Daily viva help for PhDs
The viva is nearly-but-not-quite the end of the PhD journey.
It really won’t take much to get ready for it.
You’ll get to have a conversation with two interested academics about your research.
Once your viva is finished and your corrections are complete you can start the next phase of your life or career as Doctor Somebody.
What other reasons can you find to help you look forward to your viva?
If you have doubts that you’ve done enough, that your thesis is good enough or that you are good enough then take a little time to reflect on what you’ve done.
For questions like these you won’t always have an exact number. You can know the scale of your past efforts and determination.
You can know that you’ve come this far because you did the work. You can know that whatever mistakes you’ve made along the way that you have done enough. You can know that whatever doubts you have that you are good.
The two most useful questions for a PhD candidate to reflect on, particularly after submission, are:
“When is my viva?” and “How do I feel?”
The first is often a useful prompt to realise that there is still time. There’s always time to do something to get ready. If you have ten minutes to go you can still breathe, try to relax, check your notes and remind yourself that you’re almost done. If you have ten days then you have lots of time to prepare and build your confidence. If you have just submitted your thesis you have time to take a break. If you’ve not submitted yet then you know your time is best invested in getting your thesis finished.
The second question has a partner: “So what can I do?” If you feel relaxed, what can you do to build on that? If you feel nervous, what can you do to calm yourself? If you feel unprepared then what can you do to get ready? If you feel afraid who could you talk to so you can get help? If you feel confident, how can you maintain that for the viva? It’s good to reflect on how you feel; it’s better to take the time after that to think about what you need to do next.
“When is my viva?” and “How do I feel?” are good questions to reflect on for a candidate.
“When is your viva?” and “How do you feel?” are fair questions to ask a friend after they’ve submitted their thesis, provided you have time to really listen and then ask one more question:
“Do you need help?”
The practical tasks involved in viva prep are not hard, but shifting focus to do the work can be tough.
Why? Perhaps because you’ve done it all before. You did this work! Haven’t you done enough already? You did the research, you wrote the thesis, you checked it and now you have to read it again and do more work for the viva. Really?!
Or maybe your response is lead by nervousness. Maybe you have lots of questions in the way. What exactly will be involved in the viva? What do examiners do? How do they behave? If viva prep is another step closer then putting it off means you might not have to inspect your own nervousness yet, at least for a little while.
Or you could be busy. Steering your attention to prep when you have a job, or you’re looking for one, or when you have responsibilities is just a hard ask. You know it needs doing, but finding the time or feeling energised enough when you need to prepare can be tough.
Whatever it is, whatever is proving a barrier, you need to find a way around it. Whatever the problem is you still need to prepare. You need to get ready for your viva.
It’s not as simple as saying just get ready. Whatever is in the way of you shifting your focus to preparation is real. You have to find a way forward though. Everyone is different, so every solution is going to be unique.
Generally you have to make a plan that works for you, that is driven by what time you have, how you feel and what gaps you see in your preparation. Recognise the barrier and figure out a way around it.
And then you have to do to the work.
You need to get ready for your viva.
Adding to your thesis is a helpful part of viva prep. Including bookmarks, underlining words or sections, writing notes in the margin or placing sticky tabs to mark things out – there’s 101 things you could do!
Thankfully you don’t need to do all of them. By spending a little time thinking clearly you can figure out what will make your thesis more useful for you.
What details will help you if they stand out? What do you want to be able to see more clearly? How could you do that?
Annotating your thesis is for you. You have to reflect and decide what added details will help you the most. Annotations are not for your examiners; they’re added to help you to perform at your best in the viva.
Again, these three questions can help you figure out what you need to do:
Once you’ve reflected, make a list and do the work.
Your examiners are not attending a play. They don’t want you to sit (or stand) and talk at them for hours. They want a conversation. They want you to respond rather than recite.
There might be tricky parts of your research or thesis where it matters if the words are said a certain way. Of course, check that you remember them correctly – but don’t expect to simply parrot them to your examiners.
It’s far better to have general rehearsal for responding to questions (with a mock viva or having a chat with friends) than it is to write down and try to memorise lots of possible responses to lots of possible questions.
You need to talk in the viva. You need to prepare to do that. You don’t need to have prepared responses or monologues.
You will survive – manage to keep going in difficult circumstances – because you’ve done that throughout your PhD. You will most likely thrive too – grow, develop and be successful.
Prepare rather than perfect. You can get ready for the conversation you’ll have but you can’t be a paragon.
You can expect certain things will happen but you can’t assume that everything will play out that way.
You can respond to every question. You might not be able to answer every question.
Words matter. Verbs matter. Check that yours are right for how you think about the viva and how you engage with it when it’s your turn.
In the viva, no candidate wants to say the wrong thing. No-one wants to misremember a detail or misquote a paper. No-one wants to go blank and say the first thing, the silly thing, the wrong thing.
No-one wants to say the wrong thing, but remember there might not be a right thing.
Not every question has an answer. Not every question is probing for truth. A question could be exploratory. A question could be to clarify a point. A question could be seeking an opinion if there is one.
In the viva you could definitely say the wrong thing; depending on the question you might not be able to offer a right thing. You can always take your time and offer your best. Listen to the question, pause, think and respond.
We can look at all of the numbers for the viva – pass rates, lengths, percentages of candidates told they’ve passed at the start, correlation of questions and disciplines – and see lots of little details about the general expectations.
We can listen to the stories of candidates – what they did, what happened, how they felt and what that meant for them – and we’ll build a real sense of the viva experience.
The numbers help but certainty of what to expect and what to do is only going to be found by asking people about their experiences. Ask the right people the right questions and you’ll know what you need to do and what you can expect for your viva.
Statistics about the viva help, but stories about the viva help more.
Every PhD candidate in their viva is, at some point and in some way, going to need to talk about their contribution. Examiners will raise the topic and the candidate will need to talk about why their research is significant and original. No small thing, and so it’s no wonder that it might feel tough to do.
When it’s your turn to get ready, think about the difference your work makes. A research contribution makes a difference. Sharing new ideas or a new perspective; discovering something or making something clearer. Helping someone or maybe helping lots of people. Showing that something is true or proving that something is false. Updating old ideas or revealing something for the first time.
Your research contributions must make a difference in some way. If you’re stuck trying to find the words to express your contribution, consider starting with the difference your work makes.