Nathan

7 Weeks

Daily Post

That’s roughly how long I had to prepare for my viva. Here are seven thoughts from those seven weeks in the dim and distant past of 2008:

  1. I took a break when I submitted. Not a big one, just a week to rest from the final busy days leading to submission. Starting viva prep rested helps.
  2. I made a lot of notes. I annotated my thesis. I wrote summaries. I did a lot of things to help my memory because I didn’t really know what to expect from my viva.
  3. My examiners asked me to prepare a presentation to start my viva when the date was set. It was helpful to have something concrete to do. Preparing a presentation also helped with other parts of prep.
  4. I didn’t have a mock viva with my supervisor. We continued to meet once per week and talked over each chapter. I wish I’d thought to ask him more about what vivas were like.
  5. My supervisor also told me to look at my external examiner’s research area. It was very different to my own. He thought it would be good to get an understanding of it and he was right!
  6. I wasn’t nervous until ten minutes before my viva. That happened because I didn’t sleep well the night before. I felt very tired as I was unpacking my bag; nervousness hit me hard but at least I had my presentation to focus on.
  7. Looking back I can see that I was confident that I had a good thesis. I can also see that I wasn’t feeling confident in my own ability at the viva. With hindsight I wonder if I had been pushing away nerves and worry for weeks leading up to my viva.

Of course, hindsight is wonderful! I was on the right track for a lot of my prep. I could have done better if I had paid attention rather than ignored how I was feeling.

How are you getting ready for your viva? What are you feeling? And what are you doing as a result of those feelings?

Nathan

Start With You

Daily Post

The work starts with you. There are lots of possible motivations for your research but you did it.

All of the reading, research, results and outputs – all of the impact – comes from you.

Your PhD is personal. It makes sense for your viva and viva prep to be personal too.

Start with you. Look back over everything you’ve done and think about what it means. When you know what you’ve done and what you still need to do then you can move forward proactively.

Nathan

Prep Parallels

Daily Post

You’ll do very similar work to your examiners as you all get ready for your viva.

Both preparations involve reading your thesis. Your examiners will be considering it for the first time while you refresh your memory. All of you will be reading it carefully.

All of you will be making notes and writing summaries in some form. You’ll all probably mark up copies of your thesis and while you might summarise various aspects of your research your examiners will write reports ahead of the viva.

You’ll all be thinking about questions although you’ll do it in different ways. Your examiners will plan for questions or topics that they think need to come up. You could do similar but more likely you’ll find rehearsal opportunities.

You approach your viva with a different purpose to your examiners. You’re doing similar work for different reasons but you have a lot in common – including the fact that all of you could be feeling quite nervous!

Nathan

Second Thoughts

Daily Post

They’re probably better than your first thoughts at the viva.

First thoughts might come from nerves, worry, mishearing a word, wanting to get a point across or wanting to move past a question as quickly as possible.

Second thoughts are definitely considered. They might be the same as first thoughts but they might have more nuance or be better expressed. They’ll slow the pace a little and show your thinking.

Think, then think again. Take your time to give the best responses you can at your viva.

Nathan

Doctor Time

Daily Post

The moment will come when you’re really, really done with your PhD but there are lots of steps along the way that might feel like endings.

  • How will you celebrate when you pass your viva?
  • How will you celebrate when you graduate?
  • What will being Doctor Someone mean to you?

Finishing your PhD is a big deal. It’s much bigger than the viva.

Thinking about the end can help you plan ahead, figure out how you feel and potentially motivate you for the work you still have to do.

You celebrate, you change and then what?

Nathan

Easy Modes

Daily Post

My daughter and I laugh sometimes about how willing I am to lower the difficulty down to easy mode on video games. I’m happy to be challenged by what I play but also like having lots of different game experiences. I don’t want to be stuck on a boss for fifteen attempts!

Easy mode means I get to play a lot and I still have to play the games to complete them, easy mode doesn’t skip the play.

 

Anyway, defensiveness about my declining video game skills aside, there’s no difficulty slider for the viva. You can’t turn the questions down to easy or tweak your examiners’ stats. You can’t make the viva easy but you can:

  • Know what to expect;
  • Be prepared;
  • And build confidence.

And that’s it actually: you don’t need anything else.

You’ve done the work prior to submission and you can do a little more after your thesis is finished to be ready for the epic challenge of your viva.

You can’t make it easy and you don’t need to. You can be ready instead.

Nathan

A New Approach

Daily Post

Congratulations if you have found a new approach or a new way of doing things as part of your research! That by itself meets the definition of an original contribution to research (and it’ll probably have some significance too!).

It’s great but it might invite questions:

  • Why is this approach more appropriate than others?
  • If there were no others how do you know that this one is good?
  • How do you defend the approach if it differs from previous expectations?

Anyone might ask these questions but they are also representative of the kinds of questions that could occur to examiners too (although theirs might be more specialised).

None of these kinds of questions are problems though. They’re opportunities to share something good. You’ve done something new. You’ve done something helpful.

It’s natural to worry or wonder but equally you can take time to prepare and even practise how you communicate your approach.

Nathan

The 3Ps Of Good Viva Prep

Daily Post

Good viva prep is practical: there’s a lot of thought involved but you are doing things, not simply thinking about your research, thesis and viva. You might be writing summaries, rehearsing, reading and annotating or something else. Good viva prep is practical.

Good viva prep is personal: there are big picture principles of the work involved but you need to do them in a way that meets your needs, your research and your circumstances. How will you write summaries, rehearse or annotate your thesis? Good viva prep is personal.

Good viva prep is planned: there’s plenty of time between submission and the viva to get ready but you also have a life. Rather than wing it with the work and potentially build up stress, plan for when you will write summaries, rehearse and annotate your thesis. Good viva prep is planned.

Good viva prep is practical, personal and planned.

Nathan

Finding The Rules

Daily Post

The regulations for your viva shouldn’t be hidden but they might not be obvious. Ahead of your thesis submission find the regulations and take a little time to check:

  • What forms need to be handed in ahead of your thesis submission?
  • When do they need to be in and who else is involved?
  • What is the expected window of time between submission and the viva at your institution?
  • Under what circumstances might you have an independent chairperson as part of your viva?
  • If you have accessibility requirements how do you communicate those to your examiners? (who do you tell and when do they need to know?)
  • How will you be told the logistics for your viva?
  • What is the process for having a video viva?
  • What can you expect from the viva process generally?
  • How will you find out the result of the viva?
  • What deadlines are given for completing different categories of corrections?
  • What is the process for having corrections checked?
  • And what is the process for final thesis submission after corrections have been accepted?

None of these should be especially difficult to answer if you look through the regulations. One final question which might not be obvious though: who would you contact in case of emergency?

If you feel ill the day before your viva, who do you contact? If one of your examiners cancels their involvement, who do you contact?

An emergency might be unlikely but, as part of checking the regulations, figure out who you can turn to if something goes wrong in the days leading up to your viva.

Nathan

Reflecting On Capable

Daily Post

Some questions to consider as you get ready for your viva:

  • When did you know you had made a significant and original research contribution?
  • What’s the most interesting thing you know now that you didn’t know when you started your PhD?
  • How many references have you listed in your bibliography? (and how many more potential references did you read?)
  • What do you understand about your research area now that you had no idea about when you started?

A key part of the viva process is your internal and external examining your capability as a researcher. They need to get a sense that you are good. It helps to reflect on this in advance of your viva: it helps you prepare and builds your certainty that you are good.

Reflecting on your capability leads towards finding confidence for your viva.

 

PS: You’ll find more reflections in the latest issue of Viva Survivors Select. The 2025 Issue collects twenty of my favourite blog posts from last year and adds two new pages of viva help. Please take a look at the zine and some pages here – and pick it up if it seems helpful 🙂 Oh, and please spread the word if you can!

1 2 3 4 5 … 344