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Author: Nathan

Nathan

Over

Daily Post

When your viva is finished, after the celebrations and congratulations, when you can breathe, take a few minutes to reflect:

  • How did I succeed?
  • What can I build on?
  • What can I do now?

Your PhD might be over, more or less, but there’s still a way for you to go. So reflect, take time to explore how you got where you are, what you can do and what you could do.

When you finish a PhD you are necessarily talented: there’s no other way you could get this far by being lucky.

This chapter of the story is over. What’s next?

Nathan

Examiners Want To Be There

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Why else are these busy academics at your viva?

They have their own research, their own researchers, teaching, marking, admin, responsibilities and a life.

They’re not paid vast sums of money to be an examiner. They’re not simply a friend of your supervisor doing a favour.

It might be expected professionally to take on the role of examiner sometimes; they don’t have to do it for you and your viva.

They don’t have to be there. They get to be there.

They want to be there.

Nathan

STAR For A Star

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Sometimes stars can’t be seen. Over the vastness of space, things get in the way or distort the light. Instead the stellar body has to be inferred, the location and details figured out. It’s there, but unseen, sensed only indirectly.

The talents and confidence of a PhD candidate can be hidden in the same way.

Skill, ability, knowledge and achievement – the roots of confidence – can be masked by worry over a thesis contribution, fears about what examiners might ask or questions of what a viva might be like.

Sometimes there’s just doubt: is it enough? Am I enough?

There’s no quick fix to remove all of these kinds of worries, but you can take steps if you’re feeling them. One step might be to use the storytelling tool STAR. I’ve shared several posts about this valuable idea before.

STAR is a simple way to reflect on a time when you’ve done something well. Each letter prompts the next part of a story and allows someone to honestly realise that they are good:

  • Situation: Find a situation or project that was challenging. How did it stretch you?
  • Task: Detail what exactly you had to accomplish. What were the specifics?
  • Actions: Lay out the sequence of steps you followed. How did you try to solve the problem?
  • Results: Clearly state the outcome. What happened in the end?

Telling yourself stories about your success helps to remind you that you did it. You have talent.

Invest time before your viva looking back over your PhD. Find situations where you made things happen. Tell stories that shine, and show that you are a star.

Nathan

Enough Stuff

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The simplest definition of what you need to pass the viva: enough stuff.

Enough of a thesis. Enough results or findings to write up. Enough data. Enough work.

Enough papers read. Enough knowledge in your brain. Enough talent built up through your work.

Enough confidence to stand up to any nerves. Enough self-belief to know you have enough.

There will always be more you could do, more you could learn, more you could write, more you could do to prepare. But you don’t need more. You just need enough.

If you have any doubts then ask others for help. Ask your supervisor what you need. Learn about viva expectations. Take time to get ready.

When the time comes you will realise that you have enough of everything you need to succeed.

You probably had it for a long time.

Nathan

Part-time Prep

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Generally speaking, a candidate doesn’t need to take time off in order to get ready. If you have any typical responsibilities – a job, family, friends, caring responsibilities or your own needs – then viva prep can fit around everything you need to do.

If you feel pressured because you work full-time and have a life as well, then the only thing you need to do to get ready is plan and possibly start early. You don’t need to cram lots of things in your diary. A little organisation will help.

  • How could you find thirty minutes to an hour most days for viva prep?
  • If you can’t commit to most days, when could you make the time?
  • Would starting a month before the viva give you time to spread out the work you need to do?
  • Would that create a space with as little stress as possible to do what you need?

Prep is part-time. By submission there’s only a small amount of work needed to be done. If you have a full-time life there is still plenty of space for prep. A little planning and organisation helps make it less stressful.

Nathan

Lucky

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There’s no luck with the viva. No trick or superstition to rely on for success. Instead, it’s all on you.

What you did, what you know, what you can do.

None of that is due to luck either. There could be good fortune – when hard work pays off – and you achieve something that was uncertain, but there’s no simple luck.

There’s nothing that just gets you through – and nothing that simply, randomly, unluckily stops you.

You worked for your success. That work continues to help you through the viva.

Nathan

What Would You Change?

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It’s possible that your examiners would ask about changes to your research. Not what you could, would or might do to make things “better”, simply given your experience, what would you change?

It’s not a trick or a trap. The question is another way of exploring “what have you learned from the process of doing research?” They’re asking you to demonstrate how far you’ve come, not to showcase what is wrong with your work.

Reflecting on changes could be helpful in your preparation. It can help to make you more certain of what you did. You can be more confident of what you have learned. And before you meet your examiners in the viva it can help you to realise just how far you have come.

Nathan

The Possibility of Disruption

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Most of the time viva prep goes well. Most of the time nothing goes wrong in the viva. Despite concerns, most video vivas have no real problems.

But there’s always a chance that something could happen. Not unexpected, just unlikely, and definitely unwelcome.

  • A last-minute crisis leaves you less time to get ready.
  • A delay on your viva day means someone is running late.
  • A glitch means you can’t see your examiner or they can’t see you.

There’s a chance something could go wrong; whatever that might be you can work to make it better.

And sometimes it’s worth planning just in case the unlikely happens.

  • Sketch a plan for your prep so there’s space for last-minute crises.
  • On viva day, be organised so there’s much less chance you’re late.
  • Practise with your equipment and check your wi-fi so you can be confident it will all work – and arrange a backup plan!

There’s a possibility of disruption to your best laid plans around your viva. But you can do something about it. Either by planning ahead of time or acting when the moment comes, you can make sure your viva is the best it can be.

If something goes a little wrong, pause – be shocked, frustrated, cross – then think “what can I do?”

Nathan

The Outtakes

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I’m curious about outtakes in movies – the scenes that didn’t make it in or alternate versions of scenes that did.

Sometimes outtakes are shown as bloopers: the moments when things went wrong or when someone laughed. It’s helpful to see outtakes because it reminds you that however impressive something looks in a movie it’s taken time and effort to achieve that.

Your thesis will have outtakes too. Sections that aren’t included. Perhaps a whole chapter that just doesn’t fit. You’ll have loose threads you cut or ideas that had to be left out because of the space or time you had available.

As interesting as movie outtakes can be their existence also serves to remind us of something else: that there’s a reason that they were not in the finished film. They didn’t fit. They didn’t work. They were just people laughing, and as funny as that might be to see it doesn’t tell the story.

It’s the same with your thesis. You might second-guess yourself, or doubt if you have enough in your thesis at some point but remember: if you left something out of your thesis there is a good reason.

Remember what those reasons are and you can strengthen the reasons for including the work that you have.

Nathan

A Supervisor’s Faith

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At one of my final sessions before my summer break, a participant commented that supervisors wouldn’t let a candidate submit their thesis if they didn’t have faith that their thesis was good enough.

I think the core of this is true: good supervisors are invested in their researcher’s success. Good supervisors care enough to give guidance and feedback. Good supervisors make sure their researchers have an idea of what to expect from all stages of the PhD process, including the viva.

You have to believe, but you also have to ask. If you need more – guidance, feedback, information – then you have to take the first step to find out more.

You can have faith, but you can also take certainty from their support too. If your supervisors support your thesis submission you can be confident they think you’ve done enough and you’re good enough.

 

With thanks to soon-to-be-Dr Stewart McCreadie for his observation at a 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva session!

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