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Year: 2025

Nathan

The Buddy System

Daily Post

I’ve wondered about whether a viva prep club is feasible. Whether it’s centred around a university or in some kind of distributed community, would a group of PhD candidates be able to work alongside each other in some way – practically and being supportive – in order to get ready?

I don’t know. Given the different paths and timescales of PGRs, perhaps a club is too grand a scale to work on. It did get me thinking though. Here is a little idea:

  • Could you find a partner or a buddy to prepare alongside?
  • Someone to check in with you?
  • Someone to ask you questions?
  • Someone to help you reflect back on your journey and someone you could help in the same way?

A viva prep buddy could help you, nudge you, share ideas and help by understanding what you’re going through.

When one of you has their viva the other can report back. You can congratulate them and then look for a new buddy, who will start the process with you again. Over time, stories, experiences, expectations and help would pass from one person to another.

Can you find a buddy so you can help each other get ready for the viva?

Nathan

What If It Was All OK?

Daily Post

If you knew that your viva was going to be fine, what would you do differently now?

I imagine that you would still prepare. You’d still have questions for your supervisor and friends. You’d still want to check the regulations and have a sense of what to expect.

The vast majority of vivas result in success. The majority of PhD candidates are asked to complete minor corrections as a result. The vast majority of vivas are fine, they’re OK, even if they’re a challenge there’s work to do afterwards.

There’s more to being ready than knowing it will be OK, but if you assumed it was going to be fine could you enjoy it more? Could you be excited?

When you know what your starting assumptions are for your viva – and if you assume it will go well – you’ll probably work towards it differently.

Nathan

Your Theme Tune

Daily Post

One of my favourite conversations I’ve had with a PhD graduate was someone who told me that they made a playlist for their viva day. The day before they arranged five tracks to help them feel good – the ultimate goal being to give them a confidence boost.

Following that conversation I experimented with using music to prime myself. I now have a pre-webinar playlist that helps lift me up. I’ve been using it for years. I have positive associations with the playlist now; I know that I can listen to it in the hour before a webinar and it will help me be more myself, more confident, more capable.

 

What music would you choose to listen to before your viva?

If five pieces or tracks is too many to think of, how about one? What would your theme tune be for your viva? What would be your intro music? What music could hype you up?

I’m assuming that you’ve done all the necessary work for your PhD and done your viva prep of course! It takes more than a piece of music to get ready, but if listening to music could help you feel better wouldn’t you do it?

What other small things could you do?

 

PS: here’s the music I would most likely pick for myself (YouTube link)

PPS: and here are some past posts from Viva Survivors that are music-related!

Nathan

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Daily Post

Looking back is part of getting ready. You need to review and reflect on what you’ve done, why you did it and how you got here.

Looking ahead is part of getting ready. You need to know what to expect, what examiners look for and consequently think about how you will meet the needs of the viva.

You might need to focus on one more than the other for your personal viva preparations, but you need both in order to be ready for your viva.

Look back. Look ahead. Recognise how you got this far and what you still need to be ready.

Nathan

Unscripted

Daily Post

Your examiners have a plan for your viva.

They’ve prepared well. They have questions and prompts to help them ask good questions and get what they need from the process – but they don’t have a script. They don’t have a set list of twenty questions they’ll be working through. They don’t have a rigid plan that they will follow exactly. Their plan guides but allows them space to respond to what you say and how the discussion develops.

 

You will prepare well for your viva.

You’ll invest time in reading your thesis, making notes, creating summaries and hopefully finding ways to rehearse. You don’t need a script for your viva either. Your examiners are happy for you to refer to your thesis but they don’t want you to read from a script. Your responsibility is to respond in the moment, taking part in the discussion and making sure your examiners get what they need.

 

Everyone should be well-prepared for your viva but no-one should be reading from a script.

Nathan

The Deadline

Daily Post

The viva prep deadline is technically ten minutes before the viva – that’s when you need to be in the room, ready to go!

Of course, you don’t need to do things so close to the deadline. You also don’t need to use all the time available between submission and ten minutes before your viva.

When you submit your thesis, sketch out a plan. What do you need to do? When works well for you? How will you break up the work to remove stress and give yourself space to think and rest?

What’s the better deadline to be ready that you can set for yourself?

Nathan

Three Prompts

Daily Post

Take ten minutes to complete the following sentences. Write them out in full for yourself:

  1. When I started my PhD I didn’t know…
  2. One thing I did that I am proud of…
  3. I am confident that…

Sometimes questions, particularly questions about what we did or how we grew, can allow us to be humble or to evade or to get stuck on how things weren’t quite as we wanted.

Prompts are more direct.

“How did you do this?” gives room for you to talk around things.

“I did this…” is finishing a thought.

The three prompts above encourage reflection on your development, progress and ability. What other prompts might help you dig into your PhD success?

Nathan

Talent, Work and Time

Daily Post

Success at the viva takes talent, work and time.

Talent means that you’re capable. As you get closer to submission and the viva take time to reflect on what you know, what you can do and how you think. Be sure of how you developed.

Work means you applied yourself. Reflect on what you did. Explore the practical elements of your research, the choices you made and the outcomes of your research.

Time means that it didn’t happen overnight. Remember the time to understand the real effort you’ve committed.

A PhD journey is busy. It’s long. It’s easy to forget or be distracted.

As you get closer to your viva date reflect on the talent you’ve built, the work you did and the time it took. Remind yourself that you’re the reason you have come so far.

Nathan

A Spare Day

Daily Post

I’m fortunate enough to feel that today is a bit of a freebie.

It’s the end of the summer break. I have work to do but nothing pressing. Today feels like it could be all mine.

…well, if I wasn’t a parent and a small business owner. Alas, I do have things I have to do!

 

When you’re working towards your viva there is a lot you HAVE to do.

If you don’t, you’re leaving yourself open to the possibility of not being ready for your viva, stress and a lack of confidence.

Even so, find a spare day or two when you can rest and relax.

Maybe today! Maybe some time soon.

Viva prep requires reading, review and rehearsal. Don’t forget to rest.

Nathan

One Sentence Per Page

Daily Post

One purpose of annotation is to make a more useful version of your thesis for the viva. Another purpose is to engage again with your thesis and think more about what’s in there and what it means.

One helpful annotation you could make is to add one sentence to the top of each page: read, think and then add one sentence to the top of each page that summarises what’s below. One sentence, maybe ten words or less to briefly describe what else is on the page.

This fulfils the point of engaging with your thesis and thinking carefully about it – and creates a more useful version of your thesis for the viva, complete with a commentary track about everything you’ve presented.

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