You Are Here

Author: Nathan

Nathan

It Depends

Daily Post

There are many questions asked about the viva to which a response has to begin with, “It depends…”

  • Is it best to have an expert in my research area for an examiner? – It depends on what you think about the situation, what your supervisor advises and whether someone is available.
  • When should I start preparing for my viva? – It depends on how busy you are, how big your thesis is and how you want to approach things. There’s general advice but you have to tailor things to your situation.
  • Should I have a mock viva? – It depends on your relationship with your supervisor, your schedule and how you want to prepare.
  • Will I have an independent chair at my viva? – It depends on the regulations for your institution, and perhaps on who your examiners are.

And the list goes on.

There is lots of advice and good practice related to the viva. There are many general expectations. But so much depends on the candidate, their research, their thesis and their life.

When you ask for viva advice or look for help, think about how things change when it connects to your situation.

Nathan

Three Things

Daily Post

Do you want a simple task to help how you feel about your viva?

Every day after submission, take five minutes to write down three things about your research: things that you know are good, that you’re proud of, that you know turned out well or that you know make a difference.

Three things, every day. Three things about your work that then go into the mix of thoughts and feelings for your viva. Three things you could draw on as you go to the viva to share your work. Three things to help build your confidence before you meet your examiners.

Viva prep takes more than five minutes each day after submission, but little tasks can make a big difference. Start with three things to help your viva preparation.

Nathan

When You Don’t Know

Daily Post

What would you do if you went blank or froze or could only think “I don’t know”?

It’s a situation you wouldn’t want; it could even be stressful. It’s reasonable to think about it before the viva but unhelpful to worry about it – particularly because there’s a lot you could do in that situation.

You could pause, take a moment to think and then respond. Your first response might be “I don’t know” but perhaps another moment of thinking will help you find more to say.

You could briefly reflect on why you don’t know something. Different reasons prompt different actions. Perhaps you can check your thesis. Perhaps you can ask a question. Perhaps, after reflection, you can just say “I don’t know”.

You could take a moment to think: even if you don’t know, you can share something with your examiners that will demonstrate your knowledge or skills in an appropriate way.

It’s good to reflect on this possible situation before the viva. It could be stressful, but there’s a lot you could do – if it happens at all.

Nathan

The Best Of The Best Of Viva Survivors 2022

Daily Post

At the end of December I shared five days of posts recapping my favourite writing from 2022. In case you missed that or you’re looking for some helpful highlights, here’s the best of those five days, with links to each round-up post!

Best of Viva Survivors 2022: Viva Prep – I was very happy to reshare lots of help connected with viva prep, but especially A Helpful Acronym, one of the best little ideas related to viva help I’ve had!

Best of Viva Survivors 2022: Reflections – I like having the space with this blog to do things a little different sometimes. The Red Button is certainly different, but hopefully contains a point well worth considering before the viva.

Best of Viva Survivors 2022: Short Posts – Making A Difference is a helpful reminder!

Best of Viva Survivors 2022: Confidence – Last year I worked with almost 1000 postgraduate researchers in viva-related sessions. Daily Confidence was inspired by something written in the chat at one of those sessions, a point that I’ve been thinking about a lot.

Best of Viva Survivors 2022: Surviving – The definition of survive is manage to keep going in difficult circumstances. It’s only natural then that at some point I would write a post called Keep Going, so that I could dig into that idea a little more.

Following that last theme, in May 2022 I published a book containing the best of the first five years of the Viva Survivors daily blog: Keep Going: A Viva Survivors Anthology.

There are many posts I could highlight from the last year of Viva Survivors, but if you’re more future-focussed then subscribe and get a new piece of viva help in your inbox every day 🙂

Nathan

What’s Important?

Daily Post

Two words to prompt reflection on nearly every aspect of the viva and viva prep.

What’s important…

  • …about your thesis? Explore it chapter by chapter with a notebook in hand. Make notes about anything that stands out to you.
  • …about your PhD journey? When you think back over how you did the work, what matters?
  • …about your viva expectations? What do you need to know more about and what are you comfortable with?
  • …about your examiners? Who are they, what do they do and what might they ask?
  • …about your viva preparations? What do you have to do and when will you get the work done?

What’s important? Two words that can start your thinking, exploring and working towards what you need. The examples I give above might help, but maybe for your situation you need to focus on something else.

So ask yourself: what’s important?

Nathan

Plan For The Unexpected

Daily Post

Plan your viva prep. Take a sheet of paper when you submit and spend ten minutes thinking about how you would space out the work that you need to do.

When will you start? Will a month investing an hour most days be enough to manage what you need to complete? Or is it better for you – your life, your preferences, your needs – to focus and invest more over a shorter period of time, say two weeks?

There’s no right or wrong time period to take for viva prep.

Whatever you decide, give yourself some wiggle room in your plans. Give yourself a margin of error, because something will go wrong. An unexpected emergency. Something you forgot in your diary. Or a thing you didn’t notice in your thesis that needs a little more thought.

Plan your viva prep – but expect the unexpected!

Nathan

Recognise Your Strengths

Daily Post

As you prepare for your viva, take an hour to think about how you have changed during your PhD journey.

What can you do better now than when you started? What have you learned how to do? What methods, processes or tasks do you feel confident performing?

Your capability doesn’t have to be limited to things that are directly connected to your research. You could know that you are good at managing a project. You could see clearly that you are a good presenter or communicator.

Reflect on your journey. No-one can get to submission and their viva by being lucky. Recognise your strengths and realise that you have come so far by being and becoming good at the many things you do.

Recognise your strengths and remember that you are going to pass your viva.

Nathan

Time And The Viva

Daily Post

“How long is the viva?”

It’s the number one question I have been asked in over twelve years of doing work related to the viva.

The most appropriate response I feel that I can give is to say that two to three hours is quite common; consequently it helps a candidate to be ready to talk and focus for that length of time.

The quickest response is to say that I don’t know and the person won’t know until their viva!

Perhaps the truest response would be that it doesn’t matter in the big picture: a viva takes as long as is needed.

And one more response: it may take hours but it might not feel like that. You could be so engaged and deep in conversation that the question of how long it is taking just slips away.

Nathan

Help!

Daily Post

There’s a lot of help available for your viva.

The secret is to ask for help before all you can think is “Help!”

  • Your supervisor can answer questions, offer opinions and put your mind at ease.
  • Friends can listen, share their experiences, support you and wish you well.
  • Family and loved ones can help make a space for you to get ready. Perhaps they won’t know what you’re going to be doing at the viva exactly, but they can still support you.
  • Your institution can offer resources, signpost the regulations and perhaps offer sessions or materials to help you feel ready.

Don’t leave any of this to the last minute. Don’t let stress, doubt and worries build up.

Ask for help. Don’t wait for “Help!”

Nathan

One Day, Not Day One

Daily Post

The viva is a single day when you have to rise to the occasion – but not the first day of the journey that you’re on.

Your viva could be difficult. You can expect to be challenged, but that challenge – discussing your research, your thesis and your ability as a researcher with your examiners – is not the first challenge of your PhD.

It’s not the tenth or even the hundredth.

The viva is one day you have to meet a challenge and succeed. By that day you have a lot of experience of doing just that.

1 … 95 96 97 98 99 … 318