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Month: March 2026

Nathan

The Ideals

Daily Post

What’s the ideal time for you to do viva prep?

Who are your ideal examiners?

What’s the ideal date and time for your viva?

What would be your ideal opening question?

These questions and others can be interesting to reflect on but take care. Thinking about ideal situations, questions and people bring together needs and preferences under one grouping and they are quite different.

  • You could prefer Dr A over Professor B for your external examiner but you won’t need one or the other.
  • You might need a specific date or location for your viva due to your circumstances.
  • You might prefer your examiners to ask about a specific topic to start the viva but you need to understand that they’ll follow their experience and plans.
  • You could need certain requirements to help you have a fair and accessible viva – it’s not what you prefer but what you must have.

When you recognise a need or preference you might have work to do. If the ideal examiner will help you feel better then you can communicate that to your supervisors and see who they ultimately select. If they’re not available then you have to work to feel better about whoever is appointed.

If the ideal viva situation means you can have a fair viva then you need to make sure that the right people know about your needs. Who do you contact? What do you do?

 

PS: I’ll be talking about all of these topics and more at my live 3-hour Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026. You’ll also get four-week access to a recording of the session and follow-up materials too. There’s more information at the link but please get in touch if you have any questions or want to know more. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Viva Survivor, March 25th 2026

Event, Update

Let’s keep this reminder short and simple:

  • I’m running my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026.
  • Registration is open for this three-hour live webinar. If you sign-up you will also have access to a catch-up recording for four weeks after the session and receive follow-up materials including several of my publications.
  • Viva Survivor is my original session and I’ve delivered it to more than 8300 PhD candidates in the last 15 years at universities and programmes all over the UK.
  • In that time and in over 425 sessions I’ve been continuously developing Viva Survivor to be as helpful as possible to PGRs.

There’s a lot more information at the link about what to expect from the webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026. 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.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Nathan

That Next Step

Daily Post

Whether you prepare for your viva in a series of twenty minute tasks or use three-hour blocks of activity, do yourself a favour: finish your prep time by making a note of the thing you’ll do next.

PhD candidates often find themselves getting ready by working around all of the other things in their life. This can mean prep time is work when they’re already tired and not in the mood to do more work. A note made ahead of time can remove friction, take away one more decision and give direction when someone needs it.

  • Read Chapter 3.
  • Make a list of key references.
  • Suggest mock viva dates.

When you plan ahead even a little you free up space to work well. Do yourself a favour and decide in advance what your next step will be when you finish a piece of viva prep.

Nathan

Talking In A Furnace

Daily Post

I read my thesis. Made notes. Talked with my supervisor. Read papers. Got ready.

And never once thought about the actual space I would have my viva in.

My viva was in early June 2008, first thing in the morning in a top floor seminar room that got full sun from dawn through to the early afternoon.

During the first heatwave of the year.

It was hot when we began. It got hotter as we went on. And my viva, with a short break, ended up being four hours. It was an exhausting situation by the end. The room was incredibly stifling and uncomfortable. We made it through, I passed – and thankfully didn’t pass out due to the heat!

 

All of which is presented as a dramatic encouragement to check your viva space out in advance and think about your comfort for the day.

Most in-person vivas take place in fairly anonymous seminar rooms at your university but you’ll always know the date, time and location in advance. You can check out the space, think about your needs and the situation for your viva.

Then act accordingly – because if it’s going to be a hot day you’re going to need to take that into account!

Nathan

Maybe

Daily Post

It always helps to pause when you’re asked a question at your viva; take some time to think, consider, get your thoughts in order (and make notes, check your thesis and so on) before you respond.

You could do all of that and still, in that moment, think, “Well, maybe…” Taking everything into account, you might not know something or might not be sure.

That’s OK. The viva is not about demonstrating perfection or total knowledge: it’s about showing what you did, why you did it and how you can do things well. If you listen carefully, think carefully and your careful response to one particular questions begins with “Maybe…” then you’re doing fine.

You don’t need to know everything. You don’t need to have thought of everything beforehand.

 

PS: Looking for help with the viva discussion and expectations? Then check out my live 3-hour Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026 where I’ll talk about these topics and a lot more. You’ll get four-week access to a recording of the session and follow-up materials too. There’s more information at the link but please get in touch if you have any questions or want to know more. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

What Will You Wear?

Daily Post

Enclothed cognition is the idea, simply, that what you wear has an impact on how you feel and behave. So you could feel more confident, more capable and more right for a situation depending on what you wear.

Instinctively it feels like a sound idea to me. Leaving aside safety clothing that would be necessary for some situations, it seems clear that people can influence their feelings of capability by dressing “smarter” or “cooler”. Someone might feel more like they fit in with a group or feel like they belong.

Assuming the theory is true what would you wear for your viva? How do you want to feel? What might help you to feel that way? You don’t need to be smart for your examiners’ expectations but dressing more smartly might help steer your own confidence and capability. Or you might decide on something a little different to help you feel good for those few hours.

How do you want to feel? What might you then need?

 

(big thanks to my friend Piero Vitelli who I’m pretty certain is the person who shared the term enclothed cognition with me!)

Nathan

Share Your Experiences

Daily Post

Tell other people about your PhD journey.

Tell people working towards a similar submission date to you to share stories, advice and ideas. Tell those with further to go so that they get a sense of what the journey is like and what they can think ahead and plan for.

Share what it’s like to write up your thesis, what worked for you and what didn’t.

Share your prep plans and how they worked (or didn’t!).

Afterwards, tell others about your viva experience to help them have good expectations for their viva.

And let them know what it was like to complete corrections and the end of the PhD process.

Share your experiences with others so that they can know they’re not alone. Their research and thesis might be unique but they are not the first to do a PhD or have a viva.

Nathan

People Like Us

Daily Post

Seth Godin defines culture as “people like us do things like this.”

This relates to the viva in lots of ways.

Some academic culture comes from rules. The regulations describe how things must be done in a formal way. General viva experiences follow stories: past experiences are shared, become embedded and then show up as general expectations. Examiners and candidates do things in a certain way because past examiners and candidates have done it before.

More particular viva experiences can become an expectation too. The culture in a department could lead to presentations as viva starters, a particular opening question, a way of communicating results or even celebrating success.

“People like us do things like this.” It’s important to figure out the things that people do – and remind yourself that you’re included in that definition. People like YOU do things like this – including succeed at your viva.

Nathan

A Reason To Clockwatch

Daily Post

Standard Viva Advice Number 62: don’t check the time during the viva because doing so will only be a distraction.

A clear exception is to do this because you need to: maybe you need to take breaks for specific medical reasons or to help you have a fair viva process.

That would be a good reason to keep an eye on the time. If you’re concerned about losing focus by clockwatching then perhaps make sure your examiners know about your need and ask them to be responsible for encouraging those breaks.

More broadly: there’s a lot of really good, well-meaning and often-helpful viva advice that might not apply to you. Listen to advice, take what you need and find your own way to get ready and pass your viva.

Nathan

Your Objectives

Daily Post

Why did you start your PhD? What was your objective when you began?

As you continued through the years how did your work develop? Did your objectives change?

And as you reach the conclusion how do you feel you’ve reached your objectives? What are your objectives for the future?

Some of the questions above might be in the background of your viva. Some are probably not typical of discussions but all are worth reflecting on as you prepare.

What you were doing, why you were doing it and how things changed over time are all worth considering before your viva.

 

PS: Want more reflective viva help? Then check out my live 3-hour Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026 where I’ll share more reflective thoughts and a lot more. You’ll also get four-week access to a recording of the session and follow-up materials too. There’s information at the link but please get in touch if you have questions or want to know more. Thanks for reading!

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