Five 1-Page Summaries

A summary is a helpful tool to use as part of viva prep. Think of one as a little project for gathering your thoughts ahead of the viva.

Summaries come in all sorts of shapes and sizes; they can bend to meet your needs and preferences. I’ve described a lot of summary ideas on the blog before – and shared a whole zine of ideas last year about how they help someone focus ahead of their viva!

Here are five 1-page summary ideas you could use to help yourself get ready for your viva.

1. Give yourself an hour to write a list of the ten most helpful references in your bibliography. Write a sentence for each about how they helped your research.
2. Take ten minutes to list as many keywords as you can think of that are related to your research. After a day take another ten minutes to draw lines between connected keywords and ideas.
3. Invest thirty minutes in sketching out prep ideas. Capture any tasks or requirements for your preparation.
4. Divide the page into three equal parts and write the following questions, one in each space: Why did I do this research? How did I do it? What is the result? Spend ten or twenty minutes writing notes and thoughts down for each question.
5. Split the page in two. Take five minutes and on the lefthand side note down any questions, problems or concerns you have about your viva. On the righthand side, working down your list, write at least one practical step you could do to help with the item on the lefthand list.

What else could you do with a single page to help your prep?