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Nathan

The Questions You Want

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Take ten minutes to write down any questions you really want your examiners to ask.

Take twenty minutes to write down keywords for each question to capture ideas of what you might say in response.

Take thirty minutes to sit, think and maybe write about what this is telling you.

 

It’s common for PhD candidates to have a sense of questions they don’t want to be asked in the viva.

Flip that feeling. What do you want to be asked?

Or, perhaps when you reflect, what do you want to share with your examiners? What would you say? And what does that mean?

Nathan

Between The Lines

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Perhaps when you annotate your thesis to get ready for the viva you won’t strictly write “between the lines” – but you will need to consider what things mean and draw something out.

Maybe you’ll spot a keyword or two that could be highlighted. Or a sentence that stands out or needs a note in the margin for clarification.

As you prepare you’ll probably want to write a summary or two as well. You’ll consider a section and “read between the lines,” capturing the big ideas or points in a few sentences.

There are a lot of words in your thesis. You don’t need to remember them all to succeed at your viva, but carefully reflecting on what’s there, looking between the lines, is a valuable investment of time as you get ready.

Nathan

The Whole and The Parts

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To get ready for your viva you need to focus on the whole of your research, your thesis and your PhD journey. You need to know that your examiners could ask you about everything: why you did the work, how you did it and what happened. What you learned, what you know, what you can do.

To get ready for your viva you need to focus on the parts of your research, your thesis and your PhD journey too. You need to narrow your focus to what really matters. What are the key papers that helped? What outputs or outcomes matter? What successes have helped you the most?

You have to consider the whole. You have to consider the parts.

Nathan

Prep Progress

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Keep a tally of your viva prep. Every day you do something to help your preparations, big or small, make a mark. One mark per day, not one mark per task. Watch as the number of marks build over time.

If you’re pre-submission this could be a task as simple as downloading regulations or as big as finishing your thesis. After submission this could be marking when you write a few notes or have a mock viva.

Just one mark per day. Every time you add a mark you’re showing your commitment.

It’s a simple little message that you’re sending to someone: you, days or weeks from now on the morning of your viva.

Whatever else you feel, whatever else is happening, when you look at your tally you can see clearly that you’ve done the work.

Nathan

Respond Well

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Two words that really summarise what you need to do in the viva.

Respond: you don’t have to have an answer for every question. You may or may not have an idea or opinion that’s fully formed. The viva is a discussion, not an interview, not a quiz. You respond to questions, offering what you can…

Well: …and it has to be your best thinking in that moment. Whatever you remember, know or can piece together needs to be shared clearly. You need to pause and think about what your examiners are really asking, so that you can meet the expectations of their question or comment.

Respond well. Pause, think, speak.

Nathan

Your Preferences & Needs

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Preferences are the things that we’d like, but which we could work around if needed. Preferences for your viva and viva prep might include:

  • Starting in a morning;
  • Reading your thesis with a fresh pot of coffee;
  • Knowing your external a little;
  • Having a mock viva to help you get ready.

You might have a strong preference but, for example, if your supervisor was unable to host a mock viva then you would still go on.

Needs are different. For your viva and viva prep you might need:

  • Advance notice or special arrangements for your viva;
  • Specific stationery or time to annotate your thesis;
  • Agreement that your viva will definitely be over video;
  • To not have a mock viva!

Preferences are very different from needs.

 

To begin with: what do you want for your viva? Which of these wants are preferences and which are needs?

For the preferences: what can you do to get your preferences met? Who might you need to ask for help? What could you do if a preference couldn’t be fulfilled?

For your needs: what can you do to ensure your needs are met? Who can you ask for support? How can you clearly communicate those needs to the people who need to know?

Nathan

Preparing When Busy

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You could have many things to do when you’re getting ready for your viva – work, family life, responsibilities and obligations – and viva preparation might not break into your top ten time commitments.

It won’t help to be stressed. It won’t help to rush. It won’t be a boost to your confidence if you have to cram prep work in.

So plan ahead.

At submission or in the weeks leading up to it, get a sense of your diary. You may not know your exact viva date but you will have an idea of when it will be – as well as an idea of everything else that you have in your life.

Plan. Break down the prep tasks, sketch out the timeline between submission and the viva. Give yourself breaks. Ask for help and ask for space.

Whatever you do, don’t overload your schedule to success.

Nathan

Small, Medium, Large

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Or, a handy guide to the scope and scale of various viva preparation activities!

Small Tasks

  • Downloading regulations for your institution.
  • Putting a sticky note at the start of each chapter of your thesis.
  • Bookmarking the staff pages of your examiners.
  • Messaging a friend to go for coffee and talk.
  • Raiding the stationery cupboard for annotation supplies.

Medium Tasks

  • Preparing a plan for completing your viva prep.
  • Reading half a chapter of your thesis.
  • Working through with highlighter to mark out key references.
  • Summarising five important ideas from your research.
  • Reading regulations or stories of viva success.

Large Tasks

  • Having a mock viva.
  • Reviewing your thesis and reflecting on it.
  • Giving a presentation to rehearse key thesis ideas.
  • Writing a list of ten key papers in your bibliography.
  • Building your confidence for the viva.

There’s lots you could do to get ready. You don’t need to do everything, but everything you do will help.

Nathan

Colourful Prep

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You have an opportunity during viva prep to make your thesis as useful as possible for you. Thesis annotation doesn’t just mean writing notes in the margins. Perhaps using colour could help, for example:

  • You could underline typos with red to mark them out simply.
  • Use sticky notes to show the start of chapters or help locate important pages.
  • Apply highlighters consistently to show certain kinds of information clearly.
  • Use highlighter tabs as a colour-coding system of annotation.

These suggestions are just to start your thinking. There’s a lot more you could do when you consider the specifics of your thesis and the information in there.

How could you use a little colour to help your viva prep?

Nathan

Imperfect Reflections

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Looking in a mirror shows things reversed. Looking in a spoon shows things distorted. And reflecting on research doesn’t automatically reveal everything we want or need.

  • Gathering thoughts or summarising ideas doesn’t tell the whole story.
  • Focussing questions mean that some points have to be left out.
  • Memory can be faulty and our biases can cover up things that they shouldn’t.

With all of that in mind, perhaps the best thing you can do when when reflecting on your research for viva preparation is to reflect a lot.

Ask lots of questions. Create lots of small summaries. Find many different ways to look at what you’ve done, how you did it, why you did it and what happened.

A reflection is never perfect, but by exploring different perspectives you will find more than if you just looked back one time on one aspect.

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