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Year: 2026

Nathan

Viva Survivors Select 13

Update

Cover for Viva Survivors Select 13, The Personal Issue by Nathan Ryder. Background shows a poster featuring the stylised game piece figure of the series.

It’s release day for The Personal Issue, the latest issue of Viva Survivors Select!

You can find The Personal Issue on my Payhip store now. It felt important to take an issue to look at how personal the viva is to every candidate. Each PhD candidate is an individual: they have a unique research contribution, different circumstances, different preferences and needs. While they might have a lot in common with each other it’s helpful to think about how personal the viva can get. Hence this issue!

The Personal Issue contains twenty curated posts from the Viva Survivors archive and I’ve also created two original pages of viva help. In the first I explore the options for what you could wear to your viva and why that might matter more than you think. I also share a new reflective exercise for thinking about what you’re most proud of from your PhD journey (spoilers: it’s another confidence-building activity).

And, as with the other issues in this volume, I’ve created all of the art for this issue! Making the art for this year’s issues has been a lovely challenge for me. I hope you find it fun to look at too.

Viva Survivors Select 13, The Personal Issue, is out now for £3. If you like the blog, want more help and want to support what I do then please consider buying Viva Survivors Select. If it helps you then please pass on details of The Personal Issue and Viva Survivors Select to anyone you know who is looking for viva help.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan

 

PS: the next collection, The Rehearsal Issue, is due out on Wednesday 16th September 2026!

Nathan

EDQs

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Or Extremely Difficult Questions.

You could make some educated guesses at what these might be for your viva:

  • A question on a topic you struggle to talk about.
  • A question about the bit of your PhD you didn’t like.
  • Something which is all about an examiner’s work.
  • Something completely unexpected.

It might be a surprise in the moment or something you’ve been dreading but an EDQ isn’t the end of the world – or, worse, the end of your viva.

If you’re faced with an EDQ then:

  • Pause and think before you respond – which is good advice for a REQ* as well.
  • Remember you can ask for clarity. Ask your examiners to say more.
  • Remember to take your time. More than simply pausing, remember it’s not a race or a rush.
  • Explore your thesis to help you support what you’re saying.

Remember that every question is an opportunity for you to demonstrate something but you are not expected to know everything. EDQs don’t have to dominate how you engage with your viva or be on your mind as you prepare.

 

* Really Easy Question!

Nathan

Curated Confidence

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Confidence follows from honestly reflecting on your work and achievements. You have to explore and remind yourself that you have done well. To build confidence for your viva you can look back over your PhD and see the effort you’ve invested and the progress you’ve made and hopefully feel good.

It won’t help to hold on to everything though.

You learn from your mistakes and setbacks, but don’t bring those in to the gallery of recollections. Like a curator, pick and choose which things to focus on. You can find confidence by focussing on what has helped you the most or the work where you notice the most growth.

You don’t need to try to remember everything to find confidence for your viva. Explore your PhD journey, then arrange a gallery of the best bits. Curate your confidence for your viva.

Nathan

Non-PhD Vivas

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A PhD isn’t the only research degree that has a viva.

The vast majority of PGRs I meet at webinars are PhD candidates but in the last six months I’ve also shared viva help with MPhil candidates, MScR candidates – and a couple of MRes researchers too.

Over the years I’ve also had professional doctorate candidates reach out to me, EngD researchers and more. There are many flavours of PGR that have a viva!

 

A natural question for non-PhD PGRs is “how will my viva be different?”

Let’s start with how they’re the same:

  • Vivas for research degrees have the same purpose. Your examiners are exploring the contribution you’ve made and how capable you are as a researcher.
  • Vivas for research degrees require the same kind of preparation. You need to take time to read, to think and to rehearse – and you need a plan that works well for you.
  • Vivas for research degrees follow regulations. There are ways of doing things and you can learn all about it in advance.
  • Vivas for research degrees always have a little of the unknown about them. There are expectations but you can’t know everything until you’re in your viva.

To explore the differences it’s good to start with regulations for your university. See what they say about your institutional expectations and requirements. Then talk with other people who have been in your situation to get a sense of what that was like.

Viva prep is the same kind of work whether you have done a PhD or, say, an MPhil. You’ll probably do less prep work for an MPhil viva because there is typically less material to read and prepare for. The kind of work is the same and the importance is the same but it might not take as long. The same could be true for your viva too.

 

Whatever your research degree, know that your examiners are prepared. Know that the purpose is the same. Know that you can be prepared and remember that you did the work.

It helps to explore expectations for your viva, whatever your degree, but it helps more to know that you are ready for it whatever happens.

Nathan

Stop The Research!

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At some point you have to say no more.

You’ve got what you’ve got. You need to write it up in your thesis in a way that makes sense for your examiners and others.

You have to believe that it’s enough.

You have to stop at some point but make sure that when you do you leave things in a good place. Make notes in case there’s anything you have to come back to or you want to return to at some point.

At some point you have to stop the research. Make sure you stop well.

Nathan

Begin Again

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If you could start your PhD over would you?

  • If you could start over, what would you keep the same?
  • What would you change?
  • What other options would you consider?
  • What kind of an impact would changes make?
  • And how much of what you would change – or keep the same – are you only able to see with hindsight?

You can’t begin again – but considering this kind of thought exercise can be helpful to unpack your experience, your growth and the development of your research before your viva.

Nathan

In The Mix

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I often ask webinar participants how they’re feeling about their viva. I use a poll which allows people to pick one option or write in how they’re feeling.

  • Some say they’re excited. They’re quite rare!
  • A lot of people say they feel uncertain or unprepared.
  • The majority of people say they feel nervous, anxious or worried about their viva – and most of those people say nervous.
  • Also: nervous is really common whether someone is days, weeks or months away from their viva.

I’ve been thinking lately that I need to update the poll to allow people to give more than one response. Candidates can feel a mix of things all at once: they feel excited and nervous. They might feel like they’re unprepared right now but confident they’ll be OK in the end.

What’s your mix of emotions like? If you feel a little negative then maybe you have to consider how to change that state. If you feel something positive then think about how to hold on to it and maybe build on it. And if you are feeling a mix then think about how the positive can offset the negative.

What steps could help you to feel better about your mix of viva feelings?

Nathan

Problems & Situations

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This is another post inspired by Seth Godin. He’s inspired me a lot over the years; it was his example of publishing a daily blog that encouraged me to do the same with Viva Survivors.

 

If you have a Problem then you can find a Solution. A Problem is a thing that can be resolved in some way. There might already be a Solution or several of them. It might be that you have to find a Solution.

However you come to it, a Problem has a Solution.

If there’s no Solution then you have a Situation: that doesn’t make it less real but rather than resolve it like a Problem you have to find a way to endure it. Otherwise you’ll just obsess and stress.

 

A viva-related Problem is something like your supervisor not being available to give you a mock viva. That’s a Problem: you could maybe arrange it at a different time, you could ask your second supervisor instead or you could have some other kind of practice. There are Solutions.

A viva-related Situation could be not having your first choice for your external examiner. That’s not a Problem because you can’t change it. It’s a Situation and you have to find a way to feel better about it. You could talk more with your supervisor, read up on your external examiner or maybe do some special prep – it won’t solve things but you’ll be better for your efforts.

There are lots of viva-related feelings and circumstances that give rise to Problems and Situations. Whatever the circumstances make sure you correctly identify what you’re dealing with and then work towards resolving it however you can.

Whether you have a viva-related Problem or a viva-related Situation you have work to do.

Nathan

If You Must Know

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There are lots of tools and processes you can use to help your memory at the viva:

  • You can add bookmarks or sticky notes to your thesis;
  • You can annotate the margins;
  • You can create summaries to help you think ahead of time;
  • You can read your thesis beforehand to refresh your memory;
  • You can read your thesis in the viva to check details;
  • You can rehearse for your viva to give you more confidence.

There are many practical things you can do to help your memory – but don’t forget that you don’t need to remember everything. The viva is not a test of photographic recall of thousands of hours of work, hundreds of papers and the many, many pages of your thesis.

You need to know your stuff but you don’t need to know everything. You can take care of small worries with simple viva prep.

Nathan

Range of Responses

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At the viva you’re expected to engage with the discussion that your examiners facilitate. This means giving responses to their questions and comments, where responses are:

  • Answers, which have a degree of certainty;
  • Opinions, which have a degree of uncertainty;
  • Ideas that you might only be unpicking for the first time;
  • Feelings and hunches which can be expressed as such;
  • Questions that ask for more information;
  • Qualified “I don’t know” statements where you explain why you don’t know.

You don’t need to have an answer for everything. You don’t need to know everything. You do need to be prepared to engage with the discussion.

Make sure you take time to rehearse for your viva and be ready for the range of responses you might give.

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