Daily viva help for PhDs
If you hear five viva stories from different people you will spot common threads and notice differences.
If you hear five viva stories from people in your department you will notice examination practices and understand why they are different.
Every viva is different.
Every viva is influenced by regulations, expectations and departmental practices.
You viva will be similar to others, but can’t be the same.
Your examiners will have a lot of questions for you at your viva, along with various comments they will make.
You won’t know them in advance. You can get a sense of what to expect by consulting resources, talking with your supervisors and reflecting on your research. Anything you are asked is purely to help drive the discussion forward and create a space where your examiners can explore you and your work.
All of this could make someone feel intimidated but here’s the important thing to remember: you only have to respond to one question or comment at a time. Your examiners don’t serve you twenty questions to start the viva and expect you to keep track of them all. You aren’t given a sheet of comments to work through.
One at a time, point by point, you respond to what your examiners need so that they can confidently say you are good enough.
There are lots of ways you could look at your thesis at your viva.
Which of these matters most to you at the viva? And what will your thesis mean to you after the viva?
In stories werewolves are powerful, almost unstoppable. Perhaps you can guard against them or run away for a time, but there’s no great defence you can mount. You have to hope that you can find or make silver bullets.
We sometimes use the idea of silver bullets as a shorthand for a solution to a particularly tricky problem. They are the one thing that will allow us to understand a situation, help us to plan better or get things done. It would cut through everything and solve the problem – if only we can find a silver bullet.
PhD candidates sometimes look for silver bullets for the viva. They hope for one thing that will help them to be confident. Or one thing that will help them feel prepared. Or even the one question they will definitely be asked that they can be ready for.
It might be nice to think about, but all of this forgets a couple of things:
Don’t look for a single silver bullet to solve all your problems. Silver bullets are a distraction. You don’t have the time for them and you don’t need them.
Take simple steps to learn what you need to do to be ready for your viva – and then do the work.
I didn’t think my viva would be terrible but I also wasn’t thinking, “I can’t wait!”
Looking back 17 years, I could best describe my feelings in the days leading up as resigned.
I guess I have to do this.
I slept only a few hours the night before. At the time I couldn’t understand that sleeplessness. I had never experienced insomnia in that way. Afterwards I came to believe it was connected with not really knowing what to expect from the viva experience and not feeling like I was a good candidate.
It’s only recently that I’ve realised just how connected those two thoughts might be.
How can you feel like you’re a good candidate if you don’t know what to expect?
If you’ve no idea then you can’t know if you’re good enough.
If any of this resonates with you I think your next steps are clear.
If you know what the viva is and are sure of who you are then the experience can definitely be something to look forward to.
I have a piece of paper on the wall next to my desk that says, “What’s the most important thing I can do today that would make tomorrow better?”
I like the sentiment of this but I’m also the kind of person who gets stuck sometimes thinking about what the most important thing could be.
I’m part of a family, a writer, a researcher-developer, a business owner… How do I decide what the most important thing is? Which area do I give my attention to so I can make tomorrow better?
I have to remind myself that not knowing the most important thing can’t get in the way of me doing something to make tomorrow better, even if that’s in a small way.
If you like the question too but also fear getting stuck on figuring out the most important thing then for you and your viva a better framing might be, “What can I do to make my viva better?”
Then you have options. There are so many things that you can do for viva prep. There are so many ways you can reflect on your PhD to boost your confidence. There is so much you can do.
Doing something towards prep is enough. You don’t have to be overwhelmed by the important things.
A week before submission you find that a section in your thesis is missing something important. What do you do?
Two weeks before your viva you learn that one of your examiners is cancelling. What do you do?
The day before your viva you find a big mistake in your thesis – you know what the correction is but you can’t change it now. What do you do?
Thirty minutes into your viva you are shaken by a question you’ve never considered before. What do you do?
These situations aren’t equivalent to each other. Impact and context matters. In some cases you can ask for help directly: for example, if your examiner cancelled that could be very stressful but it wouldn’t be your situation to resolve alone.
More than anything for any sudden problems the best advice I could offer is to stop: pause and breathe and get past any panic.
What can you do? Before you decide what you will do, think about what your options might be. Can you ask for help from someone? Have you faced a situation like this before? As stressful as it might immediately feel what is the real impact?
What can you do – then what will you do?
You have to do something but you don’t have to do the first thing that comes to mind when you’re experiencing the stress of a sudden problem. Pause and breathe then consider your options.
… you must be good at what you do or you wouldn’t still be doing it. You are not the person you were when you started your PhD. The things you have learned and done over the past few years put you in a good position for meeting the challenge of your viva.
It might be that you have weeks or months to go until your viva, or maybe even more, but you have time to get ready. The stage you’re at right now is a good foundation to build on. By now must recognise that you’ve made a contribution. There might be more to say or other things to do, but you can’t do everything.
Your examiners are expecting to see a good contribution made by a capable candidate. It’s helpful, to begin with, if that’s what you can see in yourself and your work.
Your examiners have to be critical of your thesis and research.
That doesn’t mean that they will be negative.
Your examiners have to critically read what you have written.
That doesn’t mean that they have to go looking for problems.
Your examiners have to ask you critical questions.
That doesn’t mean that they are trying to catch you out.
I have a paperweight on my desk.
It’s a Father’s Day present I received from my daughter a few years ago: a small white stone with a leaf and branch design on one side and the words “Special Dad” on the other.
It has absolutely nothing to do with my work, the viva or any practical element of me doing what I do.
And yet I can’t deliver a webinar if it’s not on my desk in front of me. I can’t feel comfortable talking to people through the little camera in my monitor if I don’t have it there.
It’s not magic but it is a little charm, a talisman, that helps me focus. It helps me get things done. It adds some element of support for what I need to do. It’s a reminder of what I’ve done in the past and what that means.
You’ve done a lot of work by the time you get to your viva. You don’t need magic when you are capable. When you’ve done the work, written your thesis and prepared for your viva you don’t need a talisman or a charm or some other kind of boost.
And yet you’ll probably feel better for having one.
What will yours be? What can you find that will just encourage you, remind you and help you to believe that you are as good as you think and as ready as you can be?
You can’t have my paperweight! So what will help you?