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Nathan

Always Ask

Daily Post

As you prepare for your viva, always ask for help if you need it. Ask your supervisor for their advice or guidance, ask your friends about their vivas and ask your family and friends to support you as you get ready.

While you’re in the viva, always ask your examiners if something is unclear. Ask them to rephrase a question, ask for more information and ask for their opinion if you really want to know.

As you get ready, always ask yourself how you’re feeling. Ask and reflect on whether or not you’re moving in the right direction, ask yourself if you need to do something more than your plans and consider whether you need to do anything else to build yourself up.

And again, while you’re in the viva, always ask for a break if you need one. Ask yourself to breathe. Ask yourself to take it one question at a time. And ask yourself to be kind to yourself in those hours, if you’re nervous or stressed or uncertain.

Nathan

Find Out More

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A lot of viva worries come from not knowing what to expect – so find out more.

Read the regulations. Ask your supervisors. Talk to friends, talk to post-docs, talk to people who have been down the path to the viva before and succeeded.

Check online. Read a blog or two. Listen to a couple of podcasts. Explore the many resources produced by your institution and others.

It’s not wrong to be worried about the viva. There’s work to do and academic culture makes the viva seem a bit daunting.

There’s a little mystery in the process and what to expect, but a wealth of information in so many places that can help take away any worries you have – or at the very least help you to figure out what you can do to beat those worries back.

If you feel worried about the viva, go find out more.

Nathan

Academic Siblings

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During my PhD I came across the Mathematics Genealogy Project: an attempt to explore the family tree of mathematicians going back hundreds and hundreds of years.

Maybe you have something similar in your discipline or maybe you have a general appreciation that you are part of a tradition: your work continues to build on the past ideas, research and achievements of other dedicated humans. It’s nice to think about and can be very helpful to reflect on where your work comes from as you get ready for the viva.

Don’t forget you have academic siblings today too. There are many people around you who can help you to get ready for your viva, either by helping you practically, sharing information or simply being there. Make sure you ask for support from people who are really well-placed to help.

Nathan

Trusted Perspectives

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When you’re getting ready for your viva ask people who know about vivas. Get specific help rather than general impressions.

When you’re getting ready ask people who know you for help. Ask friends about their experiences and for a little of their time. Ask your supervisors to give you their considered thoughts about your work and about the viva itself.

When getting ready ask your institution for support. Ask them for the regulations, check what things mean and learn who to talk to in case anything goes wrong.

Above all, ask the right questions of the right people. Look around widely for support, but ask people you can trust first: you can trust them either because they know you or they know what you need to know.

Nathan

Community Matters

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You’re not alone as you prepare for your viva. Your are part of a research community: your department, your research network and even random people you know on social media. Every member of this community can play a part in helping you.

  • Senior academics, like your supervisor and others, can help you understand what’s involved in the viva. What do they do to get ready as examiners? What do they look for? What does that mean for you?
  • PhD graduates from your department can share what they did to get ready and what happened. What helped them? What happened at their viva? What do they recommend you do?
  • Other PhD candidates can help you to get ready now. Who has time? What do you need? Does anyone have time to chat with you or listen to you talk about your research?

You’re the only person who can go to your viva and meet with your examiners. It’s your viva – but before then there is a lot of support available to you.

And after your viva you have the opportunity to support others in your community too.

Nathan

What Will It Take?

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When you start to prepare for your viva, make a list of what you will need to feel prepared. Ask yourself:

  • What practical materials do you need to help you get ready?
  • How much time do you have to invest?
  • Who do you need to consult with?
  • What key tasks do you have to have finished?
  • What activities will you engage with?
  • What outputs or outcomes will help you to know that you are prepared?

With all of these questions responded to and items listed, you have a checklist. The more you mark off, the closer you are to being sure you’re ready. Even if you can’t get everything – say, if you can’t have a mock viva – if you manage most things then you can feel pretty confident for the big day.

What will it take for you to feel ready? Make a list and do as much as you can.

Nathan

Not A PhD

Daily Post

For over a decade Viva Survivors has been geared towards the PhD viva and helping people get ready, but PhD candidates aren’t the only postgraduate researchers who have a viva.

What if you’re doing an EngD or an EdD? Or an MPhil? Or an MScR? Or you’re researching towards another collection of letters?

How do the hundreds of thousands of words on Viva Survivors (and the resources, and the podcast archive) apply when you’re not doing a PhD viva? What changes? What stays the same?

I don’t know – or at least, I don’t know everything.

 

The basic principles of viva prep hold. The ideas of getting ready and building confidence based on your success and development hold.

But the regulations will differ, at least a little. Viva expectations might differ because the general experience of an MScR viva, for example, might not be quite the same as a PhD viva.

But still there is help out there and on Viva Survivors.

Whatever your research degree, read the regulations for your institution. Whatever you’re working towards, talk to people who have gone on the journey before you and ask them questions about what their viva was like. Take time to think about what you need to do to prepare, plan your prep and then get it done.

Whatever you do, ask for help. Whatever you do, take time to get ready. Whatever you do, share what’s helped with others when you’re done.

Then go on and do something even better, because your research degree is only one step in the journey.

Nathan

Ask Your Peers

Daily Post

Where peers are your friends, colleagues, acquaintances and whatever other titles you can think of!

Ask about their vivas. Ask about their experiences. Ask what they know about the viva.

Ask them what they did to get ready and if they have any advice (but only if they will offer suggestions and not instructions).

Ask them to help you if it’s appropriate.

Seek help now. Offer help later.

Nathan

Your Preferences & Needs

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Preferences are the things that we’d like, but which we could work around if needed. Preferences for your viva and viva prep might include:

  • Starting in a morning;
  • Reading your thesis with a fresh pot of coffee;
  • Knowing your external a little;
  • Having a mock viva to help you get ready.

You might have a strong preference but, for example, if your supervisor was unable to host a mock viva then you would still go on.

Needs are different. For your viva and viva prep you might need:

  • Advance notice or special arrangements for your viva;
  • Specific stationery or time to annotate your thesis;
  • Agreement that your viva will definitely be over video;
  • To not have a mock viva!

Preferences are very different from needs.

 

To begin with: what do you want for your viva? Which of these wants are preferences and which are needs?

For the preferences: what can you do to get your preferences met? Who might you need to ask for help? What could you do if a preference couldn’t be fulfilled?

For your needs: what can you do to ensure your needs are met? Who can you ask for support? How can you clearly communicate those needs to the people who need to know?

Nathan

Find A Guide

Daily Post

Imagine a service on the internet or app on your phone: at the press of a button and by answering a few questions you could be connected to a PhD graduate who could tell you all about their viva.

They would be someone who had completed their PhD in the last few years. They couldn’t have done the same research as you, but would have either a similar knowledge base or common understanding of terms and methods. You could ask them about their prep and their viva. What did they do? What worked for them? What happened? How did they feel?

You could unpick expectations by learning about their experience. In thirty minutes you could get a good sense of the sort of thing that happens at vivas in your research area. This app or website wouldn’t give you a perfect understanding but rather a good idea.

How much would this app or service cost? How would it work? I don’t know!

But that’s OK. You don’t need it. You can already get the same outcome today already.

Think about who you know from your department: who could you ask who has recently completed their PhD? Who do you know who has relevant experience and information? Who could be your guide to what to expect at your viva? Who could share ideas of what could help you to get ready?

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