Daily viva help for PhDs
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?
It took me years after my viva to realise what had kept me awake the night before. If I’d realised it that night it was really too late to do anything about it. I was bothered by not knowing what to expect from my examiners and not being sure if I was a capable candidate.
Both of these were things I had probably been pushing aside for weeks leading up to my viva, if not longer – and both could have been addressed sooner if I’d faced up to them.
I passed my viva. In the grand scheme of things it was fine but I could have enjoyed it more if I’d explored what was bothering me sooner, before it was too late to do anything about it.
My wish for you today is simple: if you’re getting ready for your viva and there’s even a hint of something bothering you then face up to it. Figure out what’s bothering you and do something about it. Ask for help, talk to your supervisor, read your thesis, write something – do something!
Don’t hope it will go away and don’t wait until it is too late. If something is bothering you then do something about it.
PS: if something is bothering you about the viva process then please take a look at Viva Survivor, my live webinar I’m sharing tomorrow, Wednesday 25th June. It’s a 3-hour live webinar with a catch-up recording and follow-up materials all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready. Registration closes at 5pm today, so this is your last opportunity to sign up. If you have questions about the viva and think a live session and support might help then take a look and find out more. Thanks for reading.
In brief: Registration closes tomorrow at 5pm for my Viva Survivor session this Wednesday morning, 25th June 2025. Take a look now if you’re looking for help getting ready for your viva!
Slightly more details: If you want to know what to expect, what to do, how to get ready and how to build confidence for your viva then take a look at my upcoming Viva Survivor session this Wednesday 25th June 2025.
For three hours on Zoom you’ll get direct help from me in a live session I have shared with over 8000 PhD candidates. We have a packed schedule, plenty of time to take questions and I’ll be sending you great follow-up resources including some of my publications afterwards. All this and access to a catch-up recording for four weeks!
I love sharing Viva Survivor. I’ve spent more time sharing this session than anything else in my work since my PhD. I’ve now delivered it more than 400 times for universities and doctoral training groups all over the UK.
There are lots of free resources on this site that can help you get a sense of what to expect and what to do for your viva. Start there, but if you’re looking for more then please take a look at the registration page for Viva Survivor this Wednesday. If you have any questions about the session please get in touch and do pass this on to anyone who might be looking for viva help.
One last time: Viva Survivor session this Wednesday 25th June 2025! Registration closes tomorrow, Tuesday 24th June, at 5pm.
Thank you for reading 🙂
Your institution has a responsibility for communicating the regulations and processes of the viva to you.
Your supervisor has a responsibility to guide you and provide appropriate practical support.
Your examiners have a responsibility to be fair but to ask questions. These could be difficult questions at times. Your examiners have a responsibility to help the viva work well.
Your independent chairperson, if you have one, has a responsibility to ensure that the viva is fair.
You have a lot of responsibilities. Many of them follow from the same basic principles you must have been following for a long time though. You have to show up, engage well and continue to do what you do: be a good researcher in whatever way that means for your discipline.
Whilst the viva isn’t easy, your responsibilities shouldn’t be too hard to fulfil. You’ve been on this track for years.
A few more hours. Keep going.
You don’t get to choose or refuse questions. You don’t decide how long your viva will be. You can’t arrange the tables just so. You don’t technically get to choose your examiners.
You can’t dismiss a rule or regulation that sounds unfair. You can’t say no to corrections. You can’t change the scope or the process. You can’t decide when it’s over.
All of the above are true, but what do they matter?
You can succeed like most candidates do.
You can do the work before and during the viva. You can show up ready. You can focus on the expectations that make a difference and leave aside all of the above.
You can have everything that does matter by checking a few things out, asking the right questions and preparing. Do what you need to and you can have it all at the viva.
Three to seven years is a long time in anyone’s life. It may be that while you’ve been working on your PhD that you’ve had big changes in your personal life, not all of them good.
The last five years have been really hard at times in the wider world. We’ve seen daily life change and change again. We’ve seen disruptive alterations to the way the world seems to work. It’s not always clear what these changes will mean – or what changes are still to come.
And all of this is besides the nature of doing a PhD: learning how to research, potentially learning through failure and finding your way while working at a really high level.
If you’re feeling bruised by your PhD journey and your viva is coming then you can still make a choice.
If the last few years have been a lot, acknowledge that it’s been hard and acknowledge that you would wish for things to be different. Do that but remember that despite everything the world has sent your way you are still here.
You kept going.
It didn’t happen any other way. The world, your life, your research, whatever tried to hold you back – you said no and kept going. It doesn’t make all of the hard times go away. It might not make them hurt or matter less. But you kept going.
Keep going now. Success is not far away.
PS: something else that’s not far away is Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June – only four days from now! I’m regularly invited to deliver this session with PhD candidates all around the UK, but this is only the third time I’ve opened up registration. Viva Survivor is a 3-hour live webinar all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready and participants receive access to a catch-up recording and follow-up materials. Do take a look and see if this could help you keep going. Thanks for reading!
A fundamental assumption of the viva process is that a PhD thesis has a contribution to knowledge.
What’s yours?
How do you define it? How do you explain it? What do you highlight for others?
What does someone else need to know to understand what you’ve done?
What do you hope your examiners take away from reading your thesis?
Reflecting on your contribution ahead of the viva will help you to unpack and explore it with your examiners. Taking time to read your thesis, write summaries and rehearse can all help you talk confidently and respond to your examiners’ questions.
Start simple.
What’s your contribution?
Around submission time, if not before, look for someone who can help you if something goes wrong. You’re probably looking for someone at your doctoral college or graduate school, or possibly even your departmental or faculty director of postgraduate studies.
You want the name and contact details of who to turn to in case:
Get the details of an emergency contact just in case. You might not need them. I hope you won’t. But you will be glad you have them if something goes wrong.
Viva prep typically takes between twenty and thirty hours. The range follows from the wide variation in thesis size, how a candidate might feel and practically how much time they can commit given their other responsibilities.
I think it’s impossible to plan out in advance exactly how much time you will spend each day over the course of your prep. On Tuesday 24th I will read my thesis for forty-five minutes… I don’t think that approach works well.
I think you can decide that you might read your thesis over the course of a week and allow an hour or so each night. You can set aside an hour on a date to write a summary about a particular chapter. You can schedule a mock viva for whenever is mutually convenient.
Sketching a plan at submission, figuring out generally how much time you might spend in the coming weeks is a good approach to prep that lowers stress. Detailing the minutes spent each day will most likely add more negative pressure and create standards that are hard to meet – and unnecessary.
Take a little time to plan your prep. Use the rest to get prepared.