Nathan

Days Of Work

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Between 700 and 800 days probably, if you’re a full time PhD candidate.

Seven to eight hundred days where you show up to do the work. Maybe some were really light on work but others were full dawn to dusk efforts.

Between seven and eight hundred days. Seven or eight hundred days of opportunities.

Probably not all of those 700 to 800 days were good. I’m sure they weren’t all bad either.

700-800 days of learning. 700-800 days of trying things. 700-800 days of moving your research forwards. 700-800 days of becoming a capable researcher.

Between 700 and 800 days of work. That’s what helps you be ready to succeed at your viva.

Nathan

Conditions

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What conditions can you create to support your viva preparations? Think about how you can plan your prep and get support from others.

What conditions can you find that will help your confidence grow? Reflect on your PhD experiences and what your development and work means.

What conditions do you need for your viva to be a fair examination? Be sure to inform your graduate school or doctoral college if you have accessibility requirements that must be in place.

 

What do the conditions and circumstances of your PhD journey – your growth, knowledge, talent, learning and work – mean for life after the PhD?

Nathan

Greater Than

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Years of work and learning won’t make you infallible.

It’s entirely possible to get to your viva and be faced with a question you’ve never considered before. You can forget or go blank. And you can always be asked a question that – through lack of understanding, lack of knowledge or a glitch in the moment – it feels like the only thing you can say is “I don’t know.”

Taking all of this into account, how much more likely is it that you know something?

It’s not wrong to worry about what if’s, brain freezes or feeling uncertain as you respond to an important event like the viva. You can do something about all of these through preparation and through recognising that you don’t need to know everything.

Years of work and learning won’t make you infallible – but, for your viva, what you know is greater than what you don’t.

Nathan

Unexpectations

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There is a lot that you can expect from your viva.

If you explore regulations and viva stories you can get a good sense of what they are like. Regulations give a foundation of the process and what examiners do. Viva stories describe the pattern of experiences that candidates have.

They give a feel for vivas. As a result, you can build expectations you can work towards.

 

There is also a lot that you can’t expect from your viva.

Stories might showthe range of experiences but you can’t expect a particular viva length or a definite opening question. You can be confident of the work you’ve invested but you can’t expect your examiners to agree with you about every detail of your research.

You can know about vivas but still expect that there will be some unknowns – aspects of your viva that you cannot know until you get there.

You can expect a lot but must also expect the unexpected.

Nathan

Asking For Help

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Viva prep is mostly solitary work but it can benefit from targeted help from the people around you. You might want a mock viva from your supervisor or a casual chat from friends. You might need your family to give you space. Depending on your situation you might need a lot more from others.

So how do you ask for help with your post-submission viva prep?

  • Ask early. Talk to people before submission so they know your general plans.
  • Express your need. Say what you need help with and why.
  • Ask for specific help to meet the need. Be clear when you describe what you have in mind.
  • Say please!
  • Give opportunities. Allow space to arrange when, give them a chance to offer a compromise if they can’t do the thing you were thinking of and make sure they know that they can say no.

Helpfully, when you leave space for a compromise you also start thinking about how else you might meet your needs. A mock viva is a great solution to meet the need for rehearsal but if your supervisor is not available there are other options.

Ask early. Express your need. Be specific. Say please! Give opportunities.

And, of course, say thank you 🙂

Nathan

How You’d Start Over

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If you were to start your PhD over again what would you do differently?

If you were to start again what would you do the same?

I don’t know how often examiners ask these questions. I’ve seen them suggested as good general discussion questions but haven’t verified if they’re widespread.

That said, they might be helpful questions to reflect on during viva prep.

 

What would you do differently? Write down three things you would change. Be specific. Say why. Consider the impact of these changes. What else might change as a result? Could you have done any of these at the time or do you only know this with the benefit of hindsight?

What would you do the same? Write down three things you would not change about your approach. Be specific and say why. What was the impact of these actions and why would it be important for you to do it the same again? Were you sure of their impact the first time around?

 

Your examiners need to unpick your process at the viva. It helps if you take time to do that during your prep.

Nathan

Lack

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You’ve done a lot of work by the time you get to submission but as you prepare for your viva you might feel lacking in some areas.

  • Have I read enough papers?
  • Did I do enough research?
  • Do I know enough?
  • Am I enough to pass?

These are hard questions. If you find yourself facing them then remember you don’t have to just feel worried. Ask for help from people like your supervisor or your colleagues and find something you can do to build your certainty.

 

More importantly: if you find yourself confronting any of these questions then ask yourself why it’s there.

For example, Have I read enough papers?

  • Are you thinking this because you feel like there’s something you don’t know?
  • Are you concerned about your examiners?
  • Do you think your bibliography is maybe small compared to others?
  • Or is it something else?

When you start to pinpoint why a troubling question is troubling you then you can be more targeted in how you respond to it.

Nathan

Finishing

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Viva prep is personal and purposeful. Make a plan that works for you, meets your needs and aligns with your situation.

Don’t cram: plan. Don’t squeeze everything in but allow time to do the work and allow space for adjustments. Leave room for changes so that you don’t make space for stress.

Decide what work you will do last. What final tasks might help you as you get within days of your viva? Will they be big or small? Will they be focussed on a particular aspect of your research or a more general final work?

How you finish your prep is as important as how you start. Finish your prep well. Decide in advance what you want to feel like or be doing and then you can plan a route to getting there.

Nathan

So Far, So Good

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People often say this in an almost resigned way.

Well, we got here somehow…

At the viva it’s better to remember that you have got so far because you are so good.

 

Not perfect: good enough.

Luck didn’t lead you to this point.

You got this far, learned so much and made a difference because you are good.

Nathan

The Firsts

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There are a lot of firsts on your PhD journey.

What was the first day of your PhD like? How far have you come since then?

What was the first paper you read? How did it help?

When did you find an answer to the first question you raised? How many more have you found since then?

What was the first step towards the first big result you got? And what was the first big result?

When did you finish your first draft? How did you improve upon it?

After submission you’ll find your first typo, take your first step to being ready, have your first moment of nervousness at the thought of your viva and eventually face the first question at your viva.

There are a lot of firsts on your PhD journey. Don’t forget them – and don’t forget how much more you have done.

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