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Tag: viva experiences

Nathan

Not To Plan

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Vivas have institutional regulations, general expectations and local norms from recurring practice within departments all over the UK. Together these describe a picture of what any candidate can reasonably expect. The picture is a bit blurry in places but there’s a reasonable sense of what a viva is supposed to be like.

Individual candidates can have logistical expectations too. Examiner A and Examiner B are nominated and approved. Date and location are set. Preparations are completed, confidence builds and all is right with the world.

 

Then something happens.

In spring 2020 that something might have been a sudden shift to a video viva.

Or an examiner having to postpone or cancel the week before viva day.

Or through miscommunication it could be that the start time is not what was expected.

When things don’t go to plan, as viva expectations of all kinds collide with viva reality, what do you do? What can you do?

 

You ask for help. Whatever is driving the change of plans you ask for help, because it won’t solely be your problem to resolve. Talk to your supervisor, your director of postgraduate studies or someone in your graduate school. There will be a friendly face. They will listen. They will help.

The change will then become part of your expectations. A new examiner. A new date. A short delay or a moment or two while you adjust to a different video software.

Remember: things don’t have to go completely according to plan for you to succeed at your viva.

Nathan

Preparing For The Unknown

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Your examiners will have a plan for what they want to talk about at your viva.

This isn’t a script. They’re not asking a set list of questions like a questionnaire. They’re using pre-prepared questions and points to prompt the discussion.

You might have some expectations. Based on past experiences of talking about your work or because of your research you might think, “I’ll probably be asked about…” or “I’ll bet they want to talk about…”

It’s reasonable to have hopes or expectations, but you still won’t know until you get to your viva and it’s happening. There’s lots you can do to be prepared for the unknown though:

  • Talk to friends about their experiences.
  • Talk to your supervisors about viva expectations.
  • Reflect on your contribution to think about what examiners might want to talk about.
  • Read your thesis to remind yourself of what you’ve done.
  • Practise for the viva by talking about your work or having a mock viva.

You won’t know what questions will be asked until you get to your viva, but doing any of the above will help you feel a little more ready for whatever questions your examiners do ask.

Nathan

The Right Tools

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What do you need to take to your viva?

  • Your thesis. Annotated in advance, carefully read and available as a resource to help the discussion.
  • Pen and paper. Something to write on and something to write with, according to your own preferences.
  • Water. Something to drink as it’s unlikely your examiners or institution will provide refreshments.
  • Anything else? Depending on your research there might be a prototype or prop that you can show, or some accompanying materials. It depends!

You don’t need much in your viva. You need your thesis and some other basics will help.

The most important things you’re taking are your knowledge, your capability and your experience.

The right tools for the job.

Nathan

Working Out The Odds

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There are lots of statistics about the general experience of the PhD viva – but we can’t combine them to find out the probability of a particular outcome.

Want to know how likely it is you’ll have a four-hour viva with major corrections and three examiners instead of two? Sorry, I can’t tell you and you can’t work it out.

There are lots of patterns of experience. Vivas tend to result in minor corrections. They tend to be longer than two hours. But to combine these and other details meaningfully and make predictions we’d need to know a lot more.

PhDs and vivas are unique: they follow patterns, but are always different. The patterns can show you what you can do to be ready in whatever situation you find at your viva.

You don’t need to work out the odds of success: instead work towards being ready to talk with your examiners and prepared for passing your viva.

Nathan

Hope For Excited

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Hope is what we have when we have little leverage on the outcome.

I encourage PhD candidates to prepare for their viva rather than hope it will just all go well, because preparation leads to a better experience and a better outcome. No candidate needs to hope that they will be ready when they can act to be ready.

You might need to hope you feel excited or enthusiastic for meeting your examiners. It’s rare in my experience that candidates feel that way. I ask candidates how they feel about their viva at the start of every webinar I do and between five and ten percent say they feel excited.

At the end of a session they might say they feel better, but it’s rare that they now feel excited!

 

I know what someone can do to feel ready. I know the kinds of actions someone can take to be prepared. But I only hope that candidates feel excited. Confidence can ward against nervousness, but excitement is another thing entirely.

Maybe that’s something else I can consider in the future: how can you go from confident to excited?

Maybe if more people were excited it would be simpler to build up a positive culture around the viva.

And maybe then the viva would be something that fewer people were worried about.

Nathan

Expect The Expected

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Every viva is unique but no viva should be a great unknown.

Regulations and stories of viva experiences give a shape to the general process; departmental and disciplinary practices give some fine detail to specific viva norms. Taken together these give a general pattern of expectations: you can’t know exactly what will happen, but you can imagine something that the viva will tend towards.

Every viva is different, so you can expect the unexpected – a unique experience – but you can also expect your viva to be like others you’ve heard about in your preparations. You won’t know which details will follow the pattern exactly, or how closely, but unless your situation is very different from every other PhD candidate you can expect your viva to be similar to many past stories.

Every viva is unique but you can expect yours to follow expectations.

Nathan

I Heart Expectations

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Roses can be red,

But can also be blue;

Viva expectations are patterns,

But might not hold for you.

 

Viva expectations tell a story of likely future experiences. Everyone you know from your department is asked to prepare a presentation, so it’s likely you will be too.

Viva expectations are not perfect. Everyone you know may have had a viva of around two hours, but yours is closer to three in the event.

Statistics and stories help. The details can really matter, but the real help comes from looking deeper. Nevermind the first question or how long, what’s the purpose and process at work? What do you really need to do and know?

Nathan

Quizzical

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Some PhD candidates think of the viva as a TV quiz show. How do I know this? Because many, many candidates over the last decade have asked me questions like:

  • How many questions can I get wrong?
  • How can I score highly?
  • Can I pass on questions I don’t know?
  • How big is the thirty-second timer in the room?!

…OK, maybe they haven’t asked that last question! 🙂

But the questions people do ask give a window into how they think of something.

Thinking of the viva as being like a game show, even in some small ways, is not helpful. The viva is not a quiz show. Questions are not only true or false, they’re not multiple choice or needing to remember a fact.

The viva, first and foremost, is a discussion. That’s how you respond. That’s how you engage with your examiners.

Knowing things and being able to share information helps, but be ready for a conversation and not a quiz at your viva.

Nathan

Write It All Down

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Before you begin your viva prep, write down everything you can think of that you need to do. This is before you make a plan. Get down thoughts of any little or big thing. After a few days of letting those ideas breathe you can start to make sense of how and when you’ll get things done.

As you do your viva prep, record what you do. Make a record of your actions, the tasks you complete and the outputs you create. This will help you to see that you are moving forwards to your viva with purpose. You’re not simply passing the time: you’re investing time in helping you pass.

After your viva is done, take twenty minutes to capture your thoughts about what the viva was like. What did you do to get ready? What made a difference? Keep a hold of these as you may have an opportunity to share helpful thoughts with a future candidate who needs a little advice.

There’s a lot to do to get ready for the viva. Take time to write and think, both to help you plan, to keep you on track and to help others in the future.

Nathan

Alright

Daily Post

Most vivas result in success, the majority result in minor corrections and a fair percentage are only one to two hours long. Questions are challenging but fair for the person who has to respond to them. However:

  • There are also long vivas.
  • There are tricky questions.
  • Some people do get major corrections.
  • And some candidates don’t enjoy the viva process.

What percentages of candidates have these experiences? Which candidates are more likely to have them? I don’t know. It would be almost impossible to say. But I do think if we try to summarise vivas with single attributes we can run into trouble. For example:

  • A long viva could be filled with interesting discussion. Tiring but satisfying.
  • Tricky questions can be fun to talk about or be only one out of hours of talking.
  • Major corrections will take work but will certainly make a thesis better.
  • Not enjoying the process could be for many reasons and would still most likely lead to passing.

I don’t think you can expect your viva to be the most amazing event of your life. I don’t think you can expect that it will be awful either. There’s a range of overlapping patterns of expectations that can guide you to getting ready.

Your viva will probably be neither “good” nor “bad”. Expect that it will be alright and expect that you will be fine.

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