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Nathan

The Viva Needs More Understanding

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Candidates need to know more about examiners: how they prepare, what’s involved, what they’re asking, what they might ask and do and why.

Examiners need to know more about candidates and the PhD journey in the 2020s: they need to understand the particular thesis they’re looking at, the general experience of PGRs, the impact of COVID and more.

Supervisors need to understand the viva situation: they need to have a good handle on expectations, what helps in preparation, they have to grasp their candidates’ situations and advise them well.

And then there are researcher-developers, policy-makers, regulation-writers, awesome administrators and sensational support staff.

The viva needs more understanding. Or perhaps it is better to say that if everyone involved knew more about it then the viva, how it happens, how it’s prepared for and how it’s talked about could be better for everyone involved.

 

What can you do to improve your understanding about the viva before you have yours? Who could you ask? What do you need to know? And when you’ve been through the process, who could you share your experience with to help others with their understanding?

Nathan

Drivers, Worries, Actions

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In the viva, examiners drive the discussion by asking questions that:

  1. Explore your contribution;
  2. Investigate your authorship;
  3. Assess your capability as a researcher.

In turn, a candidate typically worries that:

  1. They haven’t done enough;
  2. They won’t remember enough about the process;
  3. They aren’t good enough to get a PhD.

To combat these a candidate could:

  1. Review their thesis and work to build confidence in the contribution;
  2. Rehearse explaining how they did the PhD to build confidence in describing the work;
  3. Reflect and remember how they have developed to build confidence in themselves.

Preparation helps with the discussion and lessening worries!

Nathan

Going Back

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What would you change about your viva prep if you could go back and do it over?

I was asked this at a recent webinar. I knew immediately what I would change: I would have a mock viva. I definitely spent way more time on getting ready for my viva than any typical postgraduate researcher would need, but the one thing I didn’t do was rehearse.

For five or six weeks I read my thesis, made notes on pages and read my examiners’ work. I checked several papers I’d forgotten and had a weekly meeting with my supervisor where we talked about a thesis chapter. My examiners asked me to prepare slides to give a presentation for the start of my viva.

And while all of this helped, none of it prepared me directly for the simple thing I would spend my time doing in the viva: responding to questions and being part of a discussion.

So what would I do differently? Rehearse. I recommend every candidate do this too!

Nathan

A Few Weeks

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Viva preparation doesn’t have to take a long time. It isn’t a huge amount of work, not compared to the scope and scale of a PhD.

It doesn’t take long, generally, to read a thesis, make some notes, capture thoughts and rehearse for the viva. A few weeks can be enough to space the work out. A few weeks of reflection and preparation.

A few weeks to remind yourself of what you’ve done, how you did it and why you’re capable of succeeding in the viva.

Nathan

A Recipe For Viva Stress

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Take several years of difficult and demanding work.

Sieve together with months of writing.

Stir in vague half-truths and uncertain expectations.

Add two experienced academics to the mix.

Fold together with nervousness, worry, future plans and, depending on circumstances, pandemic-related uncertainty.

Bring to a slow boil over weeks of preparation and serve at the appropriate time.

 

A candidate might not feel stressed, but it’s not hard to appreciate why someone could be stressed by the thought of their viva. They would most probably still pass but the experience might be uncomfortable.

There’s no silver bullet to defeat viva stress, but there are remedies for each of the ingredients above.

Review your work and highlight what really matters. Re-read your thesis to be sure of how information flows. Find out more about what happens at vivas. Check recent publications by your examiners. And instead of bottling up stress as you prepare, use that time to build your confidence.

There’s a clear recipe for viva stress – but you don’t have to follow it.

Nathan

Lists Leverage Lots

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I love starting something with a list. There are lots of lists that can help with getting ready for the viva:

  • A list of key references in your bibliography.
  • A list of important results from your thesis.
  • A list of questions you anticipate at your viva.
  • A list of things to do as part of viva prep.
  • A list of annotations you could add to your thesis.
  • A list of people who could help you get ready.
  • A list of questions to ask your supervisor.
  • A list of typos that you find while reading before your viva.
  • And an incomplete list of possible lists that you may write as part of your viva prep!!!

You start something with a list. A list can focus or highlight, but it’s not the real work.

Any of the lists above and any others you might write could lead you to action or summarise information. So once you have a list related to your viva or prep, ask yourself what you need to do next.

Then do it.

Nathan

How Do You Do It?

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Pick a method or process that you have used many times through your PhD. It might involve special equipment or software, precious resources or simply be related to how you get something from journal articles.

Now write the procedure out step by step. Start at the beginning and work through how you would use it to whatever the goal is. Unpick the stages and what triggers them, whether it’s simply moving on to the next piece of work or reaching a certain condition.

“How do you do it?” is a less common question at the viva maybe, but it’s in the background of many candidate concerns about being good enough, knowing enough and feeling confident. If you’re sure that you know how to do something then you have one less thing to worry about.

Find something you have used a lot and take it apart. Be certain of all the steps. Then use this as one more example of something you’re good at; it can help you to show others what you know, but also demonstrate to yourself that you are good.

Nathan

Prep & Procrastination

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If it’s hard to get started on viva prep or you’re putting it off then perhaps you need to make a plan – not to procrastinate but to give yourself some structure.

If you get distracted then maybe you need to put distracting things out of your reach.

Perhaps set a time to do some viva prep and set a time afterwards to do something that feels fun or like a reward.

And if the work feels like too much for right now then maybe you need to rest before you get ready for your viva.

Actually: remember that rest is part of what you need to get ready for your viva.

Nathan

What’s Important?

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Two words to prompt reflection on nearly every aspect of the viva and viva prep.

What’s important…

  • …about your thesis? Explore it chapter by chapter with a notebook in hand. Make notes about anything that stands out to you.
  • …about your PhD journey? When you think back over how you did the work, what matters?
  • …about your viva expectations? What do you need to know more about and what are you comfortable with?
  • …about your examiners? Who are they, what do they do and what might they ask?
  • …about your viva preparations? What do you have to do and when will you get the work done?

What’s important? Two words that can start your thinking, exploring and working towards what you need. The examples I give above might help, but maybe for your situation you need to focus on something else.

So ask yourself: what’s important?

Nathan

Plan For The Unexpected

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Plan your viva prep. Take a sheet of paper when you submit and spend ten minutes thinking about how you would space out the work that you need to do.

When will you start? Will a month investing an hour most days be enough to manage what you need to complete? Or is it better for you – your life, your preferences, your needs – to focus and invest more over a shorter period of time, say two weeks?

There’s no right or wrong time period to take for viva prep.

Whatever you decide, give yourself some wiggle room in your plans. Give yourself a margin of error, because something will go wrong. An unexpected emergency. Something you forgot in your diary. Or a thing you didn’t notice in your thesis that needs a little more thought.

Plan your viva prep – but expect the unexpected!

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