Easy Modes

My daughter and I laugh sometimes about how willing I am to lower the difficulty down to easy mode on video games. I’m happy to be challenged by what I play but also like having lots of different game experiences. I don’t want to be stuck on a boss for fifteen attempts!

Easy mode means I get to play a lot and I still have to play the games to complete them, easy mode doesn’t skip the play.

Anyway, defensiveness about my declining video game skills aside, there’s no difficulty slider for the viva. You can’t turn the questions down to easy or tweak your examiners’ stats. You can’t make the viva easy but you can:

• Know what to expect;
• Be prepared;
• And build confidence.

And that’s it actually: you don’t need anything else.

You’ve done the work prior to submission and you can do a little more after your thesis is finished to be ready for the epic challenge of your viva.

You can’t make it easy and you don’t need to. You can be ready instead.