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Year: 2023

Nathan

The Big Announcement

Update

I’ve written a helpful little guide to the PhD viva and I need your help to make it a reality.

From today until May 31st I’m running a Kickstarter campaign to fund a print run of 101 Steps To A Great Viva. I’ve nurtured this idea for a long time and I’m thrilled to be sharing it now.

Draft interior pages from 101 Steps To A Great Viva

If you find Viva Survivors helpful then please take a look at my Kickstarter. I think you’ll like what you find and if you think it’s worth backing there are some great rewards to say thank you:

  • Copies of 101 Steps To A Great Viva, including limited earlybird pledges at the time of writing!
  • Signed copies of my last book Keep Going – A Viva Survivors Anthology.
  • Your name listed in the special thanks section of 101 Steps To A Great Viva.

There are also a limited number of very special pledges to have a 1-2-1 conversation with me over Zoom! We can talk viva prep, advice, respond to particular questions and just go over anything you need for your viva.

Thank you so much for reading and do take a look at 101 Steps To A Great Viva. I’m so happy to share this with you today and I hope it can help you or someone you know. Pledge your support and help me make a print run of 101 Steps To A Great Viva!

Draft cover of 101 Steps To A Great Viva

Nathan

Prep Is A Workout

Daily Post

Viva prep is a series of tasks and activities that help you towards being ready for the specific challenge of your viva. From that perspective, I think it’s fair to think of it as a workout: you’re exercising specific mental muscles, getting in a good academic condition for the work you’ll do on the day responding to your examiners.

Viva prep is building on foundations you’ve created through your life and PhD journey; like many workout programmes it requires a little preparation itself, a little planning so that you space the work out.

(no pun intended)

Like a workout though, you have to actually do the work. You have to read your thesis, make notes and annotations, rehearse for being in the viva and more. And like a workout that work is personal to every candidate: every candidate has a unique set of needs they have to satisfy to reach the ready state they want, even if there are general principles that will help every candidate as they work towards being ready.

So: what are your needs? How are you going to workout in preparation for your viva?

Nathan

How Much Do You Say?

Daily Post

This is a very common question about the viva and I have a lot of thoughts!

  • The most honest response is simply, “It depends,” because it really does depend on the question, the discussion, the situation and what is really being asked.
  • In some situations you might want to convince your examiners of something. You respond by saying as much as you need to: you give details and reasoning and respond to any objections.
  • Sometimes you might respond to a question in the viva with as much as you can: you share what you know, you check your thesis and perhaps reach a limit for what you can add to the discussion (or at least you reach the limit that you feel in the moment).
  • Maybe you encounter a question and don’t really know what you can say. You share a little or offer thoughts because you don’t know exactly the sort of thing your examiners want. That’s fine: if they need more they can ask for more. It might also help to ask them directly, to ask them for clarity or information.

How much do you say in response to a question? It depends on the question. It depends on the situation. It depends on your knowledge, your experience and your research. It depends on knowing what your examiners are looking for.

To know that you might have to ask them a question or two.

Nathan

The Question No-one Asks

Daily Post

Almost thirteen years of workshops, seminars and webinars and no-one has ever asked me, “What do I do if I feel fine about my viva?”

  • I’ve met candidates who feel excited, but they also admit to needing to know more about the process.
  • I’ve met candidates who feel capable, but want to know how to prepare well.
  • I’ve met candidates who are reasonably confident and yet they don’t know what to do about a particular problem or issue they’ve realised.

And I’ve met a lot of candidates who are nervous, uncertain of the process or unsure of what to do to prepare.

People feel lots of things about their viva. I’ve never met a candidate who told me they just felt fine about theirs.

 

Of course, if you do then continue to do whatever has helped you to feel that way! Tell me (and everyone!) what your secret is. Relax, read your thesis and continue to build on how you feel.

If you don’t feel fine, which seems far more likely, then reflect on what’s holding you back.

What do you need to know? What do you need to do? Who do you need to ask for help?

Then take the steps you have to take to lead yourself to being ready for the viva. Maybe you won’t arrive at fine, but you can certainly feel capable and confident for meeting your examiners.

Nathan

Being Great

Daily Post

What are you really good at?

What do you notice you have become particularly skilled at doing over the course of your PhD?

What topics do you know you’re particularly knowledgeable about?

How do you know you’re good? What’s your evidence?

How do you explain to yourself – and others – that you’re good at something?

 

Reflect and find the words to describe what you do well and how you know you do it well. Recognising that you are capable and knowledgeable is a helpful basis for feeling confident for your viva.

There really isn’t any other way to get to submission and the viva: you must be great at what you do. However, if you’re not feeling great, then reflect and find things you do well or things you know lots about.

If you already know that you’re capable, work to find words to tell yourself a good story about that so you really believe it ahead of your viva.

Nathan

The Flow Of Your Thesis

Daily Post

Reading your thesis is an essential viva prep activity, but it’s not for the purpose of memorising a book. You don’t have to be ready to recall everything you’ve ever done or written in your viva.

You read your thesis after submission to get a good sense of the flow of information you’ve laid out. You read your thesis to have a feel for where you can find key sections and ideas, not to imprint them in your brain so that your thesis is redundant. At your viva you can use your thesis: it’s there as a resource!

Before your viva, read your thesis to get a good feel for the flow of ideas. At your viva, use what you know and remember to respond to questions.

Nathan

Another Little Announcement

Update

(The Big Announcement is coming on Tuesday 16th May!)

I’ve written a short and helpful guide to getting ready for the viva and you can help me publish it – in fact, I would be very grateful if you did!

Cover of 101 Steps To A Great Viva!
My draft cover!

101 Steps To A Great Viva is a 24-page zine packed with practical steps for any PhD candidate. I’ve been thinking about this for years while I’ve been writing the Viva Survivors blog and delivering webinars. For the last six months I’ve been planning, writing and rewriting and I’m really pleased with how it has finally come together.

The Kickstarter to produce a print run of 101 Steps To A Great Viva will launch on Tuesday 16th May. I need your help to make my little helpful guide a reality. Please go to the Kickstarter pre-launch page today and use the “Notify me on launch” button. This does not commit you to supporting the Kickstarter or paying any money, but it will help the project to be shared more widely and you’ll be emailed by Kickstarter when the campaign starts.

On Tuesday, when the campaign launches, you’ll be able to decide if you want to pledge money to back it. If you do I’ve got some great rewards to say thank you, depending on your level of support:

  • Signed print copies of Keep Going!
  • Your name in the thanks section of the zine!
  • 1-2-1 Zoom conversations with me!
  • And, of course, 101 Steps To A Great Viva sent through the post!

Thank you for reading. Please use the notify button on the Kickstarter pre-launch page and help me make a print run of 101 Steps To A Great Viva a reality 🙂

Nathan

Keep It Simple Smartypants!

Daily Post

To do research and write a thesis you have to be pretty smart. You must know lots and understand many complicated and complex facts. However, to get ready for your viva you don’t have to do anything especially complicated:

  • Make a plan of prep work.
  • Do the work.

That plan will involve reading, making notes, rehearsing for the viva and reflecting on your journey, but it doesn’t need lots of steps or interlocking to-do lists and flowcharts.

Just make a plan and do the work.

Nathan

The Whispers

Daily Post

There are lots of whispers, rumours and half-truths about the viva.

…I know someone whose viva was almost a whole day…

…I’ve heard the internal barely says anything…

…why do we have to have them, what’s the point, most people pass anyway…

…don’t get corrections, they’re the worst, try to avoid them…

…you just have to hope it all goes well…

Make sure when you ask your friends for advice that you look for views not wholly skewed by worry, apocryphal stories and negativity.

Start with a solid foundation that isn’t built on whispers.

Nathan

Blocked

Daily Post

If your thinking is blocked – you freeze or forget – in the viva:

  • Stop. Just stop. Take a moment or two because you’ve probably not done that.
  • Breathe. Before you can speak you need to have some air. Your brain could use it too.
  • Reflect (part one). If stopping and breathing haven’t cleared the blockage then go deeper. Ask yourself why you’re blocked. What’s the reason?
  • Reflect (part two). With a reason in mind, consider what you can do. Maybe you need to ask your examiners a question. Maybe you need to read your thesis. Maybe you just need to sit and think a little longer.
  • Respond. Take your time, but start to talk. Share what you can and move the discussion along.

Being blocked is a starting point. You have to go somewhere from there – so you may as well take charge and do something!

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