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Author: Nathan

Nathan

Every Single Question

Daily Post

Every single question in the viva comes as a result of your research and your thesis. While you can’t predict every question, nor know a perfect response for every one, you do have everything you need to be able to respond.

Every single question in the viva is being asked for a reason. It might not be immediately clear to you what that reason is.

Every single question in the viva is going to be asked by one of your examiners, or by you. You can’t know what questions your examiners will have, but you might have ideas. Prepare for your examiners’ questions by rehearsing with a mock viva or in conversation with friends. Don’t create model answers, instead build experience of responding to questions. You can know what questions you would like to ask your examiners; think about this topic in advance, write a list of questions you’d like to ask.

Every single question in the viva is NOT every single question you could possibly be asked about your thesis and your research. Rather than focus on trying to anticipate every single question, focus on being knowledgeable, confident and prepared for the questions as they come.

Nathan

False Hopes

Daily Post

Don’t hope for a short viva. Don’t hope for no corrections. Don’t hope that your examiners “go easy on you”.

Don’t hope they tell you the outcome at the start. Don’t hope they have no comments. Don’t hope you won’t be worried or nervous.

Hope is a powerful thing, but you can do so much more than hope when it comes to your viva.

For some of the points above, you have no control at all: so why focus on them when there are things you can do something about? Better to put your efforts where they might do something. You can do a lot more than hope you won’t be nervous: you can act to work on what makes you nervous, and act to boost your confidence and offset anxieties.

Don’t hope for things you can’t control. Do more than hope for things that you can. Put your focus on more than hope.

Nathan

17% Uncomfortable

Daily Post

That’s my prediction for your viva.

You know your research, you wrote your thesis, you’ve prepared for the day. You’re reasonably confident, not arrogant, slight flutter of nerves because it’s important. There’s a few moments of worry – you don’t know what your examiners think, what they’re going to ask, if you’ll go blank on something or not – but you can probably feel pretty comfortable with the situation.

I would hope that you feel only a little uncomfortable, just a little, because when you think rationally you know why and how you’ve got this far. 17% uncomfortable means that you’re doing well.

And if you’re feeling more uncomfortable than that, what are you going to do about it? Who are you going to ask for help? What actions are you going to take?

Nathan

The Least I Can Do

Daily Post

There are lots of things that could get in the way of preparing.

You’re busy or you’re bothered, you feel stressed or worried…

What’s the smallest meaningful thing you could do? Even if you’re busy or something’s getting in the way, what could you do that would take five minutes and make a difference? Two minutes? One minute?

Why not…

  • Read a page of your thesis.
  • Add a bookmark.
  • Stick a Post-it in your journal saying what you need to do next when you get a moment.
  • Write down a question that occurs to you.
  • Summarise your contribution, even if you’ve done it many times before.
  • Google your examiners and save their staff pages for later.
  • Pencil in half an hour in your diary for when you will do some prep.
  • Download “The tiny book of viva prep” to print and fold later!
  • Print and fold “The tiny book of viva prep”! 😉

Viva preparation takes time; usually thirty minutes to an hour at a time is good for considered thinking or work. But little things add up too. If you find yourself short on time, short on patience, short on confidence, just ask yourself, “What’s the least I could do?”

What small thing could you do, even if it takes only a moment, that would make a difference overall?

Nathan

Celebrate Your Thesis

Daily Post

I love World Book Day! Not the costumes and dressing-up, but the sheer love of books.

It’s… a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading.

I don’t remember a time when I couldn’t read, when I didn’t read for fun, for learning, for joy, for the thrill of it. Books are fantastic.

A PhD thesis is fantastic too, but, like the viva, I wonder if they tend to get dragged down a bit. Lots of questions about writing up and so on tend to be negatively tuned in tone, or get a less than positive response from the person being asked.

That would be nice to turn that around, don’t you think? We can’t dismiss the hard work, the long hours, the difficult effort that goes into a thesis, but we can do more to recognise that a thesis is amazing.

So this World Book Day, if you have a thesis and want to celebrate:

  • Tell others what’s so great about it!
  • Write summaries in preparation for your viva!
  • Explore what makes it great – which is what your examiners will be looking for too!

If your friend has their viva or submission coming up, help them to celebrate their thesis:

  • Ask them about it! Not “How’s it going?” but “What makes it special?!”
  • Ask to know more: go for coffee and ask for more details.
  • Celebrate when it is finished!

Books are fantastic. A thesis is fantastic. To write one, you’ve got to be fantastic too.

Nathan

Not Ideal

Daily Post

There’s so much about your viva that might not be exactly how you want it to be.

You find typos or a clunky paragraph after submission.

You’re busy and struggle to find preparation time.

Your first choice examiner can’t do it.

You feel more nervous than you want to be.

You worry there’s something missing in your thesis.

You worry you should have done more.

Worry and mistakes and missed opportunities are all not ideal. But the best thing to do is ask, “What can I do?”

Then act. Do something. Don’t diminish how you feel, or just stress about would be better: work to get closer. Work to do something that helps.

So underline your typos or pencil in a correction.

Make a plan for your prep and do what you can.

Learn about your examiner’s research.

Ask yourself why you feel nervous and work on the root cause.

Examine whether there’s really something missing, not just a worry.

Ask why you didn’t do more – probably, because you were doing something else in your thesis!

If something’s not ideal, you can feel disappointed or cross or upset.

But then act. What can you do?

Nathan

Intentions & Experiences

Daily Post

Examiners have intentions for vivas: questions they might want to ask, a tone or atmosphere they want to encourage.

Candidates have experiences in vivas: a mix of the reality of the situation and how they feel about it during and afterwards.

Of course, examiner intentions feed into candidate experiences. Over time they create the culture that future candidates come to expect.

The overall feeling I get from candidates is that vivas are a bit scary, a bit uncertain, probably something to worry about. The overall feeling I get from graduates is that vivas aren’t as scary as they seemed to be, and while they require action and preparation they’re typically not something to be stressed about.

So we need to steer the culture.

Academics need to be asked more about their general approaches to vivas. Graduates need to be asked about their experiences in vivas. The details need to filter out so that a more thorough picture emerges. Candidates need to hear about experiences and intentions – examiners do too – and over time we can steer the expectations so that they match the overall reality of the viva.

But for today, if your viva is coming up, ask your supervisor what they do to get ready for a viva. What questions are in their mind? What approach do they take? Ask PhD graduates from your department what their viva was like. How did they prepare? How were they feeling? And what happened on the day?

Nathan

Viva Advantages

Daily Post

There are lots of things in your favour when you go to meet your examiners!

  • The conversation is about your research, which you know better than anyone.
  • Your examiners have read your thesis, but you wrote your thesis.
  • You can annotate your thesis to help details stand out in the viva.
  • You can rehearse being in the viva.
  • You can decide in advance how to approach responding to questions.
  • And finally you have extremely relevant talent, knowledge and experience.

Individually, these are helpful for viva day. Combined, they mean you have a lot of advantages to meet any challenges you’ll face in your viva.

Nathan

A Reminder About Viva Nerves

Daily Post

Nerves don’t mean there’s something wrong. They’re just a symptom of you noticing that the viva is a big day.

Your viva is important, so you probably feel nervous as a consequence. Nothing more.

Prepare for your viva, because it is important. Do what you can to find confidence, because while confidence won’t banish nerves, it will help to keep them in check.

Acknowledge that your viva nerves are there. An anticipation of an important event. Nothing more.

Nathan

Leap

Daily Post

You’ve done everything you can, become everything you are, know everything you can and need to know.

Viva day comes and you have to leap and trust you’ll reach the other side. A day that’s different from all the others in your PhD life, but still just a day like any other.

You’ve got what you need. So now you come to it: a leap of faith, an act of confidence.

Of course you’ll reach the other side of your examiners’ questions and discussion. How could you not?

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