You Are Here

Category: Daily Post

Nathan

Hold On

Daily Post

If you feel confident in the days leading up to your viva then do what you can to hold on to that feeling. Remind yourself of what you’ve done to come so far. Remind yourself of the difference your work makes.

If you feel certain of what to expect from your viva then hold on to that certainty. Make notes for yourself of what others have told you. Write down what seems most relevant from the regulations.

If you feel ready to talk in your viva then hold on as much as possible. Rehearse for your viva. Read your thesis and write summaries. Keep going with your preparations to keep that feeling alive for yourself.

Hold on. There’s not long to go and not much to do before you finish your PhD.

Nathan

Not Knowing

Daily Post

The more I do, the more I find I don’t know!

This sentiment was shared by a generous participant at a recent viva help webinar I ran. Before I had a chance to respond the chat was filled with thumbs up emojis, hearts and five people writing “Same!” and “Me too!”

 

A thesis takes years of work. A candidate learns and grows and develops – and discovers that there is still more they don’t know. Despite all the work. More papers. More books. More ideas. More questions and more answers to explore.

Not knowing something might feel pretty bad depending on the day or the situation. The viva is perhaps a singularly uncomfortable environment to realise you don’t know something. The weeks and months leading up to then could be pretty hard too. Knowing you have done so much and knowing that there is so much you still don’t know.

(and knowing, in some cases, that there are things you almost certainly will never know)

 

The more I do, the more I find I don’t know!

If this sounds familiar, focus on the first clause: you’re doing something. You know things. You are making something. You are finding things.

Before you focus on what you don’t know, take a long time to examine, explore and record what you know – and remember that this will be enough for your viva.

Nathan

Schedule Your Prep

Daily Post

You might not know your viva date at submission. Confirmation could come weeks after you have submitted. In some cases a candidate might only get two weeks warning of a viva date (assuming that the date works for them too).

Sketch out a plan for viva prep at submission. This might have some blanks. It might not have precise dates. But consider how busy you are and what commitments you have already.

When, where and how would you fit in viva preparation?

A schedule could have tasks broken down date by date or be a list of points you have to tackle. Any helpful structure you can give yourself at submission will help you appreciate the scope of what needs to be done, what questions you need to ask yourself and what further planning you need to do.

Then you need to do the work!

Nathan

Friendly Questions

Daily Post

Around submission time reach out to your friends and colleagues in your department.

For the particular friends who might know a little about your research, ask for time: can they listen to you talk about your work? Would they have an hour in their schedule to get coffee and give you a mini-viva? Or perhaps get a group together and listen to a seminar?

For friends and colleagues who have had their viva, ask for information: what was their viva like? What happened? How did they feel? Consider what you might need to know about to help you get a good sense of what vivas are like or to put your mind at ease. Ask for details.

Who do you know who could help you?

Nathan

Questioning Difficulty

Daily Post

A simple distinction for the viva: your examiners might have difficult questions for you but they’re not asking them to be difficult.

Difficult questions naturally follow your work. They come from doing something original. They result from writing a book and needing to explore it deeply. They follow the challenges of your research into the particular challenge of your viva.

Neither your external or your internal is purposefully asking difficult questions to make you sweat, to make you worried, to tear your work apart or to bring you down. The viva is not a hazing ritual you have to get through before you’re allowed to call yourself Dr.

Expect difficult questions at your viva – not difficult people.

Nathan

No Shortcuts

Daily Post

There’s no quick three-step process to getting ready for the viva.

You can’t bypass reading your thesis to refresh your memory.

No-one has invented a 5-minute mock viva that gets you two-hours of practise in 300 seconds.

There are no shortcuts to just doing the work – but the work involved in viva preparation really doesn’t take all that long. Maybe an hour per day for about four weeks leading up to your viva could be enough, even with taking a day off here and there.

It’s not nothing, but it’s a lot less than the hundreds of days and thousands of hours invested in your PhD up to submission. It’s a little more work to help you be ready for the particular challenge of your viva.

And given what’s at stake, why would anyone want a shortcut to being ready for their viva?

Nathan

Better Questions

Daily Post

It’s not uncommon or irrational for a PhD candidate to ask:

  • How long will my viva be?
  • What do I do if I go blank?
  • How do I get out of tricky questions?
  • Is it better to have a morning or afternoon viva?
  • How much time is given for minor corrections?

These are natural questions to have in mind. A supervisor or a friend might be able to offer advice or even a definitive answer for some of them.

These are natural questions for a candidate to ask of others, but it’s better to reflect on questions like:

  • What am I doing to get ready?
  • What makes my thesis contribution valuable?
  • What do the exam regulations say?
  • Who can help me be prepared?
  • What makes me a capable researcher?

Worry, concern and not knowing lead to questions about the viva and preparation.

There are often better questions to consider than the ones which first come to mind.

Nathan

What Comes Next

Daily Post

“Good luck for your viva next week! Don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world!”

It’s not the end of the world – it’s the end of your PhD.

Perhaps, after so long spent researching and working on something, and even with the happy prospect of future plans and new horizons, a little of the worry and nervousness for the viva and the end of the PhD comes from just being worried for what comes next.

So make plans. Write lists. Draw out what you’ve done and what matters. Find some comfort at the thought of finishing something good. Reflect on what you’re carrying with you into the next stage of you.

Nerves and worry are normal as you finish anything. Nerves and worry are normal as you come to finish your PhD. It’s not the end of the world but the viva is a big part of the end of your PhD.

Nathan

Jargon Busting

Daily Post

You probably have terms in your thesis that are unfamiliar to anyone who doesn’t do what you do. These could be names of key people in your field, references to important information or just a piece of jargon that means something important.

Over time words can become forgotten. To make sure that you have what you need, take an hour in your viva prep to refresh your memory.

Write a glossary of fancy words and jargon. Make a list of key names and data. It might seem like overkill to think and write about terms you know but a little extra thought won’t hurt to be sure you know what everything in your thesis means.

Nathan

Demonstrating Capability

Daily Post

Assuming that you pass your viva it’s you who are the PhD, not your thesis. Your thesis is part of the mechanism for your success. Your examiners need to explore the contribution you’ve made and also examine your capability as a researcher in your field.

It might help before your viva to reflect a little on the last few years:

  • What have you learned?
  • What skills have you developed?
  • What research processes can you do now that you couldn’t when you started?
  • What makes you a good researcher?

The last question is simple to ask. The details should all be there when you look at the last few years, but it might be hard to put them into words. Take time to think about how you can demonstrate that you are a capable researcher.

What makes you good at what you do? What makes you good enough?

1 … 47 48 49 50 51 … 303