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Nathan

You’re Not The First

Daily Post

You’re not the first person to have a viva.

You’re not the first person to feel nervous, anxious, worried or afraid. You’re not the first person to worry that you could or should have done more. You’re not the first PhD candidate to feel you needed more things to go right. You’re not the first candidate to have vague worries or specific concerns about the viva.

You’re also not the first candidate to pass with all of these being true.

You’re not the first person to feel this way but that doesn’t make it any less real or hard. Thankfully it means there are others who will know what it is like to be in your position and be able to help you.

You won’t be the last person to have a viva either – which means that you’ll be able to help others as they get ready to meet their examiners.

Get help now as you need it. Give help later when you can.

Nathan

Realistic

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You can’t know exactly what will happen at your viva before you have it.

But you can know about the many vivas of your friends and colleagues. Use stories of vivas in the past to help get ready for yours in the future.

From these stories you can see that vivas range in length. They’re fairly structured conversations. You can expect challenging questions. You can also know who your examiners are and what they do. You can’t know what questions they will ask, but you can get a sense of what they might want.

Altogether you can have a good idea of what your viva will be like. You can build up a realistic set of expectations rather than worry about the unknown aspects.

Nathan

Outcomes, Strategies & Tactics

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There are desirable outcomes for viva prep but lots of paths that could lead to those outcomes. Strategy is an overall type of activity that helps a candidate; tactics are the many approaches that could help someone. Effectiveness depends on time available, the preferences of the candidate and many other factors.

For example, a desirable outcome for the viva is that a candidate has a clear enough picture of their research in their mind: not photographic recall, just a good feel for the flow of the work they’ve presented.

A simple strategy for this would be for a candidate to take time to read their thesis and refresh their memory. Possible tactics – again, influenced by different factors – could be to find an afternoon to read the thesis in one sitting. Or to read one chapter per evening. Or for a certain time each day. Or to focus on particular aspects in order.

When someone tells you a precise way to prepare it might not be right for you. They’re usually describing tactics that may help with good intentions. Behind the tactics will be a strategy that almost certainly will help, leading to an outcome that you need. If some tactics don’t sound quite right for you, then listen for the strategy.

If you know the strategy you need, consider what tactics will help you best. How will you organise yourself? What particular help do you need?

Nathan

Be Brave

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I would hope you don’t need to be brave for your viva. I would hope that whatever worries or concerns you have, they don’t overwhelm so much that you need to find courage. Given everything you’ve done before, your viva should not be such a great challenge.

But if you do find yourself more anxious than confident, if you do feel fear and you need to be brave, remember:

  • You are not alone. There are many people who can and will support you. Ask for help. Ask early, ask often.
  • The viva is not a mystery. You don’t have to fear the unknown. Check the regulations, learn about expectations and listen to viva stories.
  • You have already come a long way. You’re not beginning an epic journey, you’re near the end. You don’t have far to go.

You don’t need to find a lot of courage or do a lot of work to be ready. Be brave if you need to be. Ask for help if you need it. Keep going.

Nathan

Clearing Out Viva Doubts

Daily Post

Viva doubts thrive in wondering whether or not you really have made a contribution. Viva doubts prosper in worrying that you’re not quite good enough. Viva doubts linger around stories and what-ifs, concern that things aren’t going to go well or that others’ experiences won’t match your own.

Viva doubts are cleared away by knowledge. Asking questions leads to information that helps remove them from your mind. You can ask your supervisor about your research to gain certainty that you’ve made a contribution. You can ask yourself questions to reflect on your journey and see that you’ve become even better than you were. You can ask friends about their experiences to really see a set of good expectations for your viva.

Ask the right people the right questions and there’s no home for doubts about your viva.

Nathan

The S-word

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I try to be as careful as possible using the s-word.

…should…

You should get ready for your viva this way…

You should be prepared for your examiners to ask…

You should start your viva prep…

Lots of well-meant advice is hard to hear, hard to act on or hard to follow because the person speaking throws the s-word in the mix. It can raise tensions or muddy expectations. It can increase pressure on someone struggling if they hear that they should do something, in a specific way or at a specific time, that conflicts with what they feel able to do.

Don’t ask for people to tell you what you should do to get ready for your viva.

Don’t tell people what they should do for their viva.

Share ideas. Say why something helped you. Tell them what could work. Say why something could be valuable.

Leave the s-word out of it.

Nathan

What’s Your Worry?

Daily Post

Don’t keep your viva worry bottled up in your brain where you can merely be anxious about it.

Write it down. Tell a friend. Talk to your supervisor.

Your worry could be unfounded. Talking to someone who has had their viva or knows about the process could put your concerns in perspective. They could help you see what you can do to help yourself.

Your worry could be easily resolved. Being clear with yourself and knowing what’s wrong and could allow you to move forwards.

Your worry could be a tough situation – in which case exploring what you could do and what you will do, possibly with support from others, will allow you to work past that worry.

It’s natural, given the importance of your viva, that you might have worries. If you do then you can also do something about them.

Nathan

Your Way

Daily Post

In the end, getting ready for the viva comes down to you figuring out your way to make it work.

There’s a lot of viva advice, both general and practical. This site alone contains over 24 hours of podcast interviews and 1500+ blog posts. You can’t do it all. As helpful as I like to be you can’t apply it all to your situation.

You have to do it your way.

Your friends, colleagues and supervisors will be able to help. They’ll have their experience. They might have key information which could help you get ready. But they’re not you: your life, your research and your situation might be so different that to do what they advise might be stressful or even impossible.

You have to do it your way.

So listen. Find sources that you can trust. Ask questions, then check the answers against your situation. Find a way to make it work for you. There’s lots of good advice out there. There are lots of things that will help you be ready and feel ready. But there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to viva prep.

You have to do it your way.

Nathan

“How Can I Help?”

Daily Post

If you’ve had your viva, and a friend or colleague has theirs coming soon, ask these four words first, before you start to offer your story, your opinion or your advice. See what support someone needs. Get a sense of how they’re feeling.

If you’ve not had your viva yet, and a friend or colleague has theirs coming soon, still ask how you can help. Your friend might need a sympathetic ear, a sounding board, someone to listen or someone to ask more questions to help them reflect.

You don’t need to have had your viva to help someone else with theirs.

Nathan

Cloud on the Horizon

Daily Post

Off in the distance, on the edge of a clear blue sky is a single cloud. Something to be aware of, but not something that needs to be acted on. The wind may never blow it your way, and even if it does, how could one cloud spoil a beautiful day?

That’s one way you could think about viva worries.

  • There could be a particular question you’re worried about.
  • A piece of the viva process could make you feel unsure.
  • The uncertainty of whether or not you have done enough could make you doubt.

But what are the chances that one little worry is going to ruin everything? Like a single cloud on the horizon, it’s really not that likely.

If you feel worried then figure out the root of your concern, why you feel worried. Then see what, if anything, you need to do as a result.

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