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Nathan

Viva Descriptors

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What do you expect from your viva?

  • Long or short?
  • Tough or easy?
  • Opening questions or presentation?
  • In-person or online?
  • Morning or afternoon?
  • Examiners-only or observers-present?
  • Minor corrections, none or major?

There are lots of little descriptors you might attach to your viva. Some you’ll know before your viva and some you can reasonably expect. Some don’t make much of a difference and some can help or hinder depending on your circumstances.

What expectations matter to you? And what do you need to know more about to feel happy ahead of your viva?

Nathan

Separating Out Feelings

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In my local area we’ve recently moved to separating food waste from our rubbish. Pre-sorting in our homes makes for a better waste management situation. There’s been grumbling and resistance from some but for the most part I think people realise it’s a good thing to do.

As with so many things in my life, encountering this new situation made me think of the viva!

It made me think of all the feelings that someone might feel ahead of their viva. There can be a lot of mixed emotions as the viva draws near. It helps to sort and separate them. Different feelings require different actions:

  • If you feel worried then you have to ask yourself why. When you know the root of the problem you can do something about it.
  • If you feel unsure then you have to decide who to ask for help, whether that’s your supervisor, a friend or simply a webpage provided by your institution.
  • If you feel unprepared then you have to take action. There are a great many things you can do to improve your preparedness.
  • If you feel confident then you have to hold on to it. What can you do to build your confidence up even more?

Separate out your feelings as you work towards your viva. Respond to the negative and recycle them for positive actions and feelings. Take the positive to one side and build on them.

Nathan

The Wait

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I wasn’t prepared for the wait at the end of my viva. I didn’t know it was fairly typical for examiners to have a private conversation after all of the discussion.

I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t know I was going to be waiting a while.

In fact it was almost twenty minutes. It seemed to stretch on and on.

Not knowing what else to do I went and sat in my office at the other end of the long corridor from the seminar room where I’d had my viva.

I wasn’t prepared for the wait. I just sat there. I tried to think about what had just happened, what I thought it might mean and what to do with myself.

It was a struggle because I was so tired.

I wasn’t prepared for the sudden knock on the door from my internal examiner. He invited me back to hear the outcome and what would come next. It was a surprise: a little under twenty minutes isn’t that long but had also felt much longer.

I wasn’t prepared for the wait at the end of my viva – so I use any opportunity to share my experience so that others might think ahead.

What would you do to be ready for the wait at the end of your viva?

Nathan

Fuelling Confidence

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Confidence is not an innate state. Confidence is not a consistent feeling.

Confidence has to be cultivated. Confidence has to be fuelled.

What are you doing to fuel your confidence for your viva?

  • What are you reflecting on from your PhD journey?
  • What are you telling yourself about the viva?
  • What are you trying to build your confidence up?

Anyone could feel nervous or worry about the viva. That’s human. If there’s something in particular worrying you then consider what you can do to address it: work past worry to find confidence on the other side.

Nathan

Arrangements & Implications

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After submission and before your viva there are several questions that it helps to get answers to:

  • Who is your internal examiner?
  • Who is your external examiner?
  • Have you read the regulations? (if no, do it!)
  • Have you asked friends and colleagues about their viva experiences? (if no, do it!)
  • When is your viva?
  • Where is your viva?
  • If your viva is going to be online, have you checked regulations for video vivas? (if no, do it!)
  • Do you know who else, if anyone, will be present at your viva?
  • If you need any additional arrangements made for your viva to be fair are you sure your university knows and has agreed to what you need? (if no, check with them!)

These questions are helpful checks but notice that they are all closed questions. Information helps but you then need to use the information.

It helps to know who your examiners are or to have a date for your viva but you then need to do something. Your examiners’ identities help you to prepare for meeting them particularly. The date and location of your viva can help you think through what you will need to do practically on the day.

Arrangements have implications. What do you need to do as a result of your viva logistics?

Nathan

Three Cups Of Tea

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That’s what I need to work well: whether or not I’m sitting to write, prepare, make art or deliver a webinar, I need to have three cups of tea running through my system.

Or, at least, that’s what I tell myself.

Of course, when I go to do any work I have experience, ability, resources, equipment and a plan of some kind. I have a lot more than just three cups of tea. I have systems for different tasks, music and objects that help me focus, scheduling for particular work and backup plans in case things aren’t going quite right.

But the three cups of tea are a prompt. They are a trigger: if you have this then you can work well – and it’s something I can have relatively simply.

What do you need for your viva? Give it some thought. You’re overwhelmingly likely to succeed. You have years of experience, ability, a thesis, preparation and expectations.

What could you do to help steer you even closer to feeling good for your viva?

Nathan

Year One

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How far have you come from the researcher you were in the first year of your PhD?

  • I remember that I was always nervous before meeting my supervisor – afraid that I would be found out.
  • I remember never quite understanding the terms in the papers I was reading – and worried because I found other papers to read but wasn’t sure if I should spend time on them.
  • I remember spending hours and hours feeling stuck with my main project – and spending hours and hours on little side projects that didn’t quite come together.

Which left me wondering if I was going to make it through my first year, never mind the rest of my PhD.

By the end of my PhD I was definitely doing things differently:

  • I remember going to meetings no longer nervous. Maybe I wasn’t exactly confident but I could say and show that I was making progress.
  • I remember still not understanding everything in the papers I was using but I felt that I knew enough.
  • I remember spending hours and hours finishing my thesis – and only a few hours considering what I would have to leave out to make it happen.

What I didn’t see at the time was the difference between how I was at the end of my PhD and how I had been in year one.

I can see it now. Doing things well or better helped – but knowing that I had made progress and really feeling that would have made a huge difference to my confidence.

As you get closer to your viva take time to reflect on the difference between who you are now and who you were when you started your PhD.

 

PS: How has your thesis contribution grown from the beginnings of your PhD journey? The latest issue of Viva Survivors Select, The Contribution Issue, has lots of ideas for reflecting on your work. Take a look if you’re looking for more viva prep help!

Nathan

Proto-Questions

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Some PhD candidates think that the way to be ready for the viva is to consider as many questions as possible: list them, think about them, maybe make some notes. But there are just so many questions that someone could be asked. Too many to consider all of the reasonable questions that might occur!

  • Why…? How…? What…?
  • When…? Where…? Who…?
  • And let’s throw in “Which…?” for good measure.
  • And “Why did you…?” and “How did you…?”

These nine little phrases are the beginnings of many questions. Each one could connect with your general research area and your particular PhD research topics in countless ways.

 

Rather than make notes for 1001 specific questions – or even keywords to help with the proto-questions above – simply make the time to find opportunities to rehearse for your viva.

Don’t focus on the mass of possibilities you could face at the viva. Face up to any concerns by practising responding to relevant questions and build your confidence at doing well in the discussion your examiners will prompt.

 

PS: Find more viva help in the latest collection of Viva Survivors Select, The Contribution Issue, newly released this week. Don’t make notes for 1001 questions but do consider how you would explain what your contribution means to your examiners.

Nathan

Expecting Examiners

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There are general expectations of all viva examiners and specific expectations for yours.

In general, examiners are experienced academics with training to examine a PhD thesis. They’re supported by their institutions and colleagues. They invest time in preparing for your viva, want you to succeed if you can and want to do their part well.

There are no good cops, no bad cops, no gotcha questions – but there might, because of the nature of the viva, be challenging questions that they have to ask as part of the exam.

Any examiners could be expected to fit the description above – but you don’t have any examiners.

Your examiners might follow your preferences in their selection. You could suggest a person or kind of person to fill the role and your supervisor might follow that suggestion. When they’re approved, you can get a sense of what you might expect from them by finding out more about them.

You can read their most recent publications to have a sense of their current or recent focus. You can look at their pubic staff webpages to know where their general interests lie. You can consider what all this means for what they might do specifically at the viva.

To really know what to expect from your examiners you have to consider the general and the specific as you get ready for your viva.

Nathan

Lucky & Fortunate

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It’s important to properly frame the role of good fortune in a PhD journey or in viva success. Words matter – and the words you use to describe your progress and achievements have an impact on you and on others.

Lucky could happen to anyone but fortunate is down to you and your efforts.

Fortunate means you worked hard and enough of that hard work paid off.

Lucky means your actions didn’t matter. Anyone could have done it and it just happened to be you.

Whatever your research, remember that you’re not lucky: you’re fortunate.

 

PS: The latest issue of Viva Survivors Select 12, The Contribution Issue came out yesterday! Reflecting on your thesis contributions is a useful reminder of how your success really is down to good fortune and not luck. You’ll find a lot more in the issue too so please do take a look if you’re looking for more viva help.

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