Nathan

Your Best Work

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Naturally, it is extremely likely that your examiners will want to talk to you about your best work. The headline results and conclusions that are central to your contribution.

  • How do you define your best work?
  • What lead to you working on it?
  • What’s the impact for your thesis and for others?

There’s more to your thesis than a single topic or piece though. It’s likely that there’s more they will want to talk to you about.

  • What other aspects of your work do you think they’ll focus on?
  • How do these other areas connect with your main contribution?
  • Is there anything you don’t think they’ll ask about?

Finally, it’s likely that these two categories are not all that you want to talk about.

  • What else would you like to come up in conversation at your viva?
  • What questions do you want to introduce into the discussion?
  • What do you not want to talk about?

Your best work will feature at the viva along with lots of other topics. Take time as you prepare to reflect on what could come up, how you could engage with it and what you need to do to be ready.

Nathan

Doubts

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Information isn’t enough to get rid of doubts about your viva but it’s a necessary start.

If there’s something you don’t know about the viva then look for help. Ask your supervisor. Check the regulations. Talk to others.

You need information to feel better about your viva. Once you have that you need to define what the remaining doubt is and figure out what you do next.

Nathan

Five Top Fives

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Here’s an idea for a thirty minute prep exercise.

Take five minutes to make a list of five papers that have helped your research.

Take five minutes to list five key pages in your thesis.

Take five minutes to list five questions you’ve been asked about your work (or that you expect to be asked).

Take five minutes to list five contributions to research, big or small, in your thesis.

Take five minutes to list five concerns or questions you have about your viva.

Finally, take five minutes to reflect over all of the things you’ve listed – then make a list of five things you’re going to do in the near future to help you get ready for your viva.

Nathan

Review The Recent

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As you prepare for your viva make sure you review your most recent work. Refresh your memory on how it adds to the contribution of your postgraduate research. You’ll need to talk about this at your viva.

As you get ready take a little time to review recent publications. As you’ve been writing up there’s a chance there are interesting or relevant papers you’ve missed. Taking a few hours to check will help your feeling of capability as a researcher.

You have to read your finished thesis to be well prepared. Reviewing the details and the most recent expression of them will help your confidence for the viva.

There’s a lot of history you have to review for your viva: old notes, past papers and so on. Take a look at the most recent material as well to be ready for your viva.

Nathan

Beyond Burnt Out

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Remember: you can’t prepare well for your viva if you’re burnt out.

You can’t read, review and rehearse if you’re already exhausted. As important as the viva is and as urgent as it might feel to do something for it you can’t do what you need to do if you’ve got nothing left.

When you submit your thesis sketch out a plan or two for your prep. Make rest a central part of your prep period: there’s work to do and you probably have other commitments but if you don’t get enough rest you can’t do everything else that you need to do.

You can’t prepare well for your viva if you’re burnt out.

Nathan

Don’t Worry*

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Don’t worry about what might happen at your viva – take steps to learn more about what to expect.

Don’t worry about the variety of questions you might be asked – find spaces to rehearse responding to questions and build up your confidence.

Don’t worry about remembering everything – work through your prep to help your memory as best you can for the things that matter most.

Don’t worry about the outcome of your viva – find ways to remind yourself of what you’ve done and what that means.

 

* Or rather, don’t only worry. Feel the feeling and then take steps to help change the feeling.

Nathan

Finding The Lines

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As you prepare for your viva and then engage at it you might brush up against all kinds of lines.

  • The line might be the boundary between what you know and what you don’t know.
  • It could be what separates your work from someone else’s.
  • The line could even be what defines a disagreement between you and your examiner.

Finding a line might be a cause for concern. Not knowing something can be uncomfortable. Not being sure, at least at first, of what you need to say to an examiner can be worrying.

Whatever the situation, when you come up against a line you need to figure out what’s next. Maybe you need to ask a question. Maybe you need to check something out. Maybe you need to sit with the discomfort and think for a moment.

When you find a line you need to do something. Take a moment, figure out your next step and then do it.

 

PS: Rehearsal can be a good way to practise encountering difficult situations. You can get experience figuring out what you would do in an uncomfortable moment at your viva. For more reasons to take rehearsal seriously, take a look at Viva Survivors Select 14, The Rehearsal Issue which is out now. If you like the blog, want more help and want to support what I do then please check it out. It’s the latest issue in my series of curated collections of viva help: twenty posts from the blog’s archive and new help to help you get ready!

Nathan

The Work

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The work you need to do to get ready for your viva – and to do well at your viva – is the same as the work for your whole PhD so far:

  • You have to find out more.
  • You have to figure out more.
  • You have to figure out how to tell others about what you’ve learned and done.

The purpose and need involved with prep and the viva might be specific and different to the rest of your PhD but the work is the same. It’s the same for every PhD candidate regardless of discipline.

So: what does that work look like for you as you get ready?

 

PS: You can find out more about the specific work of rehearsal in Viva Survivors Select 14 which is out now. If you like the blog, want more help and want to support what I do then please check it out. It’s the latest issue in my series of curated collections of viva help: twenty posts from the blog’s archive and new help to help you get ready!

Nathan

Make Prep Fun

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Viva prep is important. It’s the work that helps you get ready for your viva.

It matters. You have to do it and you have to do it well so that you can do well at your viva!

It’s serious stuff but you’ll probably do it better and get more from it if you have some fun here and there:

  • What can you do to reward yourself for completing tasks?
  • How can you make your work aesthetically pleasing?
  • Can you set a fun tone for yourself by working in an interesting place or listening to nice music?
  • And who can you invite to work with you to help get the work done?

Viva prep matters. What can you do to make it fun too?

 

PS: You can definitely make rehearsing for your viva fun by asking friends to help, giving a seminar or going for nice chat over coffee. Rehearsal is also the topic of the latest Viva Survivors Select collection. If you like the blog, want more help and want to support what I do then please check it out: twenty posts from the archive and new help to help you get ready!

Nathan

Three Days

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On submission day sketch out a couple of plans for getting your viva prep done. It’s unlikely that you’ll start immediately but think about how you would break up the work you need to do. Sketch out one plan giving yourself a month and one where you have only two weeks. Which seems most sensible given your circumstances? Or do you need a better third plan?

On the day you start your viva prep check that you have what you need. Download any papers you were thinking of checking, gather your resources and message any friends or colleagues who you were going to ask for help in the coming weeks. Remove friction from the work you’ll do in the near future.

On the day before your viva take ten minutes to write some notes about what you’ve done. Convince yourself that you’ve done everything you need to be ready for your viva. Reflect on all that you’ve done to get this far.

It takes more than three days to be ready for your viva. The right task at the right time can make a big difference.

 

PS: One activity that really helps with viva prep is rehearsal and it just so happens that Viva Survivors Select 14, The Rehearsal Issue is out now. If you like the blog, want more help and want to support what I do then please check it out. It’s the latest issue in my series of curated collections of viva help: twenty posts from the blog’s archive and new help to help you get ready!

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