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Year: 2025

Nathan

The Same

Daily Post

It’s interesting to consider what you would do differently if you had your PhD time again.

Perhaps with the benefit of hindsight you would take a different approach, explore another topic or organise your work differently. In some cases it might not even be a case of thinking that things would be better: perhaps you can simply see that there are other options or opportunities.

What would you keep the same?

This is perhaps an even more interesting provocation: with experience, understanding and hindsight, what would you keep the same about your PhD?

Ahead of your viva consider what you wouldn’t change. Maybe your topic, approach and effort. Maybe your working process.

Surely your determination. One reason that you got as far as you have is that you managed to keep going, whatever challenges came to you along the way.

 

PS: if you’re looking for help getting ready for your viva then check out details of my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025. This is my standout, comprehensive session on getting ready and there’s full details at the link about what to expect. Also, if you use code VIVASURVIVORS before midnight on Sunday 5th October 2025 you can save £10 on registration!

Nathan

Viva Survivor Webinar, December 3rd 2025

Update

Let’s keep this announcement short and simple:

  • I’m running my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025.
  • Registration is open now for this three-hour live webinar and participants will have access to a four-week catch-up recording and other follow-up materials.
  • Viva Survivor has been delivered for the last 15 years to more than 8000 PhD candidates at universities and programmes all over the UK.
  • In that time and in over 400 sessions I’ve been continuously developing Viva Survivor to be as helpful as possible to PGRs.
  • You can register now and use code VIVASURVIVORS until midnight on Sunday 5th October 2025 to save £10 on registration.

There’s a lot more information at the link about the webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025 and if you have any questions please get in touch. Viva Survivor is one of my favourite things to do and I’m really looking forward to this session, my only remaining independent Viva Survivor of 2025.

Please take a look if you’re interested and don’t forget that the code VIVASURVIVORS will save £10 on your ticket if you register before midnight on Sunday 5th October 2025.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Nathan

What’s Your Problem?

Daily Post

Whenever something viva-related is tricky, confusing or makes you feel negative, your first step is to figure out what the problem is.

What makes this hard? What don’t you understand? Why are you feeling this way?

Once you know what the problem is you can start to do something about it. You could work to make the tricky more simple, the confusing more clear or act to change how you’re feeling. You can ask others to help and even if the problem is big you can take a small step in the right direction.

The work ahead might not be easy, but it’s easier than just trying to cope with stress at your viva. Once you can explain the nature of the problem clearly then you can start to do something about it.

 

(of course, this kind of thinking applies outside of the viva too!)

Nathan

Keeping Tabs

Daily Post

What can you do with sticky notes and highlighter tabs as part of viva prep?

  • Plan out your tasks!
  • Mark out chapters!
  • Point to typos!
  • Highlight key references!
  • Draw attention to important paragraphs!
  • Add notes!
  • Mark out key sections!
  • Colour code information!
  • Leave encouragements for yourself!

This is scratching the surface of course. There’s a lot you can do with very basic stationery to help make your thesis much more valuable as a resource for the viva.

Think about your needs. Keep it simple but get the most from your thesis and do what you can to build yourself up.

Nathan

A Reflection

Daily Post

To reflect a little ahead of your viva, take a sheet of paper and divide it into four parts. Respond to each of the following questions with a few sentences.

  1. What was the starting point for your most significant work?
  2. What were the three most useful papers you read?
  3. What words come to mind when you think of your PhD challenges?
  4. What was the most helpful skill or understanding that you developed?

You can always build on any of these thoughts by reflecting on your responses and asking why.

A reflection or a summary is a chance to think ahead. What other useful questions can you think of to explore topics and that will help you at your viva?

Nathan

Top & Bottom

Daily Post

Header and footer margins are fairly big in a formatted thesis. Plenty of space for you to add useful notes.

At the top of a page you might:

  • Write a short sentence about the page contents;
  • Have a keyword;
  • Highlight a particular place on the page;
  • Leave an encouraging note;
  • Write a reminder.

At the bottom of a page you might:

  • Add a remark about a key reference;
  • Summarise any corrections you expect;
  • Note any particular points you expect questions on;
  • Leave another encouraging note;
  • Write another reminder!

There’s a lot of space at the top and bottom of every page in your thesis. Plenty of space for you to add useful notes – but you have to decide what will be most helpful for you.

Nathan

The Default

Daily Post

Two examiners and a candidate in a fairly anonymous university room. A facilitated discussion that takes place over two or three hours with one or two breaks. It begins with a big opening question and concludes with a short intermission while examiners check they’ve covered everything.

The above is one way to describe the default viva experience and yet every week I’d bet there is a viva taking place somewhere in the UK where:

  • The candidate needs to have three examiners;
  • The viva is finished in an hour;
  • Examiners ask in advance for a presentation to kick things off;
  • The candidate needs to bring resources with them like a screen, a prototype or something to demonstrate;
  • The viva happens over Zoom.

Of course, video vivas are much more common now than six years ago, but they aren’t thought of as part of the default option.

The default might give a sense of what your viva will be like – or what vivas are supposed to be like – but your viva will be unique.

Your research is unique. Your thesis is unique. You and your circumstances are unique.

There are regulations and expectations and a sense of what your viva will be like. There’s an idea of a default viva, but the reality of your viva. Any differences you perceive or need for your viva do not make for a situation to automatically worry about.

Nathan

Other Vivas

Daily Post

Every viva is unique. All vivas follow patterns.

Some vivas follow patterns more closely than others.

A friend’s viva experience can give you a hint of what to expect but not the whole story.

Reading about someone’s feelings might help you to process your own, but only in part.

Listening to a podcast can give you some great tips but you still won’t know what you’ll be asked until you’re there with your examiners.

 

Knowing about other vivas is helpful.

Stories, experiences and regulations can feed into the pattern of expectations to help you prepare.

As ready as you can be, you won’t know the whole story until you have your viva.

 

PS: for more thoughts on how to resolve the tension between viva expectations and the fact that every viva is unique please take a look at The Expectations Issue of Viva Survivors Select, my latest curated collection of Viva Survivors posts and new viva help.

Nathan

Choosing Mistakes

Daily Post

It’s likely there will be mistakes of some kind in your thesis.

Writing is hard. Proofreading is hard. Add to that hundreds of references and three or more years of research and it overwhelmingly likely that there are mistakes in your thesis.

It’s not your fault but you are responsible. Your examiners will most likely ask you to correct mistakes as a condition for you passing your viva and achieving your PhD. When they ask for this what they’re really doing is giving you an opportunity: would you like to make the best possible version of your thesis given the circumstances?

Given that you have spent years of work, a long time writing and a very long time thinking, here’s just a short time to make a final version. Finished, for good.

No-one wants mistakes or to have to correct them.

Which is better though: hoping and hoping for the small chance that you have no mistakes or trying your best and accepting that you’ll have some to amend?

Make your choice.

Nathan

Your Expectations

Daily Post

What do you expect of yourself at your viva?

Viva expectations are often discussed in terms of length and first questions, format and examiner tone – but what do you expect from yourself? What should others expect of you?

  • A good thesis?
  • A capable candidate?
  • Lots of knowledge?
  • A little nervousness?
  • An understanding of the process?
  • At least a little confidence?

Together, you and your examiners can all reasonably expect that you’ll succeed at your viva.

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