Daily viva help for PhDs
If you work hard at your research then you increase the chance that you get useful outputs for your PhD.
If you write the best thesis you can then it’s more likely it will be read well by someone else (like an examiner!).
If you prepare for your viva then odds are you’ll be better off than if you had done nothing in particular.
And if you do all of these, as most PhD candidates do, then you’re very likely to succeed.
Viva prep helps you to feel ready for the viva.
Learning about expectations helps you to feel ready for the viva.
Exploring who your examiners are (a little) helps you to feel ready for the viva.
Rehearsing the kind of work you will need to do in the viva helps you to feel ready for the viva.
All the various tasks are there to help you towards feeling ready.
But you don’t want to feel ready for your viva: you want to pass your viva.
That’s OK. Preparing will help you to pass, learning expectations will help, exploring your examiners and rehearsing all help you pass.
Except you don’t want to pass: you really want whatever you’re aiming towards after your PhD is complete.
The PhD is a goal, not the goal.
A few thoughts: can you do viva prep in such a way that it benefits your real goal? Can you organise your prep to leave space for working towards your real goal? And viva prep is easily defined, but have you clearly set out what you’re really working towards?
It’s not wrong to reflect on what you might do differently if you started your PhD again.
No thesis is perfect. No PhD journey can be completed without encountering problems or making mistakes. The PhD process is one of learning, so it’s natural to complete it and realise you might do things differently.
Some things could be because you realise a choice was made in error. Or perhaps you know that something went wrong. Maybe now, with the benefit of hindsight and greater knowledge, you know you would take another course of action or understand something with more clarity.
Considering what you would do differently is a great way to remind yourself that you’ve learned more than you knew at the start of the PhD. Don’t think about differences as a way to give yourself more problems and doubts. Reflect and see that your talent, knowledge and skills have grown.
If you think you’re ready for your viva then there’s probably nothing to do but find space to rest and relax. If you’re not sure you’re ready then there’s lots you could try:
If you’re not sure you’re ready then there’s lots you could try – but that doesn’t mean that you have to do lots to get ready. Viva prep is only a small piece of the viva puzzle.
Have you done the work you needed to for your research? Have you written and submitted your thesis? Then you’re almost ready. You’ve done a lot to get this close to PhD success.
Viva prep is a little more that will help.
Whether you feel good or bad as you finish your PhD journey, remember why you did this in the first place. What was your reason for starting a PhD? Why did you want to do it?
Your why can help you renew your efforts if you’re tired or silence doubts when you think you’ve not quite done enough. Your why can motivate and reassure. Your why could have changed over time, so reflect on that too: why did you start a PhD and why did you keep going?
There are lots of possible whys: whatever it is, yours is good enough. Come back to it if you need a boost or a push to get finished.
You’re almost there. Keep going.
There’s always a chance you’re wrong about something. There’s always a possibility your examiners believe you’re wrong. Until they ask they won’t be able to know either way.
Being wrong or being asked something because you might be wrong is not comfortable. It invites all sorts of feelings and worries.
Did you make a mistake in your research? Did you write something up incorrectly? Did you misunderstand? Were you unclear?
Remember:
There’s a chance that you’re wrong in some way but a much greater chance that if you are then you can make it right.
You can do the work. Do the work in your prep to figure out how to correct things. Do the work in the moment in the viva to clear up what you mean. Do the work while you talk to your examiners to explain something. Do the work to correct your thesis after the viva.
You might be wrong, that’s human – as is working to make things right.
You have lots of useful, empty space on the borders of every page in your thesis. In the margins you could:
You can help yourself: you’re the only person who will see these marginalia, so make them really helpful.
In your preparation, take time to consider what will help your thesis be as useful as possible for the viva. Decide on a consistent way to make margin notes as easy to read and understand as possible.
Then do the work. It won’t take long.
Afterwards you’ll have a better thesis for the purposes of the viva. All of the valuable work you’ve done for years plus, in the margins, some helpful notes to help you succeed when you talk with your examiners.
Viva doubts thrive in wondering whether or not you really have made a contribution. Viva doubts prosper in worrying that you’re not quite good enough. Viva doubts linger around stories and what-ifs, concern that things aren’t going to go well or that others’ experiences won’t match your own.
Viva doubts are cleared away by knowledge. Asking questions leads to information that helps remove them from your mind. You can ask your supervisor about your research to gain certainty that you’ve made a contribution. You can ask yourself questions to reflect on your journey and see that you’ve become even better than you were. You can ask friends about their experiences to really see a set of good expectations for your viva.
Ask the right people the right questions and there’s no home for doubts about your viva.
It’s essential to read the regulations for thesis examination at your institution before you submit. They’ll tell you what you need to do and what you need to know. Some of this you’ll have picked up by being around other postgraduate researchers for years, but there can be key points you have missed.
Check for details on timelines. Check for paperwork you need to complete. Check, if needed, what the requirements are for having a viva over video.
Remember that reading the regulations is only a small part of the story. They won’t tell you what questions will come up. They won’t tell you what you need to do to get ready. They won’t tell you what vivas are really like.
So ask your friends and colleagues. Talk with your supervisor. Read blog posts and viva stories to get a sense of what to expect. Explore whether or not there are norms within your department for how vivas take place.
And when your viva is finished and you’ve passed, consider sharing your experience to help shape the expectations of other candidates. They’ll read the regulations too, but will need your story to help guide their expectations, preparation and confidence.
Around 2013 I invented a series of prompts to help a candidate reflect on their thesis.
Through not-so-subtle phrasing I got these keywords to spell out VIVA. The tool is used to explore the contents of a thesis chapter. All of these reflections combined then create a useful summary of the thesis.
The four prompts (and associated questions) are:
I shared VIVA for years in seminars. Switching to webinars I couldn’t find the right way to share this tool in a session. I’ve felt sad about this for a year now. There are other tools, but this one really speaks to me. I’ve done some reflecting on why this is the case:
I would encourage every candidate to spend a little time in advance of their viva using VIVA to reflect on and analyse their thesis.
Every chapter of your thesis has something valuable in it. Everything you’ve done springs from something you found interesting. Find what’s vague so you can make it clearer in your thoughts for the viva. Consider what you might ask your examiners – and thus how you’ll play your part in the viva.