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Author: Nathan

Nathan

Separating Out Feelings

Daily Post

In my local area we’ve recently moved to separating food waste from our rubbish. Pre-sorting in our homes makes for a better waste management situation. There’s been grumbling and resistance from some but for the most part I think people realise it’s a good thing to do.

As with so many things in my life, encountering this new situation made me think of the viva!

It made me think of all the feelings that someone might feel ahead of their viva. There can be a lot of mixed emotions as the viva draws near. It helps to sort and separate them. Different feelings require different actions:

  • If you feel worried then you have to ask yourself why. When you know the root of the problem you can do something about it.
  • If you feel unsure then you have to decide who to ask for help, whether that’s your supervisor, a friend or simply a webpage provided by your institution.
  • If you feel unprepared then you have to take action. There are a great many things you can do to improve your preparedness.
  • If you feel confident then you have to hold on to it. What can you do to build your confidence up even more?

Separate out your feelings as you work towards your viva. Respond to the negative and recycle them for positive actions and feelings. Take the positive to one side and build on them.

Nathan

The Wait

Daily Post

I wasn’t prepared for the wait at the end of my viva. I didn’t know it was fairly typical for examiners to have a private conversation after all of the discussion.

I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t know I was going to be waiting a while.

In fact it was almost twenty minutes. It seemed to stretch on and on.

Not knowing what else to do I went and sat in my office at the other end of the long corridor from the seminar room where I’d had my viva.

I wasn’t prepared for the wait. I just sat there. I tried to think about what had just happened, what I thought it might mean and what to do with myself.

It was a struggle because I was so tired.

I wasn’t prepared for the sudden knock on the door from my internal examiner. He invited me back to hear the outcome and what would come next. It was a surprise: a little under twenty minutes isn’t that long but had also felt much longer.

I wasn’t prepared for the wait at the end of my viva – so I use any opportunity to share my experience so that others might think ahead.

What would you do to be ready for the wait at the end of your viva?

Nathan

Make Some Notes

Daily Post

Make some notes when you submit your thesis: think about what you need to do to prepare for your viva. Sketch out a plan of what you might do.

Make some notes as you prepare: short lists can be tiny summaries and marginalia can make your thesis more helpful for your viva.

Make some notes while you’re in your viva: capture thoughts if it helps, note down your examiners’ questions and do whatever will help. (making note-taking part of any viva rehearsal can make this easier)

Make some notes when your viva is done: this will help you to remember what it was like in the years that follow, both for your own recollection and to help others.

Nathan

Expecting Questions

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You can’t know for sure what questions you will get at your viva but there’s a lot you can expect.

  • You can expect your examiners to have done their homework and come with questions.
  • You can be certain that your examiners want to know more about what you did beyond what it is in your thesis.
  • It’s reasonable to think they might want to dig deeper into methods, results and conclusions, however you’ve presented them.
  • It’s unlikely they would miss a chapter out in their plans – but also unlikely they would have one or more questions in mind for every page.
  • You can expect them to ask a lot of why questions.
  • You can expect that you will be asked questions you’ve not anticipated at all.

There’s a lot you can expect even if you can’t know what questions you’ll get until you’re in your viva. You can have very good guesses because of your knowledge and experience: you know your work better than anyone else.

When it comes to expecting questions at your viva you can’t know it all but you can expect a lot. Make sure that you invest time in preparing to respond to your examiners’ questions.

Nathan

Selecting Your Examiners

Daily Post

As a candidate it’s important to remember that you don’t get to formally choose your examiners. At best you can make suggestions to your supervisors: they can follow those ideas or not depending on what they think would work best for you, your thesis and the situation.

It’s reasonable to ask your supervisor why they think that Professor A or Doctor B are a good choice if you’re not sure. If your supervisor isn’t following your suggestion then you can at least know why and work from there.

You can safely assume that any examiner you would have is experienced and has the benefit of training. Beyond that, if you have the option to make suggestions, the first step is to think about what you would really like. What matters to you when you think about a good examiner? Do have names in mind or are you thinking about a kind of person? A specialist or a generalist? Or something else?

Explore your preferences, shortlist some names and then have a conversation with your supervisors. You might not get your choice but you can be confident that whoever your examiners are they are prepared and selected for good reasons.

Nathan

Dots

Daily Post

Postgraduate researchers collect, connect and communicate dots.

(let me explain)

Dots are raw bits and pieces of research. The papers you read. The ideas you have and test. The practical research you do.

You collect a lot of dots on your PhD journey. You sift and sort your collected dots and decide which ones matter.

You have to connect them in a way that makes sense. Sometimes you make them make sense. You write and think and write some more. You connect the dots as you bring your thesis together.

Your thesis communicates the meaning of all these collected and connected dots but you need more than that for a PhD. You also have to communicate the meaning in your viva.

You collect, connect and communicate the dots. You do a lot of really useful and valuable work to make the world more known and more interesting.

Thank you for all that you do!

 

(inspired by a Seth Godin post that has been rattling around in my head for a while!)

Nathan

The Nth Test

Daily Post

The viva is the only exam of your PhD but it’s not the first test.

How many challenges have you faced and overcome?

The viva is just the next test. You’ve managed N-1 for some suitably large number N over the past few years. The viva is one more challenge, one more test, even if it is the first exam.

The viva is a particular challenge so find out what to expect and prepare – but remember that you have done more and can do more. You can overcome this Nth test you face.

Nathan

Fuelling Confidence

Daily Post

Confidence is not an innate state. Confidence is not a consistent feeling.

Confidence has to be cultivated. Confidence has to be fuelled.

What are you doing to fuel your confidence for your viva?

  • What are you reflecting on from your PhD journey?
  • What are you telling yourself about the viva?
  • What are you trying to build your confidence up?

Anyone could feel nervous or worry about the viva. That’s human. If there’s something in particular worrying you then consider what you can do to address it: work past worry to find confidence on the other side.

Nathan

Arrangements & Implications

Daily Post

After submission and before your viva there are several questions that it helps to get answers to:

  • Who is your internal examiner?
  • Who is your external examiner?
  • Have you read the regulations? (if no, do it!)
  • Have you asked friends and colleagues about their viva experiences? (if no, do it!)
  • When is your viva?
  • Where is your viva?
  • If your viva is going to be online, have you checked regulations for video vivas? (if no, do it!)
  • Do you know who else, if anyone, will be present at your viva?
  • If you need any additional arrangements made for your viva to be fair are you sure your university knows and has agreed to what you need? (if no, check with them!)

These questions are helpful checks but notice that they are all closed questions. Information helps but you then need to use the information.

It helps to know who your examiners are or to have a date for your viva but you then need to do something. Your examiners’ identities help you to prepare for meeting them particularly. The date and location of your viva can help you think through what you will need to do practically on the day.

Arrangements have implications. What do you need to do as a result of your viva logistics?

Nathan

Three Cups Of Tea

Daily Post

That’s what I need to work well: whether or not I’m sitting to write, prepare, make art or deliver a webinar, I need to have three cups of tea running through my system.

Or, at least, that’s what I tell myself.

Of course, when I go to do any work I have experience, ability, resources, equipment and a plan of some kind. I have a lot more than just three cups of tea. I have systems for different tasks, music and objects that help me focus, scheduling for particular work and backup plans in case things aren’t going quite right.

But the three cups of tea are a prompt. They are a trigger: if you have this then you can work well – and it’s something I can have relatively simply.

What do you need for your viva? Give it some thought. You’re overwhelmingly likely to succeed. You have years of experience, ability, a thesis, preparation and expectations.

What could you do to help steer you even closer to feeling good for your viva?

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