Daily viva help for PhDs
Most PhD candidates are asked to complete corrections as a result of their viva.
They’re not a mark against the candidate. Corrections result from the fact that writing is hard and writing a book is very hard.
Most candidates get corrections. It’s likely you will as well. After the viva you have a chance to make final changes before your book is finished forever.
Thank your examiners for their time and observations. Do the work. Then move on.
There are lots of reasons to create summaries as part of getting ready for your viva. Here are 6!
I think number 6 is overlooked sometimes. Viva prep can feel big, daunting and even open-ended. A summary is a finite task to be done. The process helps and the output is a resource.
Find an important aspect of your thesis or research. Spend a little time thinking about it and capturing useful thoughts about it.
Take time after submission to annotate your thesis and create a one-of-a-kind special edition. This can then be an even greater resource for helping you respond to your examiners.
So what do you need to add to have a well-annotated thesis for your viva?
To unpick this question we have to add some emphasis. What do YOU need to add to have a well-annotated thesis for YOUR viva?
Annotation is highly personal. From particular needs and wants, the actual text of the thesis, the circumstances of the candidate and the situation of the viva, there are lots of things that someone could need or want. Of course there is then a great variety in how these things could be expressed in annotation.
A typical need is to be able to find the start of a chapter with ease. This could be done with bookmarks, sticky notes, colouring the edges of pages or folding down page corners. There’s no wrong way to do it, just a personal way – and it’s not wrong if you’d rather not have any indicator marking the start of a chapter!
What do you need to annotate your thesis in a good way for you? How will you do it?
A key topic for discussion at your viva is what you’ve been doing for the last few years.
Your examiners need to explore your significant original contribution. They need to ask questions that get you to share what makes your work matter. They need to get you to talk about why it makes a difference. So in preparation for your viva:
You can do these sorts of things through reading your thesis, writing notes or summaries and talking about your work. Make sure you find opportunities to talk about your research and respond to questions.
It’s not enough to just think a bit: you have to do more to explore what makes your work special.
The viva is a discussion. While your examiners lead with questions and comments to get you talking there is plenty of space within the conversation for you to ask questions too.
Before your viva think a little about what you might ask. You don’t have a specific limit but it could help to give this some thought beforehand. For example:
You might not get to ask every question you have considered, but thinking ahead of the viva will help you make the most of the opportunity.
You could ask what they liked about your thesis but that’s probably going to come up anyway!
Nervous. Anxious. Concerned. Worried. Afraid.
If any of these words describe how you feel about your viva then you need to ask why.
They don’t all mean the same thing. Be sure of which best describes the situation, then dig into why. Why are you worried? What’s the reason for your concern? Do you know why you’re feeling this way?
Deep down there is a reason. If you feel negative about your viva, try to unpick the cause.
It’s not wrong to feel any of these things. The viva is important and important events have a way of making us feel nervous and more. If the feeling isn’t helping you to get ready then ask why, reflect and see what the reason might be.
Do you need to know something about the process?
Are you worried about something you’ve heard about vivas and aren’t sure if it’s true or not?
Do you feel concerned about your thesis or prep?
Whatever the reason, uncovering it gives you the means to start resolving that situation. Don’t just sit with the feeling. Find something you can do to shift that feeling.
PhD candidates can get a sense of what to expect for their viva from reading their institution’s regulations, learning about general viva experiences and asking about recent vivas in their department.
Together these create expectations.
Some expectations will be really clear, like knowing the people who will be examining. Others will cover a range of possibilities, like expecting the viva to be longer than two hours. Some aspects may be unknown but a candidate can still get a sense of the situation: you might not know the first question but will still have an idea of what examiners typically ask.
Viva expectations prompt behaviour. This sort of thing will happen so I will do this to be ready.
Consider what you know about the viva and how that can help you as you prepare.
Talk to your supervisor around submission time to get a sense of how they can support you when you prepare for your viva.
Your supervisor is best-placed to offer advice and perspective as you get ready. You might not need a lot from them. Maybe you want a mock viva. Perhaps they can share some thoughts on your examiners or the general process of vivas.
Whatever you need, you can be sure that they are busy. They’ll want to help but will only have a limited amount of time to do so and a limited availability as well. So talk to them at submission to get a sense of what they can do, when they can do it and how you’ll make it work.
With sixty minutes before your viva what are you going to do?
These are all things I did! I also went to the seminar room too early and waited for my examiners to be exactly on time.
You can’t always control how you deal with the building expectation of something important. Maybe you can set a better intention though.
I wish I’d thought more about when I was going to arrive. I would have made a plan. I would have found ways to remind myself that I had not been idle in the weeks leading up to my viva.
Nervousness is not an unlikely possibility for viva day. What can you do to make a good final hour before your viva?
Are there any red flags for examiner selection? Are there people I should try to avoid?
Let’s start with a caveat: there are people in every sphere of life who build up a clear reputation for behaving badly. In academia, these are the people who everyone knows at conferences as making long self-serving comments rather than asking questions after seminars. Perhaps they’re known for arrogance or for being thoughtless and rude.
People like this have a Semaphore Guilds-worth of red flags around them.
Clear signs of this behaviour are worth avoiding if possible – if asked for examiner suggestions by your supervisor – so that you can avoid the possibility of that behaviour in your viva.
Beyond that: I can’t think of any real red flags that people have shared with me or from the general expectations and patterns of viva life.
Anecdotally, new academics could be more thorough in the viva. They may ask more questions if it’s one of their first times acting as an examiner. That’s not bad: they’re trying to do the job well. It’s not a reflection on you or your thesis. A longer viva could simply be a little uncomfortable by the end.
Beyond bad behaviour there are no real red flags unless they’re personal ones. Maybe you would prefer someone you’ve cited; a personal red flag would be someone who has no direct contact with your research. Or perhaps you want someone who could be a future collaborator. A red flag would be someone who might not connect well with your future research goals.
You don’t get to choose your examiners. You might be able to make suggestions to your supervisors. It’s worth considering who would be a good choice if you do have the opportunity – and what might be a red flag for you.
If you have red flags, who might that exclude from a list of potential examiners? More importantly, who might be a good choice for you?