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Nathan

What Will It Take?

Daily Post

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

Daily Post

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?

Nathan

Surprising Questions From Candidates

Daily Post

I’m enjoying a nice summer break, but while I do I am missing sharing viva help in webinars. Before 2020 I’d already delivered viva sessions and workshops for a decade.

With all of that combined experience – as you might imagine – I’ve been asked a LOT of questions about the viva. From the hyper-specific to the incredibly-vague and the super-practical to the ultra-hypothetical, thirteen years later I’m still asked questions that I’ve never been asked before.

And I’ve been asked more than a few questions that really surprise me. For example:

  • Can I have a break if the viva is long? Yes, in fact you can always have a break!
  • Can I take my thesis with me to check details? Yes, you’re expected to have it with you!
  • Will I know who my examiners are before my viva? Yes, this is arranged well before the date!
  • Will my examiners fail me if I forget something or don’t know something? No!
  • How mean will my examiners be? They won’t be, that’s not what they’re there to do!

Sometimes, when I’m asked a question, the person apologises, “Sorry, this might be a stupid question-” and I always cut them off. There are no stupid questions when you’re looking for information or trying to learn more, particularly at a webinar about the PhD viva.

There are no stupid questions, but there are questions that are surprising to me.

I’m surprised that some of what people don’t know about the viva isn’t just shared by supervisors. I’m surprised it’s not passed on through peer groups. I’m surprised that candidates don’t know that they can have a break, for example, or that examiners aren’t trying to be mean.

But they’re not stupid questions. I’m always glad to make a space that could help.

I would encourage you, to help your communities and culture, do pass on what your viva was like. Share to help build up the general sense of what to expect.

Nathan

Under It

Daily Post

Viva prep doesn’t take much, space it out, don’t overstress yourself by trying to do too much in too short a time-

Good advice but if you are really under time pressure, if you just feel stress because of your work or your life, and if the thought of adding more to that feels terrible, the words above won’t help.

If you are overwhelmed you still need to prepare. If you are overwhelmed it might be difficult to think straight. Very simply then:

  • Ask for help.
  • Find a little time each day and do something small.
  • Read your thesis.
  • Make notes.
  • Talk about your work – respond to questions if you can.
  • Seriously: ask for help!

You’re the only person who can respond in the viva, but until then you have a lot of people around you who would support you practically if they knew you needed it. You have work to do to get ready for your viva – but you are not alone.

Little things add up. Your supporters will help. And it will get better.

Nathan

Expectations Matter

Daily Post

Every viva is unique, but expectations show that yours will not be a total unknown.

Expectations provide an outline.

“Vivas are generally like this and not like that.”

Viva expectations shape preparation and build confidence.

The set of expectations you build up are a structure based on regulations and stories.

They build certainty but provide no guarantees.

Expectations matter because they are far better than wondering “What if…?”

And expectations typically show that vivas are nowhere near as terrible or challenging as the vague worries and unverified rumours about what happens.

Read the regulations. Listen to the stories. Ask around.

Find a set of expectations that will help you work towards being ready for your viva.

Nathan

Predicting Failure

Daily Post

It’s clear that most PhD vivas results in success.

Ask your graduate school. Look online. Talk to people who have been through the process. The vast majority succeed. Corrections are part of the process and not a failure or setback. The process of doing a PhD, submitting a thesis and having a viva is not perfect, but it tends to work.

So accurately predicting success as the outcome of submission and the viva is simple.

Candidates succeed at the viva for very similar reasons, even when their research and theses could be very different. They succeed because they did the work, they wrote a good enough thesis and became a capable researcher. In the viva, they were able to demonstrate everything they needed to in order to pass.

 

Accurately predicting failure is much, much more challenging. Candidates pass for very similar reasons. They fail for very different, personal ones. It’s hard to know in advance.

Worry and nervousness isn’t enough. The vast majority of candidates succeed and most of them are in some way nervous about their viva! If you genuinely feel concerned that you’ve missed something or that something isn’t good enough, talk to someone. Talk to your supervisor. Talk to your graduate school. Talk to friends and colleagues and anyone who could help and ask them, “Do I really have a problem here? Am I just a little nervous? What can I do?”

Get help if your thoughts are turning to failure. It’s extremely unlikely, but finding a way that you can work towards success is much better than trying to assess how likely it is that you’re headed for failure.

Nathan

Prep Club

Daily Post

I often describe the work of viva prep as being similar to the work of a PhD. The work has a different focus but it exercises the same knowledge and abilities. For the most part it continues to be something that a candidate would do alone.

But does it have to be work you do solo? Whether or not you have friends and colleagues around you who are also getting ready for their viva, do you know people who could:

  • Be in the same space as you while you read your thesis, so that you’re not alone?
  • Bounce ideas around with you about how to annotate your thesis?
  • Go for coffee and listen to you talk about your research?
  • Help you even more by having a mini-viva with you?

If you know fellow PGRs who are also preparing then even better, but start by considering who your allies are. Start by asking for the support you need, if you need something.

The first rule of Prep Club is you tell other people about your need for Prep Club.

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