Daily viva help for PhDs
It’s my birthday! I’m taking the day off, and sharing the happy with 50% off my ebooks 😀
I won’t say how old I am today, but if you use the offer code THIRTYSEVEN before midnight on Monday 22nd January 2018 then you can get 50% off all of my ebooks at www.payhip.com/DrRyder Just enter the code when prompted and you’re all set!
Thanks for reading, and do feel free to share the code with anyone who might find it useful 🙂
Back tomorrow with more viva help and advice!
No research programme can’t be improved. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made or limits imposed. Sometimes experiments or investigations don’t work out the way you hope they will. That doesn’t mean your thesis is fundamentally flawed, or your research is weak.
Still, a lot of PhD candidates ask me, “How do I talk about weakness in my viva?”
If there’s really something that could be better then you can discuss it by being honest, being clear and by talking about what’s great in your research and thesis.
If there’s something you consider weak about your thesis or research, you don’t have to bring it up as you start the viva. You do have a responsibility to have thought about it and be willing to engage with your examiners. That’s no different to anything else in your research though.
You can’t write a perfect thesis. But you can’t get to the end of the PhD by accident either.
Remember: just because you think something is weak, it doesn’t mean that it is. If your examiners frame something as being weak, and you disagree, it doesn’t mean that they are right.
“Weakness” is a shorthand that people use for limitations, lack of time, doubts, worries and uncertainty. By all means consider how things could be improved or be different, but perhaps consider using a more accurate word to describe what you’re thinking about.
…but it doesn’t mean something is wrong with you or wrong with the viva.
You go blank and it’s uncomfortable: doubt, anxiety or fear. It’s not that common an occurrence though.
In the unlikely event it happens, breathe. Pause. Take a sip of water. Ask yourself the question again, or think about what’s just been said. And whatever you need will come to you.
A momentary memory lapse or glitch is not comfortable, but it’s not the end of the world, even in the viva.
To prepare for your viva you need time. A significant number of candidates may have a job or be applying for one when the viva comes around. Time is always a precious resource, but can feel quite pressured for some. While it’s still important to organise and have a decent amount of space to think, there are some valuable ways you can use small blocks of time in preparation for your viva.
Viva prep takes time, usually in blocks of more than five minutes, but little things add up. With five minutes you can make something to help yourself, setup future progress or prime yourself for the next big task.
What could you do?
You had them when you did the research, right?
The talent to do the work and the time to get it done.
It’s all still available for the viva.
Candidates focus on the distinction between internal and external examiners a lot. Have you heard these nuggets of examiner-related folk wisdom before?
They sound right, but from all of the conversations I’ve had about vivas, I’ve only seen some evidence to support the first point.
And really, when you break that down, it’s wholly dependent on the candidate, their research, their field and who is available in your department and elsewhere. The other four bits of wisdom sound like neat ways to sum up your examiners, but aren’t accurate and wouldn’t help all that much if they were.
Two simple truths that help:
Forget folk wisdom. Focus on what’s true about your examiners.
Boxes of bite-size chocolate frustrate me. I eat the treats I love first, Twixes and Twirls, then days later I open to find that all I have left are so-so Milky Ways and Mars… Finally I’m left with Bounty and Snickers that I won’t eat at all.
I look at my bookshelves and see similar behaviour. I look at my stacks of unread books and go for what attracts me most, or for a book I know I’ve enjoyed before. I push to the back of the queue any books that seem too big, too boring or just not right. I’ve had books on personal improvement, award-winning novels and sci-fi escapes in my library for years and always pushed them away. “I’ll get to them one day.” I go for the fun or the familiar. Save the rest for later.
If you’re preparing for your viva then it’s OK to focus on things you like about your research. You can make notes on things that are most rewarding or fulfilling to you. You can prepare for the questions or topics that you like most.
It’s your choice, but all of the other stuff is still there. Just because you don’t look at it, doesn’t mean that your examiners will avoid it too.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. You might do the tricky stuff first, or you might set a particular time in your diary to look at it. But you have to do something.
You can’t always just have the fun stuff.
(having said all this, chocolate and books generally are fun and make excellent post-viva presents and rewards!)
There’s a time and a place for detailed plans, complex strategies and exhaustive lists. But figuring out everything you need to plan or do or check is hard. And when you get a list together it can be overwhelming. Instead, start with one thing.
There may be more to do. Once you start you have momentum. Keep going.
Every viva is a custom exam to examine one particular person and their thesis. But every viva takes place according to practices that are consistent across the UK, and according to regulations and expectations that are consistent with an institution.
Different and the same.
Taken together this creates a slightly head-scratching puzzle, but not an impossible one. To solve it for yourself, first check your university’s regulations to see what to expect broadly. Then talk to friends to get a sense of what their vivas were like.
Finally, realise that your own will be unique. The expectations create an environment for you to thrive in. The variety comes from you and your work, not from a lack of rigour.
Problem solved.
There’s lots of advice about how to prepare for the viva. I’m personally responsible for sharing a lot. But none of it is beyond question. For a long time in workshops I shared a few approaches to making paper-based summaries, then realised that not everyone might like to write things longhand. That was simply my preference.
There are core areas to focus on for viva prep, but there is no right way to work on any of these areas. Your goal ahead of the viva, like any other PhD candidate, is to feel prepared. You have to figure out your own path to get there.
Listen to others, but don’t follow blindly.