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Nathan

Be Kind To Yourself

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Plan your prep. You’re busy, you’re tired and you have 101 things to do. Plan your prep so that the work doesn’t add to any stress and pressure you already feel.

Accept your mistakes. Typos and clunky sentences don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. Spot them? Make a note and move on.

Ask for help. You have people around you who care and can support you. Ask for what you need and pay it forward when you’re asked in the future.

Gather your resources. Bring together what you need as early as you can so you don’t waste time or focus later. Make a space and a place for doing the work needed to get ready.

Tell good stories. TO YOURSELF. Remind the nervous person inside you what you have achieved, what you have learned and what you can do. Tell good stories about the last few years to help your confidence.

Be kind to yourself.

Nathan

Part Of Something

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Remember that as you finish your PhD journey and have your viva that you are part of something.

Several somethings!

  • You are part of a community: there are many people around you who can offer support.
  • You are part of a tradition: lots of vivas happen every year and lots have happened in the past – stories and expectations are not hard to find.
  • You are part of a genealogy of researchers: whatever your path from here on, you can still share your experience and help with future generations, just as you have had help on your journey.

Also remember that your PhD journey is only a part of you: not all of you and not the best of you. As you finish that journey you have to figure out what it really means for your future and what you will do next.

Nathan

Alone

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You are the only person in your viva who can speak for you and your work. The questions and comments from your examiners, the discussion that follows, all of it is is centred on getting you to engage and talk. You, and you alone, can respond.

Before the viva, however, you are not alone – there are many people who can offer you support.

  • Your supervisors provide professional support over a long period of time. As you approach the viva they can share their perspectives and offer a mock viva.
  • Friends and colleagues from your research community can share their stories and listen to your concerns, offering support when able.
  • Friends and family from your non-research life can offer their love and listen. They can help to create a good environment for you to do the work you need to do. Share what you really need.

You get to the viva, alone, but supported. You’re the only one in a position to respond, buoyed by the support and help of many others. You, and you alone, can – and will – rise to this challenge.

Nathan

The Interesting Times Gang

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Has it really been three years? That’s when I shared Interesting Times, just before the first UK COVID lockdown. It was a strange time, and that strangeness seems to have been magnified and distorted as the last few years have unfolded. Since then we have had other global events, cost of living problems, social and political challenges and much more.

Two years ago I shared Still Interesting Times. Last year was Interesting Times Forever and I wondered if that might be the last time I made special note of the date, but I have at least this one more post in me.

 

The late and wonderful Iain M. Banks introduced The Interesting Times Gang in the novel Excession: the Gang are a group of super-artificial intelligences in a far future who convene when they encounter situations that are beyond even their remarkable abilities. They meet, they talk, they ask questions, they brainstorm and do the equivalent of whiteboarding any and every scenario they can think of. And then they get to work and do their best to meet that novel situation.

In the present day, interesting times are here to stay, and interesting times impact everything, big and small. So make sure you find your own interesting times gang – for your life and for your viva. As I’ve noted in the last few years of interesting times posts, everyone needs help. You might need help or you might be in a position to offer it.

Ask for help when you need it. Offer to help when you can.

For your viva you might need someone to listen, someone to share expectations, someone to help you get past anxieties or problems (real or imagined), someone to discuss your work with or someone to tell you that it’s going to be alright and why. And once you’ve had your viva, you can offer the same to others.

The last three years have been a lot. The next few years are bound to have some more of the same, at least sometimes. Rest when you can. Help when you can. Keep going, and remember that you have got as far as you have by being good, by growing, by learning and by being persistent at what you do.

Ask for help when you need it. Offer to help when you can.

Nathan

Help!

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There’s a lot of help available for your viva.

The secret is to ask for help before all you can think is “Help!”

  • Your supervisor can answer questions, offer opinions and put your mind at ease.
  • Friends can listen, share their experiences, support you and wish you well.
  • Family and loved ones can help make a space for you to get ready. Perhaps they won’t know what you’re going to be doing at the viva exactly, but they can still support you.
  • Your institution can offer resources, signpost the regulations and perhaps offer sessions or materials to help you feel ready.

Don’t leave any of this to the last minute. Don’t let stress, doubt and worries build up.

Ask for help. Don’t wait for “Help!”

Nathan

Practical Matters

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Every so often I’m asked the following sorts of questions by future viva-havers:

  • Will I need to solve equations in my viva?
  • Do I need to take a laptop with me to show my programming?
  • Would it be best to take a prop to demonstrate how I did something?

My response to these questions and the hundred-and-one similar questions I’ve been asked is, “Maybe!”

I solved equations in my viva. I was stood at a chalkboard, sketching diagrams, showing how they were connected and demonstrating the algebra that underpinned my work. But if you weren’t a mathematician you wouldn’t expect to do that.

Are there visual ways of representing what you’ve done? Are there clearly defined processes that show how to do what you did? Then perhaps you might be asked to sketch something in your viva.

You can ask friends, colleagues and supervisors: in fact, they are the best people to ask.

Do you need tools, equipment or resources? Might you be asked to demonstrate something? I don’t know – but you know someone who will. Ask them!

Nathan

Out With The Old

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What are you holding on to that you don’t need any more?

Perhaps it’s a drift of papers that you’ve never quite got around to reading. Maybe some scraps of notes for a section you’re not sure you need in your thesis. Or maybe you’re holding on to ideas about the viva that don’t help you.

If you think that vivas are a big mystery, then you can replace those thoughts with real expectations. Talk to people about their viva experiences, read blog posts and find out more. If you wonder what examiners might ask about your work then talk to your supervisor. Again, ask people about their vivas for a sense of what’s wanted. And read your thesis because that’s something you’ll definitely be asked about in your viva.

And if you worry that you’re not good enough, that you need to know more or need to be better, then look back over your PhD journey for the success. Look for the highlights. Realise when and how you have become a more capable researcher.

Let go of the old ideas that don’t help, and find new ways to think about yourself, your work and the viva.

Nathan

Just Ask

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Need help before your viva? Just ask.

There are lots of people who can help you practically. Your supervisors, your friends and your colleagues could all do things to help with your preparations.

Need to know more about the viva? Just ask.

You know people who have succeeded who can share their story. You know people who know what’s involved. And there are some people out there – hello! – who write blogs or articles or can otherwise share thoughts if you need them.

Just ask. A lot of viva prep depends on what you do by yourself but you are not alone. Ask for help if you need it. Look for support if there’s something missing.

Nathan

A Clear Desk

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Start your viva prep with a clear desk, then think about what you might need to add back.

Just imagine…

  • You need your thesis.
  • You need some small bits of stationery, either to add things to your thesis or to make notes.
  • You need a few papers you want to check, or perhaps a device to read them on.
  • You need your diary for making arrangements with your supervisor or friends for some practise.
  • You probably need some refreshments too!

Now with all of that in your mind’s eye realise that viva prep doesn’t take much. It doesn’t take lots of resources and it won’t take long to complete.

Nathan

Not Noticed

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Twenty minutes before my first webinar of the autumn I realised that I couldn’t close my office door.

The panel from the side of the bath was in the way, leaning just beside the door. I had taken it off two months earlier to fix a leak and never quite got around to putting it back. I’d become so used to it being there that I no longer noticed it when I was passing through the doorway.

I spent two hurried minutes jiggling and fiddling with it to get it back into place on the side of the bath where it belonged. Then I washed my hands, took a deep breath and it was time for the webinar.

My bath panel is pretty big but it was only a little problem to resolve. It was stressful in that moment because of the urgency. It would have been far better to look around in the previous days (or weeks!) and sort it out sooner.

 

Little problems can be overcome once we notice them. Little problems in your thesis or your research are less stressful to resolve before the viva than in your viva. While you can’t just prime yourself to notice what you’ve not noticed previously, you can work carefully during your viva prep to look for little problems.

  • Read your thesis without skimming. What do you see? Typos aren’t a problem because they don’t require you to come up with a solution. A clunky sentence might be a problem. How do you make it clearer? A forgotten topic is a problem. What can you do to refresh your memory?
  • Ask for considered feedback when you rehearse. Your friend not understanding you is a problem. How can you explain your point better? Your supervisor disagreeing with you is a problem. How can you explore the issue?

A clunky passage in your thesis or a misunderstanding in the viva will not lead to your failure. Little problems are little, but remember: little problems are less stressful to resolve before the viva than in your viva. By working to spot what you’ve not noticed before you can pre-emptively fix things – or give yourself more practice solving little problems for the viva.

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