

Different To Expectations

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Regulations, general experiences of PhD candidates and the more particular stories from people in your department create your viva expectations.

Every viva is unique, but yours won’t be a total unknown because it will follow – to some extent – the patterns of other vivas. Whatever you learn and whatever you come to believe, yours will not be a photocopy of the idea you have or a twin to a story someone else told you.

Find a balance for yourself in all this by getting ready.

A little knowledge (expectations) has to result in action (viva prep).

Having a mock viva isn’t a direct rehearsal for your actual viva: it’s not the dress rehearsal where everyone knows their lines – you’re getting a feel for the room, a feel for what it sounds like to be talking about your work and to be in discussion.

Your viva will necessarily be different to expectations – and in a way that you can’t expect!

All you can do is find out what you can, prepare as best you can and then keep going and being the determined, capable researcher that you are. That’s how you succeed.

Nathan

Decide In Advance

Daily Post

There’s a lot you won’t know about your viva before it happens.

You can have reasonable guesses and expectations around questions, opinions and discussion topics. You can learn generally what to expect and build up a picture. But you can’t know. There’s a lot you have to simply contend with as it happens. A question is asked and you have to pause, think and respond – in whatever way seems best in that moment.

This is why the viva, even if it’s a positive experience, can be a draining event: a lot of brain work is required on the day.

 

To help reserve as much thinking ability as you can, decide as much as you can in advance of your viva.

Decide in advance:

  • how you will get to your viva – and what time you’ll leave!
  • what you will wear – and how you want it to make you feel!
  • what to take – and don’t forget to check with friends and your supervisor to see if there is anything atypical that you might need!

You have to pause, think and respond as every question is asked. You can’t decide on a response before you hear the question – but you can decide in advance how you will respond to every question. Pause. Think. Take your time.

You can decide in advance to pursue confidence. You can’t decide that you won’t be nervous; feelings can’t be pushed away by a decision. But you can decide that you want to feel confident and take actions to find that.

Nathan

The Next Challenge

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That’s one way to think of the viva if you’ve submitted your thesis. It’s just the next challenge.

You’ve faced, figured out and overcome many more on the way to submission. You can rise to this one too.

And then on to the next challenge – because for all of the importance you might give your viva, your thesis and your PhD, there’s another challenge coming along for you.

Nathan

Healthy Expectations

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Listening to horror stories, half-truths or suggestions by people with no direct understanding of vivas can skew your expectations drastically and negatively.

Only hearing about the viva from happy people who say you have nothing to worry about can mean you don’t have a full picture of the variety of viva experiences.

Healthy viva expectations give you knowledge, understanding and general awareness of the processes involved.

Healthy viva expectations are like the components of a healthy diet: they probably involve variety, they definitely require some tailoring to circumstances – and it’s always helpful to consider the source!

Nathan

The Expectations That Matter

Daily Post, Sabbatical

It’s not length of the viva or asking for breaks.

It’s not the opening questions or depth of discussion.

It’s not the number of corrections or when you know the result.

Knowing about all of these things help, but the expectations that really matter are knowing that you are good enough. Knowing that your examiners have prepared. Knowing that you have prepared. Knowing that you’re overwhelmingly likely to succeed.

There are lots of expectations for the viva. There are ranges for many of them and having a sense of what to expect from that variety can give you a sense of what to expect. While you wonder about viva lengths and questions though, pay attention to expectations for you, your examiners, your preparations and your success.

Focus on the expectations that matter.

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on July 16th 2022.

Nathan

Examiner Maybes

Daily Post, Sabbatical

Maybe they’re nice. Maybe they’re a bit unknown to you. Maybe they have a special interest in your research area.

Your examiners might be experts. They could be among the many people you’ve cited in your thesis. Maybe they know your supervisors; they’re friends, more than professional colleagues.

There are lots of possibilities for examiners – and lots of certainties too.

They will have prepared. They will be ready. They will have questions. They will have expectations for you, the viva and themselves.

They will not have been randomly selected – supervisor friends or not, experts or otherwise – they will have been asked for a reason. They will have been selected as a good choice.

Best choice? Perhaps. Capable? Certainly.

Find out who they are and you can help yourself as you prepare for your viva.

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on November 26th 2021.

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