Nathan

Personal Prep Plan

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Every candidate has to read their thesis, make notes, talk with their supervisor, find a way to rehearse and so on to get ready for their viva.

Every candidate has a unique thesis, PhD journey, set of personal circumstances and an interconnected web of needs and preferences for how they do things.

So viva prep has to be personal.

 

There are big picture things that every candidate has to do – but they have to do them in the best way for themselves.

When you get to submission make a list of the things you need to do then sketch a plan for how you might get them done. Pay attention to your needs and preferences and meet them as well as you can. This will help the work to get done.

Make your prep personal.

 

PS: Looking for more viva prep help? Then check out my live 3-hour Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026 where I’ll talk about this and a lot more. You’ll also get four-week access to a recording of the session and follow-up materials too. There’s more information at the link but please get in touch if you have any questions or want to know more. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Valuable Work

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It’s a PhD expectations that you will have made a significant and original contribution to research.

Your work is valuable – so as you prepare, reflect:

  • Who will value your research?
  • What does your contribution add to knowledge?
  • Which journals might find your results and conclusions valuable?
  • What might your particular examiners find valuable?

The last question isn’t necessarily the most important but it is relevant because you’ll be talking with these two people for hours.

If there is something they might connect with then it makes sense to think about who they are, what they do and what they might really want to know – then rehearse how you might share that with them.

Nathan

A Basic Formula

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C = f(c) + P

Or: confidence is a function of your capability plus your preparation.

Or: the confidence you have for something like, say, your viva is related to your capability for your research plus the specific preparation you do for your viva.

 

I’m a pure mathematician by training, so blame that for how my brain has turned this over! A little “formula” like this isn’t very scientific but as a model there are two important things that stand out:

  1. The element that makes the most difference here is your capability as this has grown over a long time. As you get closer to your viva reflect on what has made you good in so many ways.
  2. You have a relatively short amount of time to do viva preparation – so plan your time well and focus on the important tasks first.

If you want your confidence for your viva to grow you have to increase your capability or do more preparation. What makes sense for where you are now?

 

PS: Viva confidence is a big topic at my live 3-hour Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026. I’ll be talk about a lot more too! You’ll also get four-week access to a recording of the session and follow-up materials too. There’s more information at the link but please get in touch if you have any questions or want to know more. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Perspectives Matter

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If there is more than one way to explain what you’ve done or what it means then make sure you practise talking about all of them.

If there was more than one way to accomplish your research goals then it helps to be able to explain what you did AND why you didn’t take the other approaches.

If you and your examiners look at things differently then that’s not a cause for concern – but it makes sense to understand their perspective to respond to it.

 

Writing notes to unpack your thinking or rehearsing aloud how you explain things can be helpful for grappling with also sorts of different perspectives.

What you have ultimately done through your work matters a lot – it’s one of the key things you’re there to talk about at your viva – but being aware of the variety of perspectives, processes, beliefs and understandings matters a lot too.

Nathan

The Ideals

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What’s the ideal time for you to do viva prep?

Who are your ideal examiners?

What’s the ideal date and time for your viva?

What would be your ideal opening question?

These questions and others can be interesting to reflect on but take care. Thinking about ideal situations, questions and people bring together needs and preferences under one grouping and they are quite different.

  • You could prefer Dr A over Professor B for your external examiner but you won’t need one or the other.
  • You might need a specific date or location for your viva due to your circumstances.
  • You might prefer your examiners to ask about a specific topic to start the viva but you need to understand that they’ll follow their experience and plans.
  • You could need certain requirements to help you have a fair and accessible viva – it’s not what you prefer but what you must have.

When you recognise a need or preference you might have work to do. If the ideal examiner will help you feel better then you can communicate that to your supervisors and see who they ultimately select. If they’re not available then you have to work to feel better about whoever is appointed.

If the ideal viva situation means you can have a fair viva then you need to make sure that the right people know about your needs. Who do you contact? What do you do?

 

PS: I’ll be talking about all of these topics and more at my live 3-hour Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026. You’ll also get four-week access to a recording of the session and follow-up materials too. There’s more information at the link but please get in touch if you have any questions or want to know more. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Viva Survivor, March 25th 2026

Event, Update

Let’s keep this reminder short and simple:

  • I’m running my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026.
  • Registration is open for this three-hour live webinar. If you sign-up you will also have access to a catch-up recording for four weeks after the session and receive follow-up materials including several of my publications.
  • Viva Survivor is my original session and I’ve delivered it to more than 8300 PhD candidates in the last 15 years at universities and programmes all over the UK.
  • In that time and in over 425 sessions I’ve been continuously developing Viva Survivor to be as helpful as possible to PGRs.

There’s a lot more information at the link about what to expect from the webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026. If you have any questions please get in touch. Viva Survivor is one of my favourite things to do and I’m really looking forward to this session.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Nathan

That Next Step

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Whether you prepare for your viva in a series of twenty minute tasks or use three-hour blocks of activity, do yourself a favour: finish your prep time by making a note of the thing you’ll do next.

PhD candidates often find themselves getting ready by working around all of the other things in their life. This can mean prep time is work when they’re already tired and not in the mood to do more work. A note made ahead of time can remove friction, take away one more decision and give direction when someone needs it.

  • Read Chapter 3.
  • Make a list of key references.
  • Suggest mock viva dates.

When you plan ahead even a little you free up space to work well. Do yourself a favour and decide in advance what your next step will be when you finish a piece of viva prep.

Nathan

Talking In A Furnace

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I read my thesis. Made notes. Talked with my supervisor. Read papers. Got ready.

And never once thought about the actual space I would have my viva in.

My viva was in early June 2008, first thing in the morning in a top floor seminar room that got full sun from dawn through to the early afternoon.

During the first heatwave of the year.

It was hot when we began. It got hotter as we went on. And my viva, with a short break, ended up being four hours. It was an exhausting situation by the end. The room was incredibly stifling and uncomfortable. We made it through, I passed – and thankfully didn’t pass out due to the heat!

 

All of which is presented as a dramatic encouragement to check your viva space out in advance and think about your comfort for the day.

Most in-person vivas take place in fairly anonymous seminar rooms at your university but you’ll always know the date, time and location in advance. You can check out the space, think about your needs and the situation for your viva.

Then act accordingly – because if it’s going to be a hot day you’re going to need to take that into account!

Nathan

Maybe

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It always helps to pause when you’re asked a question at your viva; take some time to think, consider, get your thoughts in order (and make notes, check your thesis and so on) before you respond.

You could do all of that and still, in that moment, think, “Well, maybe…” Taking everything into account, you might not know something or might not be sure.

That’s OK. The viva is not about demonstrating perfection or total knowledge: it’s about showing what you did, why you did it and how you can do things well. If you listen carefully, think carefully and your careful response to one particular questions begins with “Maybe…” then you’re doing fine.

You don’t need to know everything. You don’t need to have thought of everything beforehand.

 

PS: Looking for help with the viva discussion and expectations? Then check out my live 3-hour Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026 where I’ll talk about these topics and a lot more. You’ll get four-week access to a recording of the session and follow-up materials too. There’s more information at the link but please get in touch if you have any questions or want to know more. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

What Will You Wear?

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Enclothed cognition is the idea, simply, that what you wear has an impact on how you feel and behave. So you could feel more confident, more capable and more right for a situation depending on what you wear.

Instinctively it feels like a sound idea to me. Leaving aside safety clothing that would be necessary for some situations, it seems clear that people can influence their feelings of capability by dressing “smarter” or “cooler”. Someone might feel more like they fit in with a group or feel like they belong.

Assuming the theory is true what would you wear for your viva? How do you want to feel? What might help you to feel that way? You don’t need to be smart for your examiners’ expectations but dressing more smartly might help steer your own confidence and capability. Or you might decide on something a little different to help you feel good for those few hours.

How do you want to feel? What might you then need?

 

(big thanks to my friend Piero Vitelli who I’m pretty certain is the person who shared the term enclothed cognition with me!)

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