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Month: October 2025

Nathan

Defending & Supporting

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Defending your thesis means supporting your research.

Defending doesn’t mean protecting. Your examiners’ comments and questions aren’t trying to exploit weak points or diminish your work.

Defending means saying and doing more in the viva in addition to the thousands of hours of work that lead to your thesis.

Defending can mean exploring a topic, providing clarity, expanding on details and more.

More than anything, defending might mean saying why. Even if you’ve said it in depth in your thesis and you feel you’ve said it clearly, your examiners could want a little more from you.

Why does your work make a contribution?

 

PS: If you want more ideas of how you can defend your thesis and respond well to questions in the viva then take a look at  The Confidence Issue, the latest instalment of Viva Survivors Select. The issue contains twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive plus two new pages of viva help and I think it’s worth your time to take a look 🙂

Nathan

What Did You Enjoy?

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When you’re getting ready for your viva there’s both time and a need to explore what was a challenge. Anything that challenged you has some value. You can explore what made it difficult and what you achieved by rising to the challenge.

If you faced problems then it makes sense to consider them again before your viva. You might need to talk about them with your examiners. It then makes sense to write summaries, rehearse and figure out how you explain why something was a problem and what you did about it.

Then there’s your research contribution. What makes it significant? How does it make a difference to your field or disciplines?

 

All of the above are worth exploring as you prepare for your viva but perhaps begin with something simpler. What did you enjoy during your PhD? What did you look forward to doing or come to appreciate?

When you’re getting ready for your viva a good starting point might be to think about what you enjoyed doing your research. There’s plenty of time for harder topics. What did you enjoy?

Nathan

What You Want & What You Need

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Wants are nice. Needs are non-negotiable.

Wants can follow preferences while needs follow your situation and circumstances.

If you want to have a particular external examiner maybe you can make a case to your supervisor. If they say no there will be someone else.

If you need your viva to be in an accessible room for you then that’s where it needs to be. No ifs or buts.

Put your focus where it needs to be as your viva is arranged. Try to get the things you want but if there’s something you need make sure that the right people know.

When you meet your needs you probably remove the worst of the stress that something as important as your viva could bring.

Make sure your needs are met then work to get your wants if you can.

Nathan

Getting To Done

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How did you get this far in your PhD journey?

There’s a great series of steps, actions, ideas, questions, papers, successes, failures, setbacks, breakthroughs, meetings and long hours.

All of which boils down to: you did it.

The talent, skill and knowledge are yours. The actions were yours.

You did it. Remember that as you get ready for your viva.

Nathan

Viva Prep Recipes

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I do a lot of the cooking in our house. Most of what I make regularly is the result of recipes I carry in my head but I sometimes look in cookbooks to check my instincts around cooking times, temperatures and good ingredient pairings.

It also helps me to figure out alternatives too. Will this dish still work if I change the seasoning? Probably. Can I swap tomatoes for carrots? Maybe not. And what do I do if I need to make a big change from the process described?

 

Viva prep feels a lot like this too. There are a lot of good ideas for how to get ready but you have to find something that feels right for you and tweak it from there.

A mock viva is often held around two weeks before the viva date but a week before your viva or a month before could work too with a few adjustments.

It’s common to start viva prep by reading your thesis but journalling or making other notes is equally helpful and valid.

Ask around to find out what others did. Read blog posts for good ideas. Then assemble your own recipe for viva prep success.

 

PS: I released the latest edition of Viva Survivors Select this week. As with today’s post The Confidence Issue has lots of practical ideas from the Viva Survivors archive for building confidence for the viva!

Nathan

Unusual Expectations

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Some PhD candidates have unusual expectations for their vivas.

I’m not a mind-reader, but I know this must be true because of the questions that some candidates ask. I have met candidates who have expected the following:

  • Every question will be hard and every comment will be critical;
  • The external will ask most of the questions and the internal won’t care;
  • Success at the viva is 50/50, a coin toss between passing and failing;
  • The examiners will play good cop/bad cop!
  • The viva is just random so there’s no way to prepare.

These are all quite extreme! More benign and unusual expectations include candidates believing that they can’t take a break or that they can’t consult their thesis.

 

It’s not just that these expectations are wrong and don’t match reality: they are really negative. To hold them can only harm someone’s confidence as they get ready.

It’s not wrong to feel nervous ahead of your viva, but if you find yourself worried by an expectation or belief about the viva then find a way to check if your expectation is reasonable. If it’s unusual then you can maybe stop worrying.

And if you find that it isn’t unusual then there will still be something you can do towards feeling more prepared and more ready.

 

PS: I released the latest edition of Viva Survivors Select yesterday! The Confidence Issue contains twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive exploring confidence for the viva including how to respond well to questions in the viva – something which definitely helps with having good expectations.

Nathan

Viva Survivors Select 07

Update

It was a few years after my PhD before I started to feel confident. It took me time to find a way to build it up for myself. I didn’t find it during my PhD or ahead of my viva: I thought my thesis was pretty good but didn’t think I was a good candidate. I knew something was missing on my viva day but didn’t know what it was.

After my PhD I started to listen to podcasts, read blog posts and found books that helped me assemble a jigsaw of confidence from myself, borrowing ideas from many different places and finding what worked for me.

I’ve had the good fortune to spend my post-PhD life exploring confidence for myself and how to help other people find it for themselves. I’m glad to have the chance to share some help, encouragement and ideas in this month’s issue of Viva Survivors Select.

Cover of Viva Survivors Select 07/The Confidence Issue/Nathan Ryder. Background image shows a pair of hands holding a small plant growing in soil.

The Confidence Issue contains twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive exploring confidence in the PhD, helpful practices to try during viva prep and how to respond to questions in the viva. This is a topic I’ve explored a lot over the last fifteen years and it’s great to share a curated resource like this zine.

Every issue of Viva Survivors Select also contains new help too. This month I share my thoughts on making a playlist to help promote confidence. I love using music to prompt a shift of feelings and know I’m not alone in thinking it’s a useful nudge – and nudging confidence is the theme of my other new piece, a short game to help people getting ready for their viva.

Viva Survivors Select 07 is out now for £3 and joins six other issues in this ongoing series. If you like the blog, want more help and want to support what I do then please take a look at and consider buying The Confidence Issue.

The final issue of this volume, The Survival Issue, will be released on Wednesday 12th November. I’m also considering releasing a bundle of all eight issues of Volume 1 for a special price. Let me know if you think that’s a good idea!

Please do pass on details of this issue and Viva Survivors Select to anyone you know who is looking for viva help.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Nathan

Regulations & Requests

Daily Post

Thesis examination regulations underpin viva expectations. They set out how examiners should generally approach the viva and how they should behave. Coupled with practice and culture this gives rise to expectations and patterns. Things tend to happen in certain ways.

This doesn’t mean that viva expectations are the only way they can proceed. In particular, if you need something that doesn’t follow past patterns then you should ask for it. If you need more breaks, a specific room setup or have other particular requirements then your examiners need to know.

Vivas follow regulations but those regulations are there to help ensure that vivas are fair for all candidates. If you need something make sure you make a request. Don’t hope. Don’t expect that people will somehow know.

Check and follow the regulations. Make requests for what you need for your viva.

Nathan

Moments & Pauses

Daily Post

Your viva is a conversation.

It will have a rhythm and a flow.

The direction is lead to some extent by your examiners with their questions and comments, but you set the pace with your responses.

Pause to think, to breathe, to check and to be sure.

Take a moment to break up what you’re saying.

The viva is a conversation and you want it to flow well – but the viva is an important conversation that needs time. You need time to think well and respond well.

A moment here or there will not increase your viva length dramatically or negatively. Taking a pause to respond well can only help your viva and your performance.

Nathan

Tried & Failed

Daily Post

There was a two-month period in my maths PhD where I tried and tried to make something work. Here’s my layperson’s description of the problem:

  • Imagine you’re looking at two knotted balls of wool;
  • Your task is to compare them and try to figure out if they’re knotted the same way or differently.
  • Now imagine that while you’re comparing them they start to grow.
  • And they also have lengthening algebraic expressions pinned to them.
  • And every time you stop to take stock you realise your notes have increased dramatically…

I tried a lot of different things. I found some results in the process but I didn’t reach an answer.

I tried and I failed.

 

I thought for a split-second-that-felt-like-forever at my viva that this was going to be a problem.

In Chapter 7 you detail your failure at a problem. That’s interesting.

I can still remember the way my internal examiner said it seventeen years later!

It was an odd way to express a point. It knocked me for a few seconds but really he just wanted to explore the situation:

  • What had I tried and why had it not worked?
  • What did I try next and how far did I get?
  • Why did I stop and what did it all really mean?

These were all good questions. I had a lot to say because there was a lot to talk about.

If any of this seems resonant – although hopefully not the knotted balls of wool! – then prepare for your viva with your problems in mind. If you tried and failed at something then be sure you know why. Be sure you can explain why.

And be sure you realise that while it might have been a problem while you were doing your research it doesn’t have to be a problem at your viva.

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