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Tag: getting ready

Nathan

Your Greatest Challenge

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Think back over the course of your PhD journey to date. What stands out to you as the greatest challenge you overcame? Reflect and explore what you remember.

  • Why was the situation a challenge for you?
  • How did you work to overcome it?
  • What was the result of your success?

Your examiners need to know about your research and your journey – as told by you in your thesis and your viva – so that they can confirm you have done enough.

You need to really know how you have got this far – by reflecting on the challenges you have overcome – so that you can convince yourself you are good enough.

Nathan

Business As Usual

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The viva isn’t the same as any regular day in your PhD, but it’s not so different either. Not really.

Do you need to be prepared? Yes.

Do you need to know what to expect from the viva? Yes.

But you also need to be a capable researcher. You need to be knowledgeable about your field and your research. You need to be ready to bring your best to the day’s work.

Isn’t that business as usual for you?

You need to prepare for the viva, but you also need all of the things about you that you would ordinarily have every day of your PhD. Preparation takes a little time and a little work; being ready takes a lot more of things you already have.

Nathan

More Than Good Ideas

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Your thesis is not just facts and figures, ideas and information.

The value of your research is not simply linked to it being done.

A candidate, thesis or viva are not successful simply based on the ideas that are represented.

You are a lot more than the good ideas you have had, the ideas you have found and the knowledge you have created.

Nathan

The Little Things

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What little things could you do regularly to help yourself on the lead up to submission and the viva?

  • Keep a little notebook to hand to capture thoughts about your research.
  • Collect small stationery items to annotate your thesis.
  • Set a short time aside to reflect on a day’s progress or a week’s successes. (and record them somehow!)
  • Mark spaces in your diary when you can stop and rest.
  • List small tasks that you can complete in spare moments.

There are big things involved in viva prep that take lots of time and focus – but remember that every action you choose to take, little or big, can help you to be ready for your viva.

Nathan

Giving A Presentation

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I love little quirks of language. We often use the verb give in connection with a presentation. It makes me think of gifts and presents – a present-ation!

Sometimes PhD candidates are asked to prepare a presentation to start the viva. If we consider the presentation as a gift you’re giving, then perhaps it makes sense to think of it like other gifts we might give.

  • Be sure it’s wanted. Your examiners will probably have some expectations of length and content. Either ask them or ask your supervisors for what is required.
  • Spend an appropriate amount. You invest time rather than money in this gift: a little preparation and practice will help. You don’t need to spend a lot to have something right for the occasion.
  • Upcycle previous gifts! A presentation for the start of your viva will not be the first time you have presented work from your thesis. Look at past talks and notes. Draw from them to make something to share with your examiners.

Gifts give something to the giver and the receiver. The person or people receiving have something they didn’t have before – in this case, examiners have information and a sense of who the giver, the candidate, is and what they have done.

As the giver, you give yourself permission to be proud of what you’ve done; you give yourself a good starting point for the viva; you give yourself a useful element of preparation and a confidence boost.

Nathan

Find Five

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A little nudge to start viva preparations:

  1. Find five papers in your bibliography that have really supported you and your research.
  2. Find five people who can help you get ready for your viva.
  3. Find five days that you can take a good hour to do something to get ready.
  4. Find five places in your thesis where you make a good contribution.
  5. Find five reasons to help you believe you will succeed in your viva.

There will be many more for each category, and many more helpful categories of things that could help someone get ready. Five is a good starting place.

Nathan

Solve An Easier Problem

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If you look at your viva prep as just so much to do, a great big problem, and if that is weighing heavily on you – know that it doesn’t need to be this way. Big problems are hard to solve. You can make this easier on yourself.

Start small. Make a little plan. Do something. Read a page of your thesis before you worry about how much or how often you need to read the whole thing. Have one conversation with a friend about your work before you create any anxiety about having a mock viva – or responding to questions on the day.

Of course there are lots of things to think about with the viva and viva prep. For some aspects there are no simple solutions about what to do, how much and when. But you don’t have to start with those big things immediately. You can start small. Solve an easier problem.

Nathan

Who Is It For?

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Your thesis is not written for your examiners. You have to write it for your PhD and your examiners have to read it to examine you. It’s not written for them – the goal is to make a contribution to knowledge.

You don’t learn about viva expectations so you have a template you’re trying to complete. You’re learning more so that you can prepare well. You’re not trying to meet some ideal for your examiners.

Your prep is not done for your examiners. It’s for you. You want to be at your best, ready, refreshed, feeling confident – but that’s not for them. You want to to feel ready for you.

Remember to keep the focus where it needs to be for the viva.

Nathan

A Long Time

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In the year before your viva you don’t need to do much to get ready. Your focus is on finishing research, finishing your thesis and thinking about life after the PhD.

In the month before your viva you can start your prep. Read your thesis, make notes, check details and take opportunities to rehearse.

In the week before your viva make a to-do list of anything that remains. What are your priorities? Who can help you? Remind yourself of what you’ve done to get his far.

In the day before your viva you might want to do some final prep, but equally it could just be time to rest and relax.

In the hour before your viva it’s a good idea to check one more time that you’ve got everything you need. Remember as well that you have a challenging couple of hours ahead – but you are ready for this challenge.

In the minute before your viva remember to breathe. Any nerves are about the importance of the day; they are not a negative reflection on your talent or contribution.

In the second before your viva you might blink-

-and then realise that it’s all done. Your viva flew by. You were there, but you were engaged and weren’t thinking about how long it was.

Success in the viva is a long time coming, but doesn’t take very long on the day.

Nathan

The Ends

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The end of your viva is not the end of your PhD.

The end of your bibliography doesn’t mean that there is nothing else to know.

The end of your thesis is not the end of the research that could be done.

The end of your PhD journey doesn’t mean that there isn’t more great work for you to do.

The end of your mock viva is not a finish to all the questions you could get in the real thing.

There are many endings around the conclusion of a PhD. Very few of them are final.

The end of your PhD is not the end of your story.

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