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Nathan

Nodes

Daily Post

Viva coming up? Think about who you know and what they can do for you:

  • How can your supervisor help you prepare?
  • Who among your close colleagues has some way of helping?
  • Who do you know that could be a good choice for an examiner?
  • Do you know a student of your external, or someone who has worked with them?

You’re trying to find ways the nodes in your network can usefully add to your preparation. Drill into what your network looks like to see the practical things people can do. If it feels like you’re asking for a favour, well, that’s one side of networking: thinking about how you can get help from the people you know.

The other side, perhaps even more exciting, you get to think about how you can help other people when it’s their viva coming up. If you’ve not had yours yet you can still be a friend and help someone prep for theirs. Offer to chat with them, share your knowledge about some aspect of the field they’re less familiar with, even offer to read a chapter and ask questions.

If you’ve had your viva then share your experience around your network. Your viva story can help others realise that the viva is not some terrible doom awaiting them. Tell others what you did to prepare and what happened on the day. Ask them to do the same.

See how the help spreads through the nodes of your network.

Nathan

Countless

Daily Post

There are countless questions you could be asked in the viva, but you’ll only be asked one at a time.

Preparation doesn’t mean somehow considering every question, but feeling comfortable considering and responding to any question that comes up.

Find opportunities that will help you practise and give you confidence, but remember you don’t need an answer for everything.

Just each question as it comes up.

Nathan

Think Twice

Daily Post

When you’re asked a question about your research, unless you’re completely surprised or stumped, the shape of an answer appears in your mind. Think of it as a sketch of a response. The outline of what you could say. It’s suggested by your brain because of your experience and your talent.

Your first thought has given you a shape; a second thought can help you refine it a little more. If the shape is five reasons why such-and-such is a good idea, a second thought can help you quickly reflect on a good sequence for those five reasons. Maybe one is better than all of the others, maybe another isn’t as important as you thought at first glance.

In most cases in the viva, when you’re asked a question the shape of an answer will appear. Still, think twice. And if you go blank, if your first thought is “Huh?” or “…” or “I don’t know,” then have a second thought. Don’t let the pressure of that moment stop you from responding.

There’s plenty of time to think twice in the viva.

Nathan

A Local Maximum

Daily Post

A term from maths: sometimes a peak in a graph is not the topmost point, but just the highest one for now. A downward slope afterwards might not run down forever. The curve may rise again, higher, further and faster.

Your PhD is a local maximum. Not the biggest and best thing ever. It might be the best thing so far, and it is important, but it has to be put into perspective.

The best is yet to come.

Nathan

Weak Spots

Daily Post

Why didn’t Achilles wear a boot?

If you know there’s a problem, wouldn’t you try to address it? If you know you have a weak spot, wouldn’t you at least try something?

For example, I knew my background knowledge on one of my thesis chapters was a bit shaky. I just hoped my examiners would focus on the results instead. I could explain how I’d tackled it. I could explain the results. I just crossed my fingers they wouldn’t ask me to explain what a certain kind of manifold looked like and why it was relevant.

Hoping it won’t come up is not a solution: actions help.

If you have a gap in your knowledge, take action. If you have trouble remembering a reference or an idea, take action. If you want to boost your confidence, take action.

Weak spots in your thesis or research probably aren’t as devastating as Achilles’ heel, but if you’re aware of something that could be a problem it’s up to you to do something about it.

Don’t just worry and hope it won’t come up. Do something.

Nathan

Read The Manual

Daily Post

Talking to friends about their viva experiences is useful. Picking up on bits and pieces of what goes on in vivas while you do your PhD is inevitable.

Generally, candidates have a fair picture of what they need to do procedure-wise; the regulations might not need to be spelled out for you, but if you have any questions, concerns or “what if….” worries:

Read the manual!

Your university has one, and it will have a lot of the answers about situations and circumstances that come up around the viva.

Find it. Read it.

Nathan

Check Their Publications

Daily Post

You will know who your examiners are before the viva, but it’s possible you won’t know much about them. Not everyone has examiners they’ve cited or met before; you can’t strike up a conversation over coffee or email to get to know them, but you can check out their publications. Look at the last couple of years and see what they’ve done.

  • What’s the general area they’re interested in?
  • Are there topics that they return to again and again?
  • Is there a direction they are taking their research?
  • How do their ideas connect with your own?
  • What do you think their most important ideas or results are?
  • What do you need to know about their work that you don’t?

Explore what your examiners have published. See what it might mean to you and your work.

See how that can help you with your viva preparations.

Nathan

Starters

Daily Post

I really like the following lines of a poem by Rudyard Kipling:

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.

Whenever I’m trying to analyse a problem and get stuck, I think about these six starters and search for questions that will help.

They are valuable when unpicking the contribution you’ve made in your research. As your viva approaches, consider taking the following six questions as a starting point for reflecting on what you’ve done.

  • What was the result of your research?
  • Why was it worth doing?
  • When did you arrive at your main ideas?
  • How did your approach change during your PhD?
  • Where did you learn the most during your PhD?
  • Who do you think would be interested in your work?

There are many other questions you could use to reflect on your work. Start with these, see what thoughts and ideas they lead you to.

Nathan

Summertime

Daily Post

It’s summer! There’s no days off for Viva Survivors, there’ll continue to be a new post every day, same as always, but I will be taking more time off for August so if anyone drops me an email or tweets at me there could be a gap before I get back to you.

I’m using some of my down time to think about more resources that I want to share on the site. I have some ideas that I would love to share but I think they’d be done best through the medium of video rather than text, so we’ll have to see how these develop 🙂

I’ve taken my print books off sale for now, as I don’t want to go to the Post Office throughout August, but to compensate for that there’s a 40% code off all of my ebooks until the end of August. Simply go to www.payhip.com/DrRyder, select whichever ebooks you want and then use code SUMMER2018 before you pay. That’s it, 40% off 🙂

There’s a new post every day throughout August. Take a day off here and there, even if your viva is coming up soon. Take time to reflect, refresh and revive.

Enjoy your summer!

Nathan

Assume It’s Going Well

Daily Post

A couple of months ago I got an interesting question at a workshop:

“How can you tell when the viva is going badly versus when you just think it’s going bad?”

This is a good question. Sometimes when we perceive things as being a problem, or tricky, or going bad, it’s just down to our perception. If you were worried that something might go wrong in the viva you might prime yourself to look for any data that would back that idea up. The tone of a question, the inclination of an examiner’s head, the slightest pause – anything could help to confirm your worries.

I’ve reflected on the question for a while, and the best thing I can say in response is “assume it’s going to go well, and assume while you’re in the viva that it is going well.” Unless your examiners pause things to say, “There’s a big problem” or “This is not what we expect” – both of which are really, really unlikely – then you can continue to assume it’s going well.

There’s perhaps a deeper question that needs addressing for the person at my workshop, which I didn’t have time to follow-up then:

“Why would you think your viva wasn’t going to go well?”

If you’re assuming there could be a problem then do something about it. Prepare more. Talk to your supervisor. Find out more about expectations. Learn more about your examiners.

Change your assumption.

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