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Author: Nathan

Nathan

Three Successes

Daily Post

To build confidence for your viva, write down three successes from your PhD journey. Think back over the years of work and find three things that have been good: maybe things you did well, results that didn’t exist before or ideas that you have developed and shared.

Find three successes and write a little about each, focussing on why they are a success and what you did to make them great. You don’t need to spend long to capture something good.

In fact, you could probably take ten minutes every day to write about three successes from your PhD journey. Between submission and the viva make a habit of looking back and finding three successes from your PhD: make a habit of building your confidence for the viva.

Nathan

Playful Prep

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Plan your prep. Do the work. Focus on the goal.

But play.

  • Use fun stationery to mark up your thesis.
  • Find music that helps you feel happy while you do the work – or helps you to feel better generally.
  • Draw simple pictures to summarise your work.
  • Reward your progress to keep you engaged.
  • Rest and play and rest some more.

Playful prep has a place in getting ready for the viva. There’s work to do and milestones to meet – but you can take time to enjoy what you’re doing and play on the way to the viva.

Nathan

Part Of Something

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Remember that as you finish your PhD journey and have your viva that you are part of something.

Several somethings!

  • You are part of a community: there are many people around you who can offer support.
  • You are part of a tradition: lots of vivas happen every year and lots have happened in the past – stories and expectations are not hard to find.
  • You are part of a genealogy of researchers: whatever your path from here on, you can still share your experience and help with future generations, just as you have had help on your journey.

Also remember that your PhD journey is only a part of you: not all of you and not the best of you. As you finish that journey you have to figure out what it really means for your future and what you will do next.

Nathan

Generating Confidence

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What could you do to boost or maintain your confidence for your viva?

  • Think about your research and focus on the good stuff?
  • Read about your examiners and get a sense of who they are?
  • Select an outfit that helps you feel good for your viva?
  • Reflect on the successes from your PhD journey?
  • Create and listen to a playlist of awesome music?
  • Have a mock viva to convince yourself that you know your stuff?
  • Highlight your strengths as a researcher?

Confidence helps put nervousness in perspective, and it’s to be expected that you might feel nervous for your viva. It matters. It’s important. Confidence won’t remove nervous thoughts, but it will help you to remember why you’re there.

There’s no magic pill for confidence, no simple button press. Thankfully, there are many things you could try. What else could you do to build your confidence?

Nathan

Alone

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You are the only person in your viva who can speak for you and your work. The questions and comments from your examiners, the discussion that follows, all of it is is centred on getting you to engage and talk. You, and you alone, can respond.

Before the viva, however, you are not alone – there are many people who can offer you support.

  • Your supervisors provide professional support over a long period of time. As you approach the viva they can share their perspectives and offer a mock viva.
  • Friends and colleagues from your research community can share their stories and listen to your concerns, offering support when able.
  • Friends and family from your non-research life can offer their love and listen. They can help to create a good environment for you to do the work you need to do. Share what you really need.

You get to the viva, alone, but supported. You’re the only one in a position to respond, buoyed by the support and help of many others. You, and you alone, can – and will – rise to this challenge.

Nathan

Your Work Matters

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In preparation for your viva, take some time to reflect on why your work makes a difference. Unpick the ideas that matter, reflect on why your work is valuable.

Your examiners want to talk to you about why your research is a significant, original contribution – and so you have to be ready to talk, discuss, think, reflect and respond.

Between submission and your viva:

  • Read your thesis and focus on what makes your work matter.
  • Highlight contributions that make a clear difference.
  • Use reflective questions to write summaries about key elements.
  • Rehearse responding to questions and discuss your work with your supervisors and others.

Remember that your work matters. It must – or you wouldn’t have come as far as you have on this journey.

Nathan

Pause To…

Daily Post

…think in the viva.

…reflect on what you’re about to say to your examiners.

…decide how you will get ready when you’ve submitted your thesis.

…compose a response to a difficult question in practice or in your viva.

…realise that there is nothing wrong with pausing, and that a pause is necessary at many points for many reasons in the journey from submission to the viva – and from the start to the end of your discussion with your examiners.

…prepare well for the viva and engage well in the viva.

Nathan

Paint A Picture

Daily Post

Every viva is different but knowing what to expect can help you to paint a picture for yourself.

Read the regulations, listen to stories and find out about norms in your department or discipline.

Your viva will be different from every other viva there has ever been – but not so different that you can’t recognise what to do to prepare and what to do on the day.

Nathan

Impatience & The Viva

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It’s not wrong to want your viva to be done. That’s a natural response to the challenge and the situation.

But don’t try to rush your viva so it’s over as soon as possible. Don’t try to get every thought out as quickly as you can.

Likewise viva prep takes time. Give yourself a break before you begin. Take your time to do it well and take your time to think.

Perhaps if you feel impatient for your prep to be done or your viva to be over, stop and – if you can – think for a moment about what the real issue is. What’s driving how you feel? And what can you do about it?

Nathan

Elevate Your Pitch

Daily Post

It’s unlikely that you will have to give an elevator pitch of your research at the viva. I’ve never heard of examiners asking for a polished thirty-second or two-minute overview of 3+ years of work.

But that said, exploring a concise summary could be a useful part of viva prep. You could:

  • Highlight the most important points of your research;
  • Organise your thinking about key ideas;
  • Rehearse using technical terms and jargon;
  • Practise talking about your work.

Your examiners don’t want a pre-prepared speech as a response in your viva, but rehearsing a pitch for your research could help how you think and talk on the day.

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