Nathan

Dealing With A Difficult Topic

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It’s reasonable to be concerned about unexpected questions, but those aren’t the most difficult topics or questions. You probably already know the most difficult topics that would come up at your viva.

What don’t you want to talk about? What do you struggle to remember? What might be controversial in your research?

Difficult topics are the kinds of things to take your time with in preparation and in the viva. There’s time. There’s no need to rush but if a difficult topic comes up at the viva there is a need to talk about it.

If you know a difficult topic ahead of your viva then prepare. Ask for help, ask your supervisor, rehearse by discussing the area and taking questions. Don’t try to ignore it. Don’t simply hope that it won’t come up.

Nathan

Planning Ahead

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The viva is a big deal. Consequently viva prep can feel like a big deal too.

Viva prep isn’t trivial but the emotions and pressures of the viva and the end of the PhD – not to mention a busy daily life – could make viva prep time feel stressful.

One of the simplest ways to remove stress from viva prep is to plan it out. Sketch a plan when you submit. How would you space the work out? You can know what you need to do – there is a lot of information about it on this blog! – so by sketching a plan you can get a feel for how you can do the work given your situation and preferences.

Planning ahead isn’t the only way to approach viva prep. It is probably the path to getting the work done with the least stress.

 

PS: Looking for more viva prep help? Dig deeper into the topic with the third issue of Viva Survivors Select, my viva help zine of curated posts from the Viva Survivors archive!

Nathan

“What Does This Mean?”

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Four words that can feel very loaded in the viva.

If your examiners ask does that mean your thesis didn’t say it? Or was there a mistake? Or…?

In truth, “What does this mean?” could be a simple way to start a new topic. It could be a question that seeks clarity. Or a small question to start exploring something more deeply.

With the importance of the viva it’s easy to see how it can be received as a difficult and troubling question. Your examiners could just want to know more.

“What does this mean?” is a simple question, asked for many reasons.

Nathan

Anti-Perfect

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You can’t write a perfect thesis from a perfect piece of research that then leads to a perfect viva experience.

I can understand aiming for perfection and trying to make something as good as possible but working towards “enough” is probably more sensible.

You can define enough. Enough has a quantity: enough research, enough words, enough work to get ready. You can plan for enough. You can work for enough.

No corrections doesn’t mean that your work was perfect.

Enough. You are good enough. You have done enough. Do enough for prep and do enough in your viva. Perfect is a distraction and you can do better. You can do enough.

Nathan

Not As Expected

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If things don’t go as planned you have to act.

  • If your research doesn’t go as planned, what do you do instead?
  • If the first choice for your external examiner isn’t available who do you ask?
  • If your mock viva has to be cancelled what do you do now?
  • And if your viva doesn’t follow expectations in some way, what do you do?

You always have to do something. It’s important to remember that you always have agency. The unexpected shows up and you have to do something and you do and then you move on to the next thing.

You might need to ask for help or information. You might even need to check the regulations but, regardless, if something doesn’t follow your plan or expectations you’ll need to do something.

You can do your best, take action and move forward – and remember that while some things don’t go as expected a lot does work out.

Remind yourself of your effort and your impact and be thankful if you can for all the things in your PhD journey that worked out as planned.

 

PS: If you’re looking for more viva help and advice in the coming months then follow my Eventbrite page to get notified of future independent webinars like Viva Survivor and 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva. Dates coming soon!

Nathan

You Got Here

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If you’ve submitted your thesis remember that that’s down to your time and work.

You had help and support. There were expectations that shaped what you did.

You did the work.

Having got this far there’s not much further to go on your PhD journey.

If you got this far, keep going. If you got this far, despite all the challenges within your research and from the wider world, keep going.

Survive can be defined as manage to keep going in difficult circumstances.

You got here. Keep going.

Nathan

Varieties Of Questions

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There can be lots of questions at a viva.

Some will be easy but many could be hard.

A question could be asked very simply but have a complicated response – and vice versa.

You can definitely expect certain questions and also know that some will be completely unknown to you.

Some will be quick and others long.

A response could be yes or no, true or false or a small essay of words.

 

There are lots of types of questions that can come up at the viva but all have a few things in common.

They’re fair.

They’re reasonable.

They’re always asked with a purpose in mind.

And they’re all a part of the process of getting you to say more, show more and engage with your examiners.

Nathan

Saying More

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You can start a response at the viva with, “Well, my supervisor told me to…”

You always need to say something more.

You could talk about why your supervisor advised that. You could reference what stage of your PhD this was. You could unpick what you had already tried. You could say more about how you applied the suggestion. Depending on the situation you might even be talking about what didn’t work and what you then had to do instead!

Your examiners know that you’ve had support. They expect that you were given guidance or told what to do at many stages of your PhD. You can say that but you need to say more to show your role and efforts.

Nathan

It Depends

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I love being asked interesting questions:

  • “Should I invite my supervisor to my viva?”
  • “Is it a good idea to have an examiner whose work I’ve cited extensively?”
  • “Do I need to re-read these three papers that were the basis for my experiments?”
  • “Is it a good idea for me to have a mock viva the week before?”
  • “Will my university grant me this request?”
  • “Can I take a laptop or tablet with my thesis on?”

For all these questions and many more, I’m happy to help someone and share some thoughts – but any response has to begin with “It depends…”

It might depend on what the regulations say. It might be a good idea generally but it depends on personal circumstances. It might typically be something I wouldn’t recommend but someone’s preferences make it a reasonable suggestion.

There are a lot of simple solutions to common viva questions and problems. There’s a lot of nuance as well. A lot might depend on the regulations, your research and you.

Nathan

A Lot Of Thank Yous

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Today marks fifteen years since I shared my first Viva Survivor session. That means it is fifteen years since the start of a long and thankfully continuing journey that has lead me to be someone who spends a lot of time writing about, talking about and thinking about the viva.

In particular, someone who thinks about how to help people with their viva: how to help someone know what to do, who to ask around them for help and how to deal with the feelings or problems they might have.

 

Helping was the start: “Can you help us out by doing a workshop for final year PhDs? We think it would be fun to call it Viva Survivor!”

Fifteen years ago today I arrived to setup and the person who booked me said, “Actually, there was a massive waiting list for this… Are you free any time next week?”

Viva Survivor was not an overnight success story though. I did the session at the University of Manchester several times a year for a few years, then another uni asked, then another and then I thought, “Hmmm… Maybe I should follow this…”

 

Over 500 viva help sessions in total, 9890 PhD candidates, three books, a handful of zines, a Kickstarter, 64 episodes of a podcast and almost 3000 daily posts later…

 

I am really glad that I followed this and very thankful for all the requests, invitations and help along the way.

A very big thank you to Dee-Ann Johnson and Jim Boran, the first people to ask me to do Viva Survivor for their PGRs.

Thank you to the many institutions who have invited me to share Viva Survivor over the years – and for inviting me back! Thank you to the many doctoral training centres and programmes who have also invited me to work with their cohorts.

Thank you to the many, many postgraduate researchers who have contributed to the success of Viva Survivor and this site by showing up, asking questions, sharing what I do, sometimes buying a book or booking a ticket for an independent webinar.

An enormous thank you to my wife and daughter who have heard all about the viva far too much for anyone.

And thank you, whoever you are, for reading this and the other posts I share.

 

Normal service resumes tomorrow. Today, find one person who has helped your journey and thank them 🙂

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