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Nathan

What’s Your Problem?

Daily Post

Whenever something viva-related is tricky, confusing or makes you feel negative, your first step is to figure out what the problem is.

What makes this hard? What don’t you understand? Why are you feeling this way?

Once you know what the problem is you can start to do something about it. You could work to make the tricky more simple, the confusing more clear or act to change how you’re feeling. You can ask others to help and even if the problem is big you can take a small step in the right direction.

The work ahead might not be easy, but it’s easier than just trying to cope with stress at your viva. Once you can explain the nature of the problem clearly then you can start to do something about it.

 

(of course, this kind of thinking applies outside of the viva too!)

Nathan

Other Vivas

Daily Post

Every viva is unique. All vivas follow patterns.

Some vivas follow patterns more closely than others.

A friend’s viva experience can give you a hint of what to expect but not the whole story.

Reading about someone’s feelings might help you to process your own, but only in part.

Listening to a podcast can give you some great tips but you still won’t know what you’ll be asked until you’re there with your examiners.

 

Knowing about other vivas is helpful.

Stories, experiences and regulations can feed into the pattern of expectations to help you prepare.

As ready as you can be, you won’t know the whole story until you have your viva.

 

PS: for more thoughts on how to resolve the tension between viva expectations and the fact that every viva is unique please take a look at The Expectations Issue of Viva Survivors Select, my latest curated collection of Viva Survivors posts and new viva help.

Nathan

Margin Space

Daily Post

In preparation for your viva you can use margin space to add to your thesis and make it as useful as possible for your viva.

You also need to balance.

Helpful but not overfull.

It doesn’t make sense to try to cram long sentences in.

Start by deciding on what you need from the space. What do you need to add to your thesis to make it useful? What does it make sense to put in the margin?

Keywords? Stickers and sticky notes? Things that draw attention to specific lines?

You have a lot of space in the borders. Your margins can be a useful space for viva prep, but don’t leave them cramped. The point is to make something useful for your viva.

A little thought and a little annotation goes a long way.

 

PS: viva coming up and an hour free tomorrow morning? Check out the details of 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva which is running at 11am tomorrow (Wednesday 24th September 2025). Find out why you can be confident, get access to a catch-up recording and my pdf guide to getting ready for the viva. Registration closes later this afternoon.

Nathan

More & Different

Daily Post

There is always more work you could have done. There are different questions you could have asked. There are other ways you could have approached your research.

More and different do not mean better.

They’re just more or different.

As you prepare for your viva, work to find the confidence to acknowledge alternatives but support what you did. Explore and explain the choices you made, easy or difficult, and build the certainty that what you’ve done is enough.

Build your confidence that you are enough.

Nathan

Satisfaction

Daily Post

What do you need or want from your viva for it to be a satisfying experience?

  • You might want to talk about certain topics. You might want to hear your examiners’ opinions. You might want those opinions to be good!
  • You might want your viva to be a certain length or to proceed in a certain way. You might want certain questions or the absence of specific questions.
  • What do you need to know? What might you need to do? Who might you talk to in order to feel happy about your viva before you have it?

And what, of all of these wants and needs that you perceive, is within your control?

If you pin the satisfaction of your viva on things that are out of your control then you can only hope that it will be a good experience.

Think carefully about what you need and want from your viva and don’t rely on hoping that it will all go well.

 

PS: for more than hope of viva success take a look at next week’s 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva webinar on Wednesday 24th September. An hour of viva confidence plus a catch-up recording and pdf guide to getting ready. Full details at the link!

Nathan

Prep Powers

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What viva superpower would you like?

It might be nice to have Mega-Memory and have perfect recall of every piece of information. Would you prefer to have some kind of Precognition, able to hear your examiners’ questions in your mind hours ahead of time? Or perhaps you’d like Invisibility to hide from questions you don’t want to face?

 

Of course, you won’t be superhuman as a result of viva prep – but you don’t need to be.

Prep helps you to be ready. Building confidence helps you to be certain.

You don’t need to be superhuman but if you can find confidence you have a superpower: the ability to understand what nervousness is and what it means. Your viva is important and you want it to go well. That’s all.

Nathan

Know Your Whys

Daily Post

Why did you want to do a PhD?

Why was your research worth pursuing?

Why do you believe your methods are sound?

Why did you keep going when you faced obstacles and setbacks?

Why does your thesis have a significant and original contribution to knowledge?

Why do you feel capable as a researcher in your field?

 

When you know your whys you have a foundation to respond to most questions at your viva.

Nathan

Again & Again

Daily Post

How many challenges have you overcome?

The viva is one more.

It’s not trivial. It’s not easy.

It’s one more.

It’s not the biggest challenge. It’s not the hardest challenge.

It’s one more.

Prepare for your viva when the time comes and remember: you can only have got this far by overcoming difficult challenges. You can do this too.

Nathan

Whatever Works

Daily Post

A cup of coffee. Your favourite socks. A smart suit. A playlist of great music. A hug.

Well wishes and good luck. Prayer. A stack of notes. A well-edited thesis. A lot of chats with your supervisors.

A placebo. A ritual. A priming thought. A small stuffed toy. A tiny paperweight.

Within reason, do whatever works to help you be ready for your viva. Practical preparations matter, but there’s a space for anything and everything that helps you feel better, happier and more confident that you can rise to the challenges of your viva.

Do what you need to so that you can feel sure it will all be OK.

 

PS: one thing that will definitely help how you feel about your viva is finding out what to expect. There are a lot of sources of helpful information – including The Expectations Issue, the latest curated collection of Viva Survivors help! Check out the link for more details.

Nathan

Conversations

Daily Post

You have to talk at your viva.

Your examiners prepare with your thesis, assemble a plan for what they think needs to be talked about and arrive ready to facilitate a series of conversations.

The viva isn’t an interview or a question and answer session. Your examiners’ plan is to help guide them and prompt you. They steer the conversations to explore everything that needs to be talked about.

 

So: if you can expect your viva to be a series of conversations then you can prepare for it by having a series of conversations before then. You need to read your thesis and you need to make notes but that won’t be enough to be ready to talk.

You could organise a mock viva with your supervisor. You could give a seminar and take questions. You could go for coffee with friends and get them to prompt you with interesting and relevant questions. None of these will be exactly like your viva but they could be exactly what you need to help you be ready to talk.

The viva is a series of conversations. It’s clear what you need to do to get ready for it.

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