Generating Confidence
What could you do to boost or maintain your confidence for your viva? Think about your research and focus on the good stuff? Read about your examiners and get a sense of who they are? Select an outfit that helps...
viva feelings
Impatience & The Viva
It’s not wrong to want your viva to be done. That’s a natural response to the challenge and the situation. But don’t try to rush your viva so it’s over as soon as possible. Don’t try to get every thought...
Drivers, Worries, Actions
In the viva, examiners drive the discussion by asking questions that: Explore your contribution; Investigate your authorship; Assess your capability as a researcher. In turn, a candidate typically worries that: They haven’t done enough; They won’t remember enough about the...
Feel Like It
If the thought of meeting your examiners and having your viva doesn’t fill you with joy or excitement, what can you do? How can you get yourself to a state where you feel like having your viva? Five quick ideas!...
A Recipe For Viva Stress
Take several years of difficult and demanding work. Sieve together with months of writing. Stir in vague half-truths and uncertain expectations. Add two experienced academics to the mix. Fold together with nervousness, worry, future plans and, depending on circumstances, pandemic-related...
It Doesn’t Matter
Lots of things matter about the viva and how you succeed at it, but lots of thing really don’t. It doesn’t matter if you have typos in your thesis, not really. Do your best to proofread and eliminate them, but...
Special Days
There are so many special days in the life of a typical human. Special days usually invite some element of preparation. A special day might make someone nervous. You mark your calendar for a special day. And a special day...
More Or Less
Before your viva, work to feel more confident rather than less nervous. The importance of your viva doesn’t change: you feel nervous because it matters. Your confidence levels can increase though. You can reflect on your experiences. You can remind...
Sounds Of The Season
It’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas. Everywhere I go I hear seasonal music. Cheesy 80s number ones, crooners from a former era, carols. Of course there are other signs too that Christmas is weeks away! – but the sound...
Nervous Is OK!
Anxious, worried and concerned can be distressing. Nervous is uncomfortable. Nervous is reacting to the importance of a situation. For the viva, nervous means you’re acknowledging that the exam is important. The conversation you’ll have with your examiners matters. And that...