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Nathan

Conversations

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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.

Nathan

Extras/Essentials

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For your viva you need:

  1. Your thesis;
  2. A notebook and pen;
  3. Something to drink.

These are the absolute essentials that every PhD candidate needs to have with them.

After the essentials there are lots of other things that might be a good idea:

  • Something to eat, in a break or at the end;
  • A list of corrections you’ve spotted;
  • A prototype of something you made;
  • A screen to show a video or software;
  • The means to show, display or demonstrate a creative work;
  • A digital copy of your thesis;
  • Notes in some form;
  • Other materials or resources, as agreed.

These are extras: useful for some people and not appropriate or needed for others. You’ll need to check the regulations, check with your supervisors and decide for yourself perhaps if you really need them.

An item on the list above might not be what you expect – or one item could be exactly what you need.

For some people these really might be considered extras after a thesis, notebook and a water bottle, just something else helpful to have with you.

For some candidates one of the “extras” could be essential to a good viva.

What do you need? What’s an extra and what is absolutely essential for you?

 

PS: you might need a little more support to help you get ready and feel ready. If that thought resonates then please check out my upcoming 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva live webinars. They’re running on Wednesday 24th September and Thursday 30th October and you can find more details of what you’ll find via the link. If you use code DAILYBLOGFAN before midnight tonight then you get a special discount too.

Nathan

What If It Was All OK?

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If you knew that your viva was going to be fine, what would you do differently now?

I imagine that you would still prepare. You’d still have questions for your supervisor and friends. You’d still want to check the regulations and have a sense of what to expect.

The vast majority of vivas result in success. The majority of PhD candidates are asked to complete minor corrections as a result. The vast majority of vivas are fine, they’re OK, even if they’re a challenge there’s work to do afterwards.

There’s more to being ready than knowing it will be OK, but if you assumed it was going to be fine could you enjoy it more? Could you be excited?

When you know what your starting assumptions are for your viva – and if you assume it will go well – you’ll probably work towards it differently.

Nathan

Your Theme Tune

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One of my favourite conversations I’ve had with a PhD graduate was someone who told me that they made a playlist for their viva day. The day before they arranged five tracks to help them feel good – the ultimate goal being to give them a confidence boost.

Following that conversation I experimented with using music to prime myself. I now have a pre-webinar playlist that helps lift me up. I’ve been using it for years. I have positive associations with the playlist now; I know that I can listen to it in the hour before a webinar and it will help me be more myself, more confident, more capable.

 

What music would you choose to listen to before your viva?

If five pieces or tracks is too many to think of, how about one? What would your theme tune be for your viva? What would be your intro music? What music could hype you up?

I’m assuming that you’ve done all the necessary work for your PhD and done your viva prep of course! It takes more than a piece of music to get ready, but if listening to music could help you feel better wouldn’t you do it?

What other small things could you do?

 

PS: here’s the music I would most likely pick for myself (YouTube link)

PPS: and here are some past posts from Viva Survivors that are music-related!

Nathan

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

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Looking back is part of getting ready. You need to review and reflect on what you’ve done, why you did it and how you got here.

Looking ahead is part of getting ready. You need to know what to expect, what examiners look for and consequently think about how you will meet the needs of the viva.

You might need to focus on one more than the other for your personal viva preparations, but you need both in order to be ready for your viva.

Look back. Look ahead. Recognise how you got this far and what you still need to be ready.

Nathan

The Deadline

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The viva prep deadline is technically ten minutes before the viva – that’s when you need to be in the room, ready to go!

Of course, you don’t need to do things so close to the deadline. You also don’t need to use all the time available between submission and ten minutes before your viva.

When you submit your thesis, sketch out a plan. What do you need to do? When works well for you? How will you break up the work to remove stress and give yourself space to think and rest?

What’s the better deadline to be ready that you can set for yourself?

Nathan

Talent, Work and Time

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Success at the viva takes talent, work and time.

Talent means that you’re capable. As you get closer to submission and the viva take time to reflect on what you know, what you can do and how you think. Be sure of how you developed.

Work means you applied yourself. Reflect on what you did. Explore the practical elements of your research, the choices you made and the outcomes of your research.

Time means that it didn’t happen overnight. Remember the time to understand the real effort you’ve committed.

A PhD journey is busy. It’s long. It’s easy to forget or be distracted.

As you get closer to your viva date reflect on the talent you’ve built, the work you did and the time it took. Remind yourself that you’re the reason you have come so far.

Nathan

A Spare Day

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I’m fortunate enough to feel that today is a bit of a freebie.

It’s the end of the summer break. I have work to do but nothing pressing. Today feels like it could be all mine.

…well, if I wasn’t a parent and a small business owner. Alas, I do have things I have to do!

 

When you’re working towards your viva there is a lot you HAVE to do.

If you don’t, you’re leaving yourself open to the possibility of not being ready for your viva, stress and a lack of confidence.

Even so, find a spare day or two when you can rest and relax.

Maybe today! Maybe some time soon.

Viva prep requires reading, review and rehearsal. Don’t forget to rest.

Nathan

Ready At The Viva

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Everyone at the viva is ready.

Your examiners have prepared. They were selected for good reasons and have taken the time to study your thesis and do the work required. Your examiners are ready.

Your independent chairperson, if you have one, is there to support the viva. They are experienced, know the regulations and know how best to support the exam. Your independent chair is ready.

Your supervisor, if they’re observing, is ready to watch. They can’t respond to questions and won’t ask any, but can be a friendly face or make notes for later. Your supervisor is ready, if they’re there.

Above all you are ready. Years of work and weeks of prep, all for a few hours when you can show what you’ve done. You are ready.

Nathan

Unique Prep

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There’s a lot of viva help out there, particularly when it comes to ideas around viva prep.

Your PhD is unique. It’s reasonable to think your prep will be too. Take onboard suggestions and examples that you find when you look for help, then consider how you might need to adapt the idea to make it work for you.

The work to annotate a thesis by publication is similar but different to annotating a thesis which is a single project. Preparing to respond to questions about a creative work has similarities to preparing for questions about experiment-based research, but it will be different.

 

Your PhD, i.e., your research, your thesis, your process, your preferences, your situation, your knowledge, your skillset, your worries, your feelings, your plans and your hopes – all of it is unique!

It’s reasonable to think your prep will be too. Adapt ideas and good advice to fit your needs and circumstances.

 

PS: the latest issue of Viva Survivors Select, The Sparks Issue was released this week! It has twenty-five curated posts from the Viva Survivors blog archive and two original helpful resources as well. Your PhD and viva are both unique but you’ll find help in The Sparks Issue that you can apply to your situation, whatever it is and whatever you need. Please take a look. Thanks for reading! 🙂

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