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Tag: viva process

Nathan

Just In Case

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Around submission time, if not before, look for someone who can help you if something goes wrong. You’re probably looking for someone at your doctoral college or graduate school, or possibly even your departmental or faculty director of postgraduate studies.

You want the name and contact details of who to turn to in case:

  • One of your examiners cancels;
  • You are ill and need to postpone;
  • You require accessibility accommodations that aren’t being met;
  • You need to check some point of the regulations;
  • Something truly unexpected happens!

Get the details of an emergency contact just in case. You might not need them. I hope you won’t. But you will be glad you have them if something goes wrong.

Nathan

Ready To Wait

Daily Post

After submission there’s a lot of waiting. It’s a good idea to be ready for it.

  • You have to wait to know your viva date.
  • You wait to get started with your preparations at the right time.
  • The wait could feel nervous in the last few days before your viva.
  • You’ll wait to get going on viva day.
  • Wait for the questions one by one.
  • Wait to see if you have the chance to talk about the things you like most.
  • Wait to find out if any sensitive topics or questions come up.
  • Wait for your examiners to decide the outcome in the final break.
  • Wait later to see if your corrections have been accepted.
  • And then wait, possibly for months, before you have the chance to graduate and formally be Dr Someone.

Get ready to wait when you submit your thesis!

Or rather, make sure you have a good sense of the viva process – both before, during and after – so that you know when you’ll need to wait and perhaps how long some of those waits will be.

 

PS: want to dig into the viva process more? Take a look at Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. I’ll be talking about expectations, viva prep, examiners and a lot more, as well as responding to questions from everyone present. Viva Survivor is a 3-hour live webinar and all attendees get access to a catch-up recording and follow-up materials. Please check out the details and see if it might help you or someone you know. Thanks for reading.

Nathan

Pause to Think, Think to Respond

Daily Post

One approach to engaging in the viva could be summarised as pause, think, respond.

  • Pause first to give yourself a moment. Consider the question or comment. Take your time.
  • Think to explore whatever ideas come to mind. Remember what you need. Put ideas together.
  • Respond to the point, clearly. Take your time to say whatever you need to say so that your examiners get what they need.

Another way to look at this is to see that all three points are linked. You pause to think, taking time to be sure of what you need to say. You think to respond well, being reflective and careful.

Pause, think, respond. Pause to think, think to respond. Whichever way resonates, the connection is that a candidate engages well at the viva when they take their time.

It doesn’t need to be a hard question for you to take a few moments to consider what you will say or how you will say it.

Nathan

Less Than Perfect…

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…but you don’t need perfect to succeed in your PhD or at the viva.

  • You need to have worked to produce research.
  • You need to be a capable researcher.
  • You need to have written a good thesis (and submitted it!).
  • You need prepare for your viva after submission.
  • You need to engage with your examiners and the discussion at the viva.

None of these are trivial but none of them requires perfection.

You don’t need perfection to pass your viva.

Nathan

The End Of Your Viva

Daily Post

It’s not the end of your journey or the end of the work.

As your viva concludes take a moment to reflect and think if there’s anything else you want to ask your examiners. Are there any questions you can imagine asking now?

Before the very end of the viva there is often a break where examiners confer. You could sit or pace nervously – or decide in advance that you’ll get some fresh air, refill your water bottle or quickly journal anything that’s occurred to you. What will you do in that break?

As you find out the result of the viva it’s very likely that you’ll be asked to complete minor corrections. While you might not know these now you can learn how long that corrections period. You can plan ahead for how you might do that work.

The end of the viva is not the end of your journey or the end of the work – but you’ll be really close to being done.

 

PS: want to explore what else you need to do to be done? Check out Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. I’ve shared this session more than 400 times with PhD candidates all around the UK, but this is only the third time I’ve opened up registration. A 3-hour live webinar, catch-up recording and follow-up materials all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready. Take a look at the details and see if it might help you or someone you know. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Concerning Corrections

Daily Post

You can do a lot to write a good thesis. It’s still likely that you will miss some unintentional typos. You might not spot when a sentence gets really long without a break. And after submission you might change your mind about a particular phrasing or explanation.

Any corrections that your examiners request are simply that. Corrections. Amendments. Fixes. Requests for changes to make your thesis that little bit better.

They don’t think you didn’t care. They don’t believe you should have done more or better.

Writing is hard. Writing a book is very hard.

If during your preparations you spot something that needs correcting that’s fine. If your examiners tell you about some in the viva that’s fine. After the viva, get them done and move on.

Don’t be too concerned about corrections.

Nathan

Maybe & Definitely

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Maybe you didn’t get all of the results you were hoping for.

Maybe writing your thesis was harder than you expected.

Maybe your external examiner isn’t the person you would have picked.

Maybe there’s something tricky in your third chapter that you find hard to remember.

And, who knows, maybe your viva will be longer than you would like.

 

Definitely: You did the work. There are regulations and expectations that create a knowable viva process. You can take time to prepare in a way that helps you. Your examiners will be known well in advance of your viva. You have time to get ready.

 

Every viva has maybes. Whatever maybes you can think of for yours, these are more than covered by the things that you will know and can do definitely.

Nathan

Hammer Time

Daily Post

I bought a hammer for a job – and then remembered the rusty nails sticking out of the fence. I could use the back of the hammer to hook and pull them out. Then I remembered the chest that needed breaking for recycling. I could use the hammer! When a screw wouldn’t bite in the pre-drilled hole of a flatpack bookcase I used the hammer to start it off.

Soon every little fix around the house looks like it needs a hammer. More and more I thought, “What can I use this for?” Sometimes it was helpful and sometimes it wasn’t.

 

Worry is a hammer. Worrying about the viva is applied too liberally. A tiny thought or question in the run-up to the viva isn’t acted on – instead it’s worried about.

  • “I found a typo, I’d better worry about it.”
  • “I’m not sure what vivas are like, I’ll worry about it.”
  • “I don’t know exactly what my examiners will ask so I’ll worry.”

That’s not to say that there are no viva situations that are worry-free, but it doesn’t have to be the first thought or feeling. It doesn’t have to be the last. If you worry you can do something to move beyond. You can always work past worry to a better state.

It’s easy to jump to worry when there’s a problem. Remember: other tools are available and you are very talented.

Nathan

Critical Thoughts

Daily Post

It’s never unreasonable for a PhD candidate to worry about receiving critical questions or comments about their work. The effort and emotion that someone might invest into doing something on the scale of a PhD fully justifies anxiety at the thought of someone else offering different views or difficult questions.

It’s not unreasonable but can be distracting to worry about. Perhaps consider:

  • A critical question about your thesis doesn’t mean that someone is criticising you.
  • A critical comment doesn’t mean that something is wrong.
  • A critical comment about your thesis might require a correction but that doesn’t necessarily mean a big change.
  • A critical question is still an opportunity for you to demonstrate something good about your thesis, the PhD process and your capability.

And in all likelihood you can imagine far more critical questions than your examiners.

 

PS: want to explore more about receiving or responding to questions at the viva? It’s a key topic at Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. I’ll talk about this and a lot more – viva prep, viva expectations and confidence – at my 3-hour live webinar, plus you’ll get a catch-up recording and follow-up materials. Do take a look and see if this session might be right for you.

Nathan

Hoping

Daily Post

Hope is a good thing but we typically apply it to situations where our actions have little or no leverage. It’s probably not good to apply it to how we think about viva prep, building confidence or viva success.

Instead:

  • What can you do to prepare? What will you do to get ready?
  • What can you do to feel better? What steps will you take to boost your confidence?
  • What have you done already to show you’ve done something worthwhile? What can you do with the time remaining before your viva to feel sure of success?

You don’t need to hope. You don’t need to wish for good luck.

Recognise you’ve done the work. Recognise that there is still work you can do.

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