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Nathan

A Resolution…

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…is just a choice.

It doesn’t have to be done at a special time on a special day in a special way.

The first day of a new year has a nice symbolism though.

If your viva is some time in the next twelve months, you don’t have to make a heroic stand today. You don’t have to declare that you’re going to do all the things, read all the papers and think all the thoughts to get ready. You can simply make a choice:

  • You can choose to prepare well when the time comes.
  • You can choose to work hard to get your thesis as good as it can be.
  • You can choose to reflect on your PhD journey so you build up your confidence.

These are just simple choices, not big deals. Little steps to help you get where you need to be.

Whether your viva is in the next twelve months or not, I hope your choices take you somewhere good in 2025!

Nathan

Best of Viva Survivors 2024: Confidence

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Day three of my best of posts for 2024. I love to think about how to encourage confidence, both in general and for the viva in particular. It’s a topic I keep thinking about because of how powerful it can be in changing someone’s way of doing things.

How confident do you feel for your viva? What steps do you take to pursue confidence?

Nathan

Tinsel, Wreathes & Viva Prep

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I’m not a Scrooge. I love Christmastime and all things festive. But some decorations just make me roll my eyes.

I’m not a tinsel fan. I hate the feel. I don’t like wrapping it round the tree. I frown whenever I see a detached strand on the carpet.

I’m not fussed on wreathes either. I like having one on our door. But I don’t really see the point in having five or six strategically placed around a house as well. It doesn’t do anything for me.

Of course, these decorations aren’t for me. They’re for my wife, my daughter, my relatives at their houses, and they’re just one way that someone might make their house festive and ready for Christmas. It’s nice to celebrate, and for some people certain decorations or traditions help make the celebration.

Which is how it works with viva prep as well!

For example, thesis annotation is an essential part of prep: it helps someone to think about their work, highlight what matters and make a more useful version of their thesis for the viva.

Some candidates might prefer to use red pen to underline typos, while others might prefer to note them with coloured tabs. One person might mark out a key section with a bookmark; another might decide that the best way for them is to use sticky notes.

And when it comes to practice a mock viva might be the best rehearsal for you. Your friend might prefer to give a seminar. You’re both right.

Personal preference plays a huge part in effective viva prep and Christmas celebrations!

Nathan

Survival Aides

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Who can you count on to help you get ready for your viva?

To survive you need to manage to keep going in difficult circumstances. You don’t have to do it alone.

To keep going you might need someone to talk to. Your supervisor, your colleagues or university staff could help.

To understand the difficult circumstances you’ll face it could help to listen to people who have already faced the viva.

To manage you might need very practical help: resources that others can highlight or simply quiet time to prepare.

Most candidates manage to keep going in the difficult circumstances of the viva and viva prep. Few candidates do it without support.

Ask for help as early as seems sensible. Do the work but get support.

Nathan

A Good Time

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What would make your viva a good experience?

  • Do you need your examiners to praise you?
  • Do you want the viva to be short?
  • Do you need to be able to talk about certain parts of your research?
  • Do you want to be asked about only certain topics?

None of the above are irrational. Many of them might be beyond your control though.

Your viva can be a good experience. Focus on being prepared, not on the aspects that you can’t know or can’t control.

Nathan

Learn About Examiners

Daily Post

An effective strategy for feeling better about the viva is to take steps to know more about the academics examining you.

  • Ask your supervisor about them. Find out why they are good choices for your viva.
  • Research their recent publications. Find out more about their specific research interests.
  • Search on YouTube to see if there are recordings of their conference talks. This can help remind you that they are real people!

It will also help to read the regulations and remind yourself what your examiners are there to do. They have training to be examiners and they want to do the job well. They’re there to examine, not tear your work apart or break you down. They’re focussed on finding the good, not amplifying the bad.

Find out a little more about them and you can encourage yourself towards a good viva.

 

Many thanks to Sarah F from Bristol who shared the idea of searching YouTube for conference videos at a recent webinar!

Nathan

What’s My Line?

Daily Post

I hate the thought of forgetting something important.

I prepare before any webinar that I deliver – even if, like Viva Survivor, I have delivered the session many, many times before.

  • I have a 1-page session sheet on my desk. I write it out again before every session.
  • I also have a prompt sheet on-screen with key points and timings. Again, this gets reviewed before every session.
  • And I take at least an hour to look over my slides in parallel to reading my notes.

I have shared Viva Survivor with postgraduate researchers over 350 times. And yet, every time before I start, I think, “Wait, what do I say?”

 

You can’t take notes like mine to your viva. Your examiners are looking for a presentation not a conversation. But still you can do things to help yourself if you think you’re going to forget something.

  • You can annotate your thesis with helpful notes.
  • Invest time in reviewing your thesis’ key sections.
  • And it’s essential to rehearse responding to questions to help how you feel.

The last point is especially helpful.

Like me, you might feel bad at the thought of forgetting something that matters. Like my situation though, there are an abundance of things you can try to help you remember.

Nathan

The Feeling

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How do you feel about your viva?

How do you want to feel about your viva?

If your responses to these questions are different then you have a third question to consider: what will you do to feel how you want to feel about your viva?

Nathan

At The Last Minute

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Don’t wait and start your viva prep in the week of your viva.

Don’t wait to ask your supervisor about something important until a few days beforehand.

And don’t wait until the last minute before your viva to think about how you feel about it all!

Sooner, rather than later, think about how you’ll get ready.

Sketch plans. Ask questions. Reflect on your PhD and how you’ve developed both yourself and your research.

Nathan

Manageable Tasks

Daily Post

Viva prep is manageable. Compared to the massive scale of a PhD it’s a speck of effort.

A candidate might take weeks to get ready, but only in bits and pieces of time.

Half an hour of reading. Ten minutes of looking something up. An hour to bring some notes together.

You can run these sorts of tasks together into longer prep sessions but that’s not an essential part of the process.

Even a mock viva, if you have one, is manageable.

Viva prep is a series of manageable tasks that make the viva itself manageable.

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