Daily viva help for PhDs
How many challenges have you overcome?
The viva is one more.
It’s not trivial. It’s not easy.
It’s one more.
It’s not the biggest challenge. It’s not the hardest challenge.
It’s one more.
Prepare for your viva when the time comes and remember: you can only have got this far by overcoming difficult challenges. You can do this too.
There have been many times in the last six months I’ve thought “I’ve finished!” when I’ve been working on an issue of Viva Survivors Select. I’ll be sure I’m done and then remember, oh wait:
I’m getting better at mapping out all the stages so I don’t get ahead of myself. While doing so I’m reminded that this is not so different from the closing stages of a PhD journey. There’s a lot of steps you need to check off so that you can finish your PhD.
The viva is set up as the end of the PhD, but there are lots of steps to finishing before you’re really, truly done. Don’t lost sight of the end. Don’t forget that you will get there one day.
PS: and one more step might be to check out The Expectations Issue, the latest issue of Viva Survivors Select, newly out this last week!
Pause when your examiners ask a question or make a comment.
Use the time to think and get your thoughts in order.
Remember that you might not have an answer but you can always respond.
And also remember that pause, think and respond has a tempo that you can use for every question, not just the tough ones.
PS: want to find out more of what to expect at the viva? Then check out the latest issue of Viva Survivors Select, The Expectations Issue. Twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive plus two new pages of viva help exploring what the viva is like.
A cup of coffee. Your favourite socks. A smart suit. A playlist of great music. A hug.
Well wishes and good luck. Prayer. A stack of notes. A well-edited thesis. A lot of chats with your supervisors.
A placebo. A ritual. A priming thought. A small stuffed toy. A tiny paperweight.
Within reason, do whatever works to help you be ready for your viva. Practical preparations matter, but there’s a space for anything and everything that helps you feel better, happier and more confident that you can rise to the challenges of your viva.
Do what you need to so that you can feel sure it will all be OK.
PS: one thing that will definitely help how you feel about your viva is finding out what to expect. There are a lot of sources of helpful information – including The Expectations Issue, the latest curated collection of Viva Survivors help! Check out the link for more details.
I worked hard for my PhD and spent a long time writing my thesis. I dove head first into the waters of viva preparation when I submitted and probably spent more time than I needed to get ready. I asked my supervisor for advice on how to explain my work and the interests of my external examiner-
-and never once asked what vivas were like. I had lots of friends who had had vivas by that point. I didn’t ask them either. It felt like an unwritten rule: the viva is an event that you have to just face it as it comes. Don’t ask, don’t tell.
Of course, after my viva – and particularly when I started working in this area – I found out that every PhD graduate seemed to have a similar story. They hadn’t known quite what to expect beyond “it’ll be OK” and then had been OK. Everyone’s viva story was different but the more people I asked the more I saw that there really were patterns of experience – information that future candidates could helpfully use as they got ready.
All of which is to say I’ve spent a long time learning about and sharing viva expectations and that’s what this month’s Viva Survivors Select is all about.
The Expectations Issue contains twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive digging into what vivas are really like. What can you expect? What are these patterns of experience? How do you find out more and what do you do with the information when you have it? As with previous issues of Viva Survivors Select there are two new pages of help as well: a breakdown of what to expect from a video viva and a helpful little game to encourage calm reflection ahead of the viva.
Viva Survivors Select 06 is out now for £3 and joins five other issues in this ongoing project of monthly viva help. 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 Expectations Issue.
The seventh and eighth issues will be released in the next two months, rounding out this first volume of the zine. 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
The most important thing you can remember about the start of your PhD journey is that you are a long, long way from it.
This is more important than remembering your first meeting, the first paper you read or even why you wanted to pursue a PhD!
You have done more. You know more. You can do more.
You are more knowledgable, more capable and far better at what you do.
Remember that whatever else has happened in your PhD you have come a long way. You have not got this far through luck. You got here because you are good at what you do. You can build on that foundation to be ready for your viva.
Everyone involved with your viva will have opinions.
There’s a lot of truth and certainty by the time you have finished your thesis but you could have plenty of unanswered questions too. Plenty of space for doubt. Plenty of space for wondering. Plenty of space for believing but not knowing for sure.
You will have opinions about some things. Your examiners will too. It’s possible that your opinions will collide or oppose. That’s not as big a problem as you might believe.
Whether you have to defend your view or unpick your examiner’s, start with why. If you need to convince with your opinion ask yourself why you think it is true to motivate your response. If you aren’t sure of your examiner’s point then ask yourself why or ask them why.
Once you know why someone holds their opinion you can understand more. You can figure out what you actually agree with and what you don’t. You can see the root of the problem or understand how to find common ground.
When defending or exploring opinions, start with why.
(this works very well outside of vivas too!)
You have to talk at your viva.
Your examiners prepare with your thesis, assemble a plan for what they think needs to be talked about and arrive ready to facilitate a series of conversations.
The viva isn’t an interview or a question and answer session. Your examiners’ plan is to help guide them and prompt you. They steer the conversations to explore everything that needs to be talked about.
So: if you can expect your viva to be a series of conversations then you can prepare for it by having a series of conversations before then. You need to read your thesis and you need to make notes but that won’t be enough to be ready to talk.
You could organise a mock viva with your supervisor. You could give a seminar and take questions. You could go for coffee with friends and get them to prompt you with interesting and relevant questions. None of these will be exactly like your viva but they could be exactly what you need to help you be ready to talk.
The viva is a series of conversations. It’s clear what you need to do to get ready for it.
For your viva you need:
These are the absolute essentials that every PhD candidate needs to have with them.
After the essentials there are lots of other things that might be a good idea:
These are extras: useful for some people and not appropriate or needed for others. You’ll need to check the regulations, check with your supervisors and decide for yourself perhaps if you really need them.
An item on the list above might not be what you expect – or one item could be exactly what you need.
For some people these really might be considered extras after a thesis, notebook and a water bottle, just something else helpful to have with you.
For some candidates one of the “extras” could be essential to a good viva.
What do you need? What’s an extra and what is absolutely essential for you?
PS: you might need a little more support to help you get ready and feel ready. If that thought resonates then please check out my upcoming 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva live webinars. They’re running on Wednesday 24th September and Thursday 30th October and you can find more details of what you’ll find via the link. If you use code DAILYBLOGFAN before midnight tonight then you get a special discount too.
Survive can be defined as manage to keep going in difficult circumstances.
So we can understand surviving the viva as managing to keep going in the difficult circumstances of the viva.
And even more particularly we can understand surviving your viva as managing to keep going in the difficult circumstances of your viva.
There are challenges in every viva that make them difficult. There are parts of the process that could be uniquely difficult for a candidate. You prepare for the viva in part so that you manage to keep going, continuing on the journey that you’ve been on for a long time, but you also have to think about what makes the viva difficult for you.
Every candidate probably faces some difficult circumstances at the viva because of the nature of their work and particular situation. Some candidates face difficult circumstances because of how they feel, what they might need for the viva to be fair for them and personal situations that make the viva a greater challenge than it might be for others.
Surviving the viva doesn’t mean overcoming terrible situations. Surviving the viva means continuing to show up as your best self doing your best work. It means facing the situation and making sure in advance that it is as fair as it can be for you.
Manage, not struggle. Difficult circumstances rather than almost-impossible situations.
And keep going – because this isn’t the first time you’ve been challenged.
PS: you can learn more about the challenge and why you’ll survive at my upcoming 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva live webinars. I’m running the session on Wednesday 24th September and Thursday 30th October: come to find out why people succeed at the viva and why you will too! There are more details via the link and use code DAILYBLOGFAN before midnight tomorrow to get a special discount.