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Nathan

One Day You’ll Stop

Daily Post

One day there’ll be no more prep. No more viva nerves. No more corrections to think about or do.

No more wondering what they’ll ask. No more checking the regulations to see what else needs doing or what paperwork needs completing.

One day your PhD journey will be over. You’ll have your PhD – be a PhD graduate – and you’ll go on to the next challenge.

What do you want to achieve before then? What do you want to do next? And what will all of this mean to you?

Try to figure out the answers to those questions before you reach the day you’re done.

Nathan

A Chorus

Daily Post

Since KPop Demon Hunters exploded into our family life earlier back in June my daughter has been exploring more Korean music – which means that my wife and I have been as well!

Some K-pop is in a mix of English and Korean. Consequently we don’t always know the full meaning of the lyrics when we hear them but still the words get stuck in our heads. A repeated chorus means we remember the words even if we don’t always know them.

 

Repetition helps you remember. It’s a simple thing to keep in mind but could be very helpful ahead of the viva.

Rote learning to memorise key research points will help a little but what matters far more is repeating and reminding yourself of what you did and how you got this far.

Repeating and reminding yourself lifts your confidence: you did all of that so now you can do whatever you need to do at your viva.

Remind yourself of what you did, the challenges you faced and the outcomes you made, to really remind yourself of what you can do.

Keep saying it and keeping reminding yourself until you really believe it.

 

PS: for more encouragement take a look at The Survival Issue, the latest issue of Viva Survivors Select. In twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive plus new writing I explore what it takes to make it through the viva and what you can do to remind yourself of how far you’ve come – and how you did it. Take a look!

Nathan

Reviewing Literature

Daily Post

Your examiners are interested in your research, your thesis and you as the researcher who did it all. Bound up in all of that is your familiarity with the literature of your discipline. You don’t need to have read every paper before you got started. You don’t need to remember every detail of every paper or book you’ve read over the years of your PhD journey.

Your examiners expect familiarity. They expect a certain general understanding. And they expect a particular understanding of the works you’ve used and cited.

They don’t expect perfection though! Talk with your supervisors and your colleagues to get a sense of what might be expected.

Beyond that focus on the literature that has made a big difference. If you could recommend ten papers for someone to read to understand your topic what would they be? What paper was most influential for you and why?

 

PS: I explore more of what to expect from examiners and the end of the PhD in the latest issue of Viva Survivors Select. The Survival Issue contains twenty posts from the archive plus new writing on surviving the viva, working through the PhD journey and being ready for the challenges of the viva.

Nathan

You Can Take Action

Daily Post

I feel like I’ve written this a lot in recent posts – and over the years of writing Viva Survivors! – but it’s worth repeating: when you encounter a worry or a problem as you get ready for your viva there is no situation where you can’t take action to improve things.

Your action might be:

  • To stop and think;
  • To come up with a plan;
  • To ask a friend for help;
  • To read the regulations for thesis examination at your institution;
  • To talk to your supervisor;
  • To read something and think.

Or more generally to just do something. You could feel worried, stressed or unsure – but you can still do something.

Remember that you always have the option to try something to make your viva prep situation better. If you’re worried or stressed a good first step might be to ask for help, particularly if you’re feeling unsure what to do.

Work past worry.

 

PS: for more encouragement take a look at the eighth issue of Viva Survivors Select. I released The Survival Issue yesterday which contains twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive plus new writing to help with making it to the end and through the PhD journey. Take a look!

Nathan

Where Is Your Focus?

Daily Post

Where are you giving your attention when you plan your viva prep?

You don’t have to do everything all at once. You don’t have to do what everyone else does.

It might be a good idea to summarise the content of each chapter in your thesis – but equally you could focus on the contribution of your thesis as a whole. Either way could work well to get you reviewing and reflecting.

Having a mock viva is a good general preparation idea – but it might be even more helpful for you to explore different ways of explaining key parts of your research to friends or in a presentation.

Be mindful of your focus as you get ready. Are you doing what you need to do to get ready?

Nathan

Assumptions

Daily Post

Whatever you assume about your viva will have an impact on how you prepare for it, how you feel as you get ready and what you do as you start talking to your examiners.

Before you get to that point it makes sense to check regulations, viva stories and general expectations: do your assumptions line up with what the rules and other people say about the viva?

 

If you assume that your viva is going to be hard questions and unfair criticism then you’re going to make a tough time for yourself.

If you assume that your examiners are there to talk and listen and prompt a discussion then you might still be nervous but you’ll be able to prepare yourself.

And if, after all the work you’ve invested, you assume that you’re ready then you will approach the viva with a more positive outlook than if you assume you are somehow lucky or just getting by.

 

PS:  very quick announcement that The Survival Issue of Viva Survivors Select is out tomorrow! This is the final issue of this volume and joins seven other collections I’ve curated and released over the last seven months or so. Do look out for an announcement email tomorrow 🙂

Nathan

List Ten Problems

Daily Post

Here’s a little viva prep exercise to unpack problems you faced on your PhD journey.

Start by listing up to ten problems that you faced. These could be access to literature or resources, time challenges, supervisory issues, personal circumstances, a particularly difficult research issue or something else.

Once you have up to ten on your list take a minute or two to rank them according to severity, starting with the one which had least impact and then working your way to the most severe.

For each one write a few notes to respond to the following questions:

  • Why was it a problem?
  • How did you overcome it?
  • What was the specific impact on your PhD?

Reflecting and writing you will build up ideas for how you could talk about this with your examiners if the topic comes up at your viva. You might make connections between problems and see there was a deeper issue you addressed.

However big the problems were you will also see that you were able to rise to meet them: you overcame a lot to get this far and that means something, both for your research and for you.

Nathan

Watching Out

Daily Post

You can’t eliminate every potential stressor or difficult question ahead of your viva but through preparation you can be aware of them.

Read your thesis and reflect on your research. What was stressful? What was difficult in a negative way? Was there anything over the course of those years that made doing the work difficult?

Ahead of your viva you can prepare for engaging with those topics if they come up at the viva. You don’t have to say everything but you might have to say something that you’re uncomfortable talking about.

Writing some notes beforehand, talking with your supervisor or a trusted friend or even using the mock viva as a way to prepare can all be useful steps to getting ready if there’s a sensitive topic.

You can’t remove difficult topics from the viva conversation. You can be aware, you can watch out and prepare to engage well.

Nathan

“I Had To”

Daily Post

Those three words might be true but they will never be enough for a response to a question in your viva.

There’s always a reason and it’s always worth digging into. You always need the “because” or the “why” behind doing things a certain way in your PhD.

 

“I had to” might be the first words that come to mind with something difficult or even something particularly challenging in your research journey. If you know of situations like this ahead of your viva then it will be helpful to consider what else you could say. If it’s a sensitive topic you’ll probably still need to say something more than “I had to” – so think in advance what you might feel comfortable saying.

Nathan

Change For Your Prep

Daily Post

There might be a certain logic to do some of your viva prep in a different space to where you would typically work.

A different space allows you to think away from your typical environment. Maybe working at a different time could give you a new insight into how you work or what you’ve done well. Working in a different way (writing longhand rather than typing) might change the pace of your observations or the way you think about things.

Viva prep could be a really good time for changing things up as you get ready for your viva.

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