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Tag: viva prep

Nathan

A Changing Why

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Why did you want to do a PhD?

Why did you want to explore the topics or projects you did?

Why did you keep going even when your PhD journey was hard?

Why did you want a PhD still when you were finishing?

Your examiners might not ask you directly about why you’ve been doing a PhD, but motivations are worth reflecting on before your viva. The reasons you started and kept going might change.

It helps to remind yourself why you did all this work, either to help with sharing things with your examiners or to keep you motivated for the final weeks of your PhD.

Nathan

Thinking In Advance

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Creating summaries as part of viva prep helps you to gather useful thoughts. A summary is a chance to focus and gives you space to think in advance of the viva.

Write an overview of your thesis and you bring together a lot of helpful information.

Make a list of what you’re most proud of and you highlight ideas to share with your examiners.

Prepare a summary of your research methodology and you bring together valuable points.

Do any or all of these, or create any kind of summary, and you’re not creating a script to read from in your viva. You’re doing some of your thinking in advance though: you’re helping yourself to pre-consider topics you might need to engage with when you meet your examiners.

Nathan

Always Something You Can Do

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These words sum up part of my general philosophy for PhD candidates at and before their viva.

There is always something you can do.

Before the viva if you feel nervous, anxious or worried, there is always something you can do to improve how you feel. If you are concerned about a particular aspect of your research and how to communicate it then will be something you can do to help yourself.

If you don’t know something about the viva process then there is something you can do, someone to ask or regulations to read. You can always do something to help your preparation, even a little more, right up to the moment you go to your viva.

In your viva, whatever happens, there is always something you can do to engage with the discussion. There is always something you can do to help how you’re feeling in that moment. There is always something you can do to respond well.

You can pause. You can think. You can take a sip of water. You can ask for a break. You can ask for clarification. You can write a note. You can work something out. You can check your thesis.

And you can be brilliant. That’s what you have to be to get to your viva.

There’s always something you can do – and actually there is a lot you can do to help yourself, whatever the situation.

Nathan

Over The Top!

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The viva is big, important and can feel a bit scary. You need to be prepared but that doesn’t mean you have to make heroic efforts to get ready.

  • Reading your thesis once is probably enough!
  • A mock viva and a few conversations is probably enough practice!
  • Reading a few papers and making a few summaries is all you need!

A little reading, a little thinking, a little practice… You don’t need to be over the top with your preparations to be ready for your viva.

If your viva feels big and important that’s because it is.

So are you and so is your work.

Nathan

Friends & Colleagues

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Part of being ready for your viva involves knowing your stuff: you need to read your thesis, you need to make notes and you need to rehearse for the viva.

Part of being ready involves knowing what others know: you need to talk with friends and colleagues about how they got ready, discover what their viva experience was like and explore what advice they have for you and your preparations.

Your friends and colleagues are a small part of your prep but don’t forget to ask. They’ll be happy to help, if they can.

Nathan

Preparation Pressure

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Plan your viva prep with the pressure you need to get it done.

Time and circumstances are not completely within your control. Planning ahead allows you to think about the situation you need to work well.

If you need space to think, time to make mistakes and enough freedom that you can take a day off from viva preparation then give yourself plenty of time in your plan. Pressure won’t help you. That’s your preference.

Alternatively, if you feel like you need a bit of pressure, then still plan but start closer to your viva day. Work more intensively and focus your efforts on the week and days immediately leading up to your viva. That’s your preference.

Whatever you feel you need and whatever you decide to do, don’t confuse stress with pressure. A little pressure might help you to work well, but stress will only provide pain to your preparation plans.

Nathan

Anything Else?

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When I’m asked about what a PhD candidate needs to take to their viva I typically respond by talking about their thesis, something to make notes with and something to drink.

The thesis is a valuable resource for the viva. A candidate might not make notes on a minute-by-minute basis in the viva but it is helpful to have the means to make them when they’re needed. Universities very rarely provide refreshments for a viva, so I think it’s important to remind candidates to take something to drink!

These are the typical resources needed on viva day, but your specific research and circumstances might need something else for the viva.

  • Do you have a model that shows some aspect of your research? That might be helpful to show.
  • Have you created a prototype that relates to your research success? Sharing that could be great in the viva.
  • Do you need a screen of some kind to display a video or software? Arrange to have one in your viva.

Your supervisor and department are the best people to talk to if you’re thinking of taking something else to your viva. They will be helpful at exploring the specific expectations and needs for your viva.

Thesis, notebook, water – anything else?

Nathan

1 Page, 3 Questions, 30 Minutes

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A thirty-minute thought-gathering task for viva prep!

Take a single sheet of paper, divide it into three parts and write the following questions, one in each part:

  • Why did you want to do your research?
  • How did you do it?
  • What was the result of all your work?

Then reflect and capture your thoughts for each of these questions. Why did you want to do this? How did you do it? What was the result?

Thirty minutes of thinking and writing won’t give you every single detail of years of research and the many pages in your thesis.

Thirty minutes of work will give you a good overview of what you work means, how you got it done and why it’s a valuable contribution to your discipline.

Nathan

Remove Obstacles

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Viva prep can be challenging. To remove friction from the process, find ways to remove obstacles that get in the way. For example:

  • Gather the resources you need before you start.
  • Plan how you will do the work.
  • Ask for help in advance.
  • Find somewhere to work that suits you.
  • Make a good, relaxed space for yourself.
  • Tell people to give you space if you live with others!

These thoughts are off the top of my head. Viva prep is personal: consider your situation and what you might need. Whatever it is, think about how you could achieve a good, quiet, relaxed environment to prepare in. Then take steps to make that a reality.

Viva prep can be challenging to do – so do what you can before you start to remove obstacles from the process.

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