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Tag: viva preparation

Nathan

Small Prep

Daily Post

Reading your thesis cover to cover might take hours. Reading a page might take a few minutes.

Having a mock viva will take several hours of prep and several hours on the day. Responding to a question from a friend might take five minutes.

Carefully reviewing your thesis for what to annotate will take time. Adding sticky notes to the start of each chapter will take two minutes at most.

 

All of which is to say that there’s a lot of big prep but many small tasks that will make a difference.

You can’t focus solely on the latter and hope it’s enough, but if you’re tired or overwhelmed you can give yourself some small easy wins to help you get back on track.

Use small bits of prep to help move you closer to being ready.

Nathan

What I Did

Daily Post

I remember reading my thesis a lot after submission. Without thinking about the purpose too much I remember adding a lot of notes to my thesis margins. I would circle or mark jargon terms that I had trouble with in the hope that I would be able to remember them at the viva. I stuck sticky notes at the start of chapters to help me navigate my thesis.

I had a weekly meeting with my supervisor throughout my PhD that we continued after I submitted my thesis. Each week we talked about one chapter in my thesis. I don’t recall a particular purpose, we weren’t exploring “What might an examiner ask?” – the conversation was more general than that.

I read a survey paper on a topic my external was interested in. My supervisor thought this would be helpful because my external would want me to explain whether my work could connect up with this hot topic area. My supervisor was 100% correct in this belief!

I prepared an overview presentation of my thesis because I was asked for that by my examiners; I knew that that was how my viva would start and so that gave me something to focus on.

I also:

  • Didn’t really ask about what vivas were like.
  • Didn’t have a mock viva.
  • Didn’t check over any recent papers to see if there was anything relevant to my work.
  • Didn’t reflect on my own journey.
  • Didn’t rehearse for responding to questions.

And I knocked on my supervisor’s door with fifteen minutes to go before my viva so that I could check a definition one more time, because I had suddenly gone blank.

 

What does all this mean? I don’t know. I was very busy getting ready, but could have been more effective. I did a lot of work but with no thought about whether it was the right thing to do. I don’t think I did anything unhelpful but I know missed things that could have made a real difference.

I was ready for my viva but with a bit of thought I could have been much more well-prepared.

Nathan

Outside The Box

Daily Post

PhD researchers have to be creative in some way: a candidate is expected to produce a significant and original contribution through their work.

What makes your work original? In what ways were you creative throughout your PhD? How did you look at things differently? How did you find solutions to problems?

What did you do that no-one has ever done before?

And having stepped out of one box through your work, what does the new box look like?

(and how might you or someone else go further?)

Nathan

Six Questions About Contributions

Daily Post

Examiners need to explore your significant original contributions to research at your viva.

In preparation for your viva it’s worth reviewing your contributions to think about how you would share them. There’s no right answer or script to use: the words you find in the moment will be enough. In preparation though, reflect on any contribution with the following questions to give you something to consider and speak about:

  • Why did you explore the contribution area?
  • How did you do that?
  • What did you find as a result?
  • When did you do this work?
  • Where did you do this work?
  • Who, if anyone, helped you?

The first three questions, Why-How-What, help to explore what makes the contribution valuable. The second three questions, When-Where-Who, reveal more of the context for the work.

Start with Why-How-What. Dig deeper with When-Where-Who.

No scripts. Just thoughts and ideas to draw from at the viva.

Nathan

Density

Daily Post

Thousands of hours of work, spread out over hundreds and hundreds of days.

How much thinking? How much practical work? How much reading?

Now all squashed into several chapters, a few hundred pages maybe.

Your thesis is dense.

In preparation for your viva you need to dig in to it.

Read what you wrote. Reflect on what it means. Review what you need to so you feel ready.

And remember that dense substances are often very valuable.

Nathan

A List Of Lists

Daily Post

If you’ve five or ten minutes and are looking to do something to help your viva preparation, you can do a lot worse than make a list. Here are ten ideas:

  • A short list of key contributions in your research.
  • The top ten most useful papers in your bibliography.
  • Five questions or topics you anticipate being asked about at your viva.
  • Seven small tasks you can do to help your prep.
  • Seven questions to ask your supervisor at your next meeting.
  • A short list of everything you’ll take with you to your viva.
  • Five little things you could do to steady your nerves.
  • A list of anything you don’t know about the viva that you need to find out.
  • A list of your proudest moments from your PhD journey.
  • Five things that show you are a capable researcher.

Lists can be summaries, boosters, reminders and more. Don’t underestimate the power of a good list to focus your attention on your preparation and how close you are to being done.

 

PS: looking for more viva prep ideas? Take a look at my Viva Survivor session! Registration is open now for my March 27th 2025 webinar and includes a catch-up recording if you can’t attend live.

Nathan

The Best Prep

Daily Post

If we focus on effective viva prep it might be tempting to steer towards questions like:

  • When do you schedule things?
  • What do you start with?
  • How do you focus?
  • How much time do you spend on tasks?

These questions aren’t wrong, but they could lead someone down a difficult path to getting the work done.

When thinking about how to organise your prep, perhaps consider the following questions:

  • What’s the least stressful way for you to get ready?
  • What’s the most enjoyable task you could start with?
  • How can you prepare without rushing?
  • How can you best motivate yourself to do the work?

Effective viva prep flows from creating a good process and a good environment to do the work. It’s less effective to just focus on tasks and timetables.

Nathan

Making Prep Better

Daily Post

The time between when you submit your thesis and have your viva is your viva prep period.

Is it possible to wing it? To go with the flow and do things as and when you feel like it? Probably! It might not be very comfortable though.

Everyone is different – in themselves, their research and their situation – so I’m sure some people could do what comes to them as they go through the weeks leading up to their viva.

If that doesn’t feel like a comfortable situation for you though, or even if it does and you want to make sure your prep is as good as it could be, consider doing some of the following:

  • Sketch a plan. Think about the time you have available and how you might do the work to help you get ready.
  • Prioritise. Make sure you make time to do the things that matter most.
  • Ask for help. Ask early and as you need it. You’re alone at your viva but before then there are many people who can support you.
  • Recognise when you have done something. Mark a checklist or record it on your calendar. Make it obvious to yourself that you have done the work.

Finally, take time to remind yourself of the work you’re doing now and all the work you’ve done before. Viva prep is for the particular challenge of your viva. In the years before you have done a lot of work that helps you.

Nathan

Bit By Bit

Daily Post, Sabbatical

Idea by idea. Paper by paper. Day by day.

There’s no other way to put your PhD together than keep showing up, good days and bad, and work your way through. Learn more, do more, achieve more and find your way to becoming a good and capable researcher in your field.

When the time comes, this approach is what helps you prepare for your viva too. There’s no single activity that flips the switch to “ready”.

And, really, it’s how you get through the viva too.

Question by question.

Chapter by chapter.

Response by response.

Minute by minute you demonstrate the capable researcher that you became bit by bit.

And that’s enough.

 

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 May 23rd 2023.

Nathan

Asks, Favours & Requests

Daily Post, Sabbatical

Not all viva prep needs to be done alone.

It’s OK to simply ask, “Can you help me?”

It’s OK to ask for a favour, “It’s not something little, but I really need help. Can you?”

It’s even OK to make a request, “I need this specific thing and I need you to do it, please.”

Supervisors, peers, colleagues, friends, family – all can be there to support you. Given where you are and what you’re doing, given the state of the world, uncertainty and pressure – even if others around you are feeling it too – you can ask. Tell people what you need, when you need it, why you need it, then work with them to get what you need.

And when someone asks you, do your best to help them too.

 

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 June 3rd 2020.

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