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Year: 2024

Nathan

Find Your Music

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Find a piece of music that makes you feel happy. Find a piece of music that lifts you up and makes you feel like your best self.

Find a way to make sure that you have access to that music in the days leading up to your viva. Perhaps make sure you have a way to listen to that music on the day of your viva.

There are many ways to build confidence and how positive you feel about your viva. Consider how you prepare, what you wear, what you listen to.

You need to find what you need to help you feel how you want to feel about your viva. None of it is magic – sometimes it’s music!

 

PS: here’s my music, in case you’re curious.

Nathan

Good Preparation

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Viva prep is the work you do to help yourself feel ready. It’s a set of relatively simple tasks and activities like reading your thesis, rehearsing for the viva, making summaries. There are a lot of options for how you can approach things and when you combine all of the work together it’s relatively small in comparison to the rest of your PhD.

What helps make viva prep good?

You do.

 

As you begin, think about your situation: your work, your responsibilities and your commitments. How can you plan to do your viva prep in a way that won’t overload you?

Think about how and when you will get your prep done: what can you do to make that time effective? What can you do to work with the amount of energy or focus you might have available?

Explore your own preferences: if you need to read your thesis, for example, how will that work well for you? Will you read it for a chapter per day for a week? Will you take an afternoon to read it all?

 

There are specific tasks that help someone get ready for their viva. How you do the work, when you do the work and the circumstances you create for that will show you how good that preparation is. Good viva prep doesn’t follow a masterplan for all candidates. Good viva prep is personal: shaping the tasks to your circumstances and doing it with as little stress as possible.

Nathan

Silence

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What if it gets silent in my viva?

A small question I’m asked from time to time. A candidate hears that the viva is a discussion; discussions involve talking and so if the talking stops then it’s not going well, right? What happens as a consequence if that happens?!

 

The viva is important. Important things make people nervous. Sometimes nervous people worry about things more than is needed.

Silence in the viva isn’t good or bad. It just is. Silence is a pause. Silence is a sip of water. Silence is thinking or checking. Silence is a part of a discussion or conversation!

Silence might not be comfortable. If you are nervous – and you might be – then the best thing to do is work instead of worry. Have a mock viva. Have conversations with friends where they ask you about your work. Practice and rehearse so that silence isn’t something you avoid but something you respond to.

Silence might be a part of your viva, naturally and in some ways necessarily. Rehearse so that you can manage to keep going in those quiet moments.

Nathan

No More, No Less

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The viva is no more than a discussion about your research and thesis.

The viva is no less than a final, great challenge at the end of your PhD.

Your examiners want no more than to have a conversation with you.

Your examiners need no less from you than to see a capable, knowledgeable researcher.

Your viva needs no more from you than to show up and be good, determined and thoughtful.

You wouldn’t give it any less than your best – and that’s enough.

Nathan

Positive Prep

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If viva prep feels like a grind and a bore then you need to change how you’re approaching it.

It’s not that it should be FUN or that you should perform a series of fist pumps every time you read your thesis, but it will help you to feel ready and confident for your viva if you have a positive association with your prep, your research and your thesis.

If prep feels like a grind and a bore then perhaps you could try some of the following:

  • Can you switch to a different task for a day or two?
  • Can you change the time that you’re doing viva prep work?
  • Can you move to a different space to get the work done?
  • Can you ask for help from someone?
  • Can you bring a little fun to the process?
  • Can you motivate yourself with a small reward of some kind?

Any positive connections you can find will help. What can you do to help you get your viva prep done in a positive way?

Nathan

Resolving Viva Problems

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Hope for the best, plan for – well, let’s not say the worst! However, sometimes the best doesn’t happen and it helps to have a way to tackle problems while you’re getting ready for the viva.

  • Maybe you read something that causes you to pause. Maybe you find a mistake in your thesis.
  • Perhaps an examiner cancels or has to postpone. Perhaps you encounter an issue with your own availability.
  • Or it could be as simple and difficult as nervousness, anxiety, worry or concern for what might happen when you get to the viva.

Problems come in all shapes and sizes. It’s very hard to remove the possibility of all problems occurring. Even so, keep in mind that whatever problems come your way you can always do something to help your situation.

Whatever problem you face as you get ready for your viva, ask yourself three questions:

  • Why is this a problem?
  • How could you improve the situation?
  • What will you do?

Asking why explores the reason for the problem. Asking how explores your options for tackling it. Asking what gives you a way forward.

These questions might only be the first step to clearing a problem aside, but that might be enough to help you past the situation and closer to being ready for your viva.

Nathan

Hope Helps…

Daily Post

…but actions help more.

It’s good to hope you pass your viva and it goes well. It’s not wrong to hope that your examiners have nice questions for you. It’s pretty understandable to hope you get no or few corrections.

After that you have to do the work though, just as you have for the rest of your PhD.

Prepare well. Read up on expectations and who your examiners are. Be prepared for the real possibility of making corrections to your thesis after the viva.

Hope that your viva is a good one – then work towards being at your best for the viva.

Nathan

Where You Prepare

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For viva rehearsal activities you might need to meet others in offices, seminar rooms or cafés. However, for most viva prep you’ll likely be working by yourself. What kind of space will help your viva preparation?

Think about your preferences. Think about the practicalities of the situation. When will you do the work? How quiet do you need it to be? What resources do you need? Consider your options and choose the one that will work best for you. Can you do something to meet your needs even more?

Where you prepare can make a difference to how you prepare. Make a good space for where you’ll do your viva prep.

Nathan

Final Words

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The viva is not the only time in your life when you will have a big, important conversation about your PhD. It might be the final time though and it will be your only viva. As you prepare, take some time to think about how you can get as much as you need to from the experience.

  • How would you like your viva to conclude?
  • Are there specific questions you want to hear from your examiners by the end?
  • Is there an opinion you’d like to make sure you take time to ask for?

You might not be able to direct your viva but there are aspects you might be able to influence. If you have questions, make a list and take them with you so you remember to ask them.

Nathan

In The Frame

Daily Post

Pause, think, respond.

That’s how you engage with a question or comment in the viva. You pause in order to think and you think in order to respond well.

Pause and Think: Are your examiners clear with their question? Do you know what they are asking or needing you to speak about?

Think and Respond: Be calm and clear as you respond. Are you responding to their question or comment directly? If not, how are you reframing that?

If you can’t respond directly to a question then you need to think about how you can still engage with it. “I don’t know” and exploring why you don’t know is a good response. Trying to steer away and talk about something different is a bad response.

Pause and think to fully understand how a question or comment is framed. Think then frame your response well so your examiners can clearly understand you.

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