Daily viva help for PhDs
Concern, anxiety and worry about the viva won’t resolve themselves. It’s not wrong to feel any of these but it’s not good for you to go to your viva with them if you can help it.
You need to do something.
You could ask for help. You could explore a website with thousands of posts about the viva. You could reflect and think about what’s at the root of the problem.
Ultimately you have to do something. Ask, explore, think and then act.
Action can help you move away from anxiety.
After submission there’s a lot of waiting. It’s a good idea to be ready for it.
Get ready to wait when you submit your thesis!
Or rather, make sure you have a good sense of the viva process – both before, during and after – so that you know when you’ll need to wait and perhaps how long some of those waits will be.
PS: want to dig into the viva process more? Take a look at Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. I’ll be talking about expectations, viva prep, examiners and a lot more, as well as responding to questions from everyone present. Viva Survivor is a 3-hour live webinar and all attendees get access to a catch-up recording and follow-up materials. Please check out the details and see if it might help you or someone you know. Thanks for reading.
The success of a PhD journey could be influenced by good fortune. That’s when you work hard and that hard work pays off (or enough of it does).
Results don’t just happen. Opportunities don’t just appear. Your work, effort and determination lead to them. You’re not lucky, you’re fortunate: you can be glad that enough things worked out but recognise that you worked hard for them.
Recognise good fortune and the work that goes into it. Luck isn’t required for PhD success.
PS: there’s a little more work to do after submission to be ready for the particular challenge of the viva. If you want to know what’s involved and what you can do then check out Viva Survivors Select 03, The Preparation Issue, which is new out this week and available to buy at this link!
“What a good idea!”
It’s very rare that an idea is enough. It takes work to develop, to implement, to unpick, to understand and for it to have an impact.
You will have had many good ideas throughout your PhD. However they’ve made their way into your thesis, they needed effort to come to life. They needed your work to make an impact.
Whatever is in your thesis, it took work to write, work to edit, work to figure out how to express it.
Your work.
There are great ideas that exist because of the work you did. When you go to your viva there’s a lot to talk about. Remember that the reason it’s there is because you took the time and the effort to do it.
Your thesis is proof of your contribution and evidence of your capability as a researcher.
PS: today’s post aims at boosting confidence by reflecting on your PhD and the work you did. If you’re looking for more ways to boost your confidence and get ready for the viva then check out Viva Survivors Select 03, The Preparation Issue, which came out yesterday and is available now at this link!
It’s come around so quickly hasn’t it? Or maybe that’s just how I feel…
In any case the third issue of Viva Survivors Select is out today!
Viva Survivors Select 03, The Preparation Issue is here and I’m very excited to release it into the world. Twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive plus two new original pieces equals a lot of concentrated support for anyone who needs to get ready for their viva.
In this issue I felt it was time to dig into viva prep in detail: when do you start? What do you do? What tasks help? And how can you make the most of the time between submission and the viva to get ready for meeting your examiners?
Twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive and two new original pieces: a new resource for having helpful rehearsal conversations with friends and a confidence-building project you can start to help you feel better for your viva. Viva Survivors Select 03 is out now for £3 and joins the first two issues in this project of monthly viva help.
If you like the blog, want more help and want to support what I do then please take a look at and consider buying The Preparation Issue – and please do pass on details of this issue and Viva Survivors Select to anyone you know who is looking for viva help.
Thanks for reading!
Nathan
One approach to engaging in the viva could be summarised as pause, think, respond.
Another way to look at this is to see that all three points are linked. You pause to think, taking time to be sure of what you need to say. You think to respond well, being reflective and careful.
Pause, think, respond. Pause to think, think to respond. Whichever way resonates, the connection is that a candidate engages well at the viva when they take their time.
It doesn’t need to be a hard question for you to take a few moments to consider what you will say or how you will say it.
…but you don’t need perfect to succeed in your PhD or at the viva.
None of these are trivial but none of them requires perfection.
You don’t need perfection to pass your viva.
It’s not the end of your journey or the end of the work.
As your viva concludes take a moment to reflect and think if there’s anything else you want to ask your examiners. Are there any questions you can imagine asking now?
Before the very end of the viva there is often a break where examiners confer. You could sit or pace nervously – or decide in advance that you’ll get some fresh air, refill your water bottle or quickly journal anything that’s occurred to you. What will you do in that break?
As you find out the result of the viva it’s very likely that you’ll be asked to complete minor corrections. While you might not know these now you can learn how long that corrections period. You can plan ahead for how you might do that work.
The end of the viva is not the end of your journey or the end of the work – but you’ll be really close to being done.
PS: want to explore what else you need to do to be done? Check out Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. I’ve shared this session more than 400 times with PhD candidates all around the UK, but this is only the third time I’ve opened up registration. A 3-hour live webinar, catch-up recording and follow-up materials all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready. Take a look at the details and see if it might help you or someone you know. Thanks for reading!
Compared to the start of your PhD journey, what can you do now that you couldn’t before?
How do you know this for certain? How can you demonstrate this? What are your skills as a capable researcher in your field?
Reflecting and unpicking the answers to these kinds of questions will give you a lot to share with your examiners in the viva.
You can do a lot to write a good thesis. It’s still likely that you will miss some unintentional typos. You might not spot when a sentence gets really long without a break. And after submission you might change your mind about a particular phrasing or explanation.
Any corrections that your examiners request are simply that. Corrections. Amendments. Fixes. Requests for changes to make your thesis that little bit better.
They don’t think you didn’t care. They don’t believe you should have done more or better.
Writing is hard. Writing a book is very hard.
If during your preparations you spot something that needs correcting that’s fine. If your examiners tell you about some in the viva that’s fine. After the viva, get them done and move on.
Don’t be too concerned about corrections.