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Year: 2019

Nathan

Predictions For The Future Of The Viva

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Virtual Vivas: Have your viva from the comfort of your home, while you can have the best external from ANYWHERE in the world!

AI Examiners: Profess0R V.Iva will read your thesis and optimise a set of question trees for discussion routines. Genetic algorithms will simulate instances of responses to produce a fair set of questions. And your viva will take place within three hours of submission of your thesis to the V.Iva Cloud!

The Honour System: “You did it? And it’s good? Fair enough then, here’s your certificate…”

Bonus Round: For every question you give a good answer to from the Super-Hard Questions List you get ten points! Get fifty or more and you could qualify to spin the Wheel Of Doctorateness and maybe win bonus doctoral endorsements!

Refreshments Will Be Provided: A water cooler and a hot water urn with several tea and coffee options. This would be nice if it was relatively common!

Predictions for change are tough. Predictions based on regular, common experiences are much more straight-forward. There are regulations for vivas in the UK. There are common patterns of experience. Within all the variety from what is essentially a unique exam every time we can see ideals to work towards, and so you can be prepared.

Who knows what the future will hold, in the short or long term? You can decide what you will do now.

Don’t wait for your viva future: work for it.

Nathan

YMMV

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Your mileage may vary.

That prep tip from a friend might not help you as much as it helped them.

The regulations might say to expect X, but you experience Y.

While others get a lot of help from a mock viva, you find it makes you worry.

But while your friends are nervous, you feel confident.

While someone else got minor corrections, you get none!

And the advice you heard didn’t just make a small difference, it made the difference to your viva.

Experiences vary. Preferences matter. Not everyone will have the same needs, the same circumstances, the same viva. We can hope for minimum standards, work hard towards preferred outcomes, and still some things won’t be quite as we might like. Some experiences will be better; some tips or techniques will be very helpful for some.

My advice is to share honestly, share openly, share positively. I hope it all helps, but your mileage may vary.

Nathan

Unclear or Wrong

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You can’t – and shouldn’t – assume there are problems in your thesis. It’s worth checking through it carefully after submission. Read your thesis well to make sure that it holds up, that nothing has slipped through.

Find something unclear? What would make it clearer? Add a note of what you might say differently.

Find something wrong? Why is it wrong? What could you do to address it?

You can’t be perfect; you can be prepared.

Nathan

Descriptions Are Relative

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Long viva, short viva. Good viva, bad viva.

Discussion or conversation? Chat or challenge?

Ready or prepared?

Words change how we feel about things.

Some people are tired by their viva, but I was exhausted.

Confident or nervous, nervous or anxious, anxious or worried, worried or terrified?

The descriptions for your viva are relative. A three hour or longer viva might feel intimidating now, a really stressful idea. Compare it to the thousands of hours of work you’ve done before. Compare it to how you might feel afterwards. Maybe, like some researchers, you’ll just think, “Was that it?”

Words really, really matter. Choose them carefully.

Nathan

Implications

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Whatever else your thesis has – ideas, opinions, theories, hypotheses, results, conclusions – it has implications.

  • What might someone else do with your work?
  • How might they be inspired?
  • What questions do we now know to ask?
  • What questions do we know are foolish?
  • What does your thesis mean?

Thoughts in these areas could be rich for useful viva preparation – and relevant topics for conversation in the viva.

Nathan

Choose Confidence As A Goal

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Confidence is not a destination. It’s not a permanent state you can arrive at, but a goal to be pursued.

You can’t flick a switch. You can’t simply hack or trick yourself.

But you can make a choice: what do you want to feel? What do you want to be?

Once you’ve made a choice, you have to act. For your viva, what would a confident version of you be like? If they’re not much different than where you are now, then you don’t have much work to do. If you feel that you could be more confident then choose to go for it. That doesn’t just make it so, but you’ll then see paths before you, steps you can take that lead you to your goal.

Choose confidence.

Nathan

You Don’t Want The Viva

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Regular readers of the blog might know I am a huge fan of Seth Godin. I’m re-reading his most recent book, This Is Marketing, and I wanted to share a passage I’ve been thinking about for a while now:

Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt famously said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill bit. They want a quarter-inch hole.”

The lesson is that the drill bit is merely a feature, a means to an end, but what people really want is the hole it makes.

But that doesn’t go nearly far enough. No one wants a hole.

What people want is the shelf that will go on the wall once they drill the hole.

Actually, what they want is how they’ll feel once they see how uncluttered everything is, when they put their stuff on the shelf that went on the wall, now that there’s a quarter-inch hole.

But wait…

They also want the satisfaction of knowing they did it themselves.

Or perhaps the increase in status they’ll get when their spouse admires their work.

Or the peace of mind that comes from knowing that the bedroom isn’t a mess, and that it feels safe and clean.

So: you need a viva, but you don’t want it.

You want what the viva will lead to – passing your PhD. But who just wants a PhD? The three letters don’t mean a lot by themselves: what do you want them for? A job in academia? An increase in status? Pride in something accomplished?

When we stop seeing the viva as the end, but a step – a means to an end maybe – then perhaps we can see it for what it is. A practical thing, not a mystical or terrible or unknowable thing. A necessary step and one that can be prepared for. It leads to something even more important and better.

You don’t want your viva – but since you’re going to have it anyway, why not aim to make it the best you can?

Nathan

Happy and Unhappy Vivas

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I’ve never read Anna Karenina. I get stuck about twenty pages in and change to something else on my Kindle. As I’ve read the start many times, the opening line remains with me, often translated as:

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

There’s a nice poetry in that statement, and I think it’s relevant to the viva too. In my decade of becoming fascinated by the viva, I hear more stories that mirror Tolstoy’s sentiment: I’ve heard of plenty of happy viva stories that sound quite similar. The few unhappy viva stories are memorable because they are distinct.

Happy vivas are happy because they go well. They’re the majority of vivas; there are general expectations being met; most candidates get minor corrections; most examiners approach their role in the right way; most candidates, even if they are nervous, realise it’s not an insurmountable task. They can prepare and they can continue to do well.

Unhappy vivas always have particular stories. The candidate who didn’t get on with their supervisor. The supervisor who didn’t do their job. The examiners who weren’t right. The regulations that weren’t followed. The candidate who felt rushed. The candidate who didn’t know what to expect. It only takes a few of these little details to make a viva thoroughly unhappy.

Don’t expect an unhappy viva. If you have concerns, do something as soon as possible. Don’t just let it go and hope for the best. Do something.

Do expect a happy viva. You’ve got this far for a reason. You’ve done the work. You are good at what you do. You are where you’re meant to be.

Nathan

Hands On Hips

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I really like Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk: the highlight is that there is evidence that adopting a pose of confidence can improve your confidence. Something as simple as setting your posture can have an effect on how you feel. Standing like a superhero can give you a real boost…

…maybe!

Only maybe, because science isn’t as simple as that. Anecdotally, I’ve had feedback from PhD candidates who have tried this and found it’s worked for them. Researcher developers tell me it has helped their confidence before big presentations or meetings. I can’t guarantee it will work for you, but you won’t know either way until you try it.

Confidence doesn’t begin and end with putting your hands on your hips. Confidence is action. What will you do to build and maintain your confidence? Big and small things help, long term practice and short term boosts.

Nathan

Surprise Questions

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Surprise questions might not be critical, they could simply be unexpected. By your viva you have plenty of talent for responding to questions, but a surprise question might still stun you.

If you are worried about surprise questions:

  • Decide on how you will respond to questions in the viva: will you make a quick note? Will you pause and take a breath to think?
  • Practise answering unexpected questions: will you have a mock viva? Could you give a presentation and take questions?
  • Write down a list of when you’ve answered questions in difficult circumstances: what conference talks have you given? When have you been in seminars and engaged with tricky discussions?

Preparation and reflection can help you to see that surprise questions can be manageable. They could surprise you, but the surprise doesn’t have to be bad.

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