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Nathan

It’s Not The End

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It’s really, really helpful to have the proper perspective for your viva.

The viva is a challenge. It’s not the biggest challenge, the nastiest challenge or the hardest challenge of your PhD.

Your viva is not the end of the world – it’s not even the end of your PhD journey.

You’ve come a long way to get to this point. You’ve overcome many challenges and many of them are bigger challenges! The viva is one more challenge.

It’s not trivial. It’s only one more challenge for someone who is experienced at dealing with challenges.

You’ve come a long way. Remember how you got this far as you approach the end of your PhD journey.

Nathan

A Nice Viva?

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Nice doesn’t feel like the right word to describe a viva.

Engaging? Yes.

Fun? Maybe.

Difficult? Certainly!

Nice suggests easy and there are a range of expectations for the viva which seem to exclude an easy time. The viva necessarily involves being asked questions and engaging in a discussion about substantive and original work you have been pursuing for a long period of time. You don’t know the questions until they’re asked. You don’t know what your examiners think until they share it. You probably feel nervous because of how important it is.

Expect a difficult challenge rather than an easy time. Understand that your viva could be enjoyable but don’t expect that it will be nice.

 

PS: if you want to know more of what to expect from your viva then take a look at Viva Survivors Select Volume 1, which I released a week ago. This is my complete collection of helpful viva zines from last year: eight issues, 165 posts from the archives and lots of new resources – and with an introductory offer price until 31st January 2026!

Nathan

The Next Time

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Frame your viva as the next challenge of your PhD.

It might even be the last challenge of your PhD. It’s certainly not the first. You’ve overcome many others to get this far.

Remind yourself of the challenges that you’ve passed. What made them difficult? What did you do to get past them? Exploring a difficult situation might initially remind you of stress but steer yourself to focus on the positives: look for evidence of your talent and effort to help drive a growing confidence.

While your viva could be last challenge of your PhD it won’t be your last challenge ever. As you finish your PhD journey consider what you’re taking with you. What can you apply from your PhD to all of your future challenges? How much better will you be for this process?

 

PS: if you’re looking for help as you get ready for this challenge then check out Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. I have delivered this session to PhD candidates all around the UK at the request of doctoral colleges, but this is only the third time I’ve opened up registration. Viva Survivor is a 3-hour live webinar, you receive a catch-up recording and follow-up materials all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready. Do take a look and see if it could help you! 

Nathan

The Important Tasks

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When someone asks me about the most important viva prep task that they need to do, I offer a lot of encouragement and I ask  a few questions.

The truest response for a lot of questions about the viva begins with “It depends…” because there are always lots of factors.

Viva prep helps someone get ready for the particular challenge of the viva. In general, it’s important to plan first to reduce stress as you prepare. It’s important to have a clear idea of your thesis and the contribution. It’s important to annotate your thesis but also important to create summaries to help you think. And it’s really important to feel confident about being in the viva – so it’s important to make time for rehearsal.

By asking someone questions I might be able to give some more specific suggestions to them. I can tailor all of the general points above to the person: everyone needs to rehearse, but a mock viva might not be the best choice for someone. Annotation is key but everyone has different needs for a well-annotated thesis.

While a lot depends on the unique situation and individual, every PhD candidate benefits from remembering that the most important tasks are the ones that have lead up to submission. Every candidate creates a unique body of work, a unique thesis and a unique set of circumstance that leads to their viva. But no candidate gets that far without overcoming challenges, learning a lot and doing a lot.

The important tasks of viva prep help someone be ready for the particular challenges of the viva. The important tasks of the PhD journey help someone be ready for facing difficult challenges in general.

Nathan

These Interesting Times

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On March 16th 2020 I wrote Interesting Times, an extra post that marked when things started to change in the UK because of the pandemic. Things had been changing for weeks but lots of little changes became very big, very quickly.

And then things kept changing.

And changing.

And changing…

These five years have been a lot, right? That’s not to say that life is all doom and gloom. There’s good news everywhere. It can be hard to see sometimes, but there are people who want to help.

 

As I think back, I think about how my life was changing then and how it has changed since. At the time I thought, I’ll be doing webinars for a few months probably, and that became five years and forevermore by the looks of it!

Outside of my own situation I think about the people I meet at webinars now and the people I imagine who are reading these words.

I think of them and you, dear reader, because you have lived through interesting, difficult and upsetting times. You have been challenged not only by the work you do but by the conditions you do that work in. You have managed to keep going on your PhD journey in very difficult circumstances.

When your viva comes you’ll have to prepare but you can be sure that the challenge you’ll find there will be smaller than the challenge of what you’ve been through in the 2020s so far.

Dear reader, in short, keep going. Help others. Work to make things better if you’re able.

And thank you for reading.

Nathan

Important Past Dates

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A companion post to these thoughts from November 2024!

The first day of your PhD: it was a long time ago and you’ve come a long way since then.

Your first supervisory meeting: whatever your relationship over the course of your PhD, you’ve grown as a result of your supervisor.

The first new thing that clicked: do you remember the moment when you made a significant connection?

Your biggest setback: what happened and what did you do as a result?

When you finished your first draft of your first chapter: how did it feel to get it done?

The final problem: why was it a problem? How did you solve it?

Looking back over all of these, whether you remember exact dates or not, the important thing is that you have grown. You were good at the start of your PhD and you have become more.

Viva prep involves relatively simple work like reading and making notes. The more difficult work is to reflect on your journey, what happened, what it means and why it makes you exactly right for the challenge you’ll face at your viva.

Nathan

Difficult ≠ Negative

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It’s reasonable to expect your viva to be difficult.

Consider the work that you’ve done and how long you’ve been doing the work. Consider the level that you work at. Consider the years of work that yours is built on, the expectations of your discipline, the amount you’ve written and the general demands of a viva.

Consider that you might be nervous, anxious, worried or stressed.

It’s reasonable to expect your viva to be difficult – but that doesn’t mean it will be bad.

You might not like aspects of your viva or viva prep. You might not want to respond to certain questions or topics at the viva. And there might be general expectations of the whole event that worry you.

Still: does that mean your viva has to necessarily be a negative experience?

If you’re anxious, ask why. If you’re worried, ask why. If you’re stressed, ask for help.

 

It’s natural to be nervous. It’s right to expect your viva to be difficult.

Accept the situation, work in and around the parts that you need to. Don’t expect a box-ticking exercise but do expect that you can do well in a situation you can know so much about and prepare for.

And do remember that you’ve not got this far without facing a certain amount of difficulty – and making it through.

Nathan

And Then What?

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It’s not unusual to feel that the viva is a bit of an anticlimax.

It takes a lot to submit a thesis. It takes work to prepare for a viva. There’s a lot of anticipation and a lot of feelings-

-and then it’s over.

Two, three or four hours. They could be tough. They could be a nice chat. The viva could feel long or short. The questions could be a natural part of a conversation or feel like a challenging exercise.

But your viva will be over before you know it. You’ll most likely succeed.

Then what?

 

It’s one day. A few hours of one day. One challenge after years of challenges.

Get the viva in the right perspective. Find out what other people experience so you know what you can reasonably expect. Plan to do something to celebrate so that even if the viva makes you say, “…was that it?!” you still have something to look forward to.

Nathan

One Day, Not Day One

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The viva is a single day when you have to rise to the occasion – but not the first day of the journey that you’re on.

Your viva could be difficult. You can expect to be challenged, but that challenge – discussing your research, your thesis and your ability as a researcher with your examiners – is not the first challenge of your PhD.

It’s not the tenth or even the hundredth.

The viva is one day you have to meet a challenge and succeed. By that day you have a lot of experience of doing just that.

Nathan

Things The Viva Isn’t

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It’s not a quiz.

You need to know a lot, of course, but you’re not expected to have rapid recall or a photographic memory of your research and your thesis.

It’s not an interview.

You might choose to dress smart, but you’ve not applied for a position. The focus and purpose of the viva are radically different.

It’s not a game.

The people involved have roles but aren’t players. There are rules to be followed but there aren’t moves to make or best strategies to employ.

It’s not a question and answer session.

There are going to be lots of questions but the structure and flow is not simply question and answer, question and answer.

 

The viva is an exam.

The viva is a discussion.

The viva is a challenge, but one you can prepare for.

The viva is one more day to demonstrate your capability as a researcher.

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