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Tag: getting ready

Nathan

Make Space

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Doing your viva prep might mean that you need more space or time than you currently have. You already have a busy life and now there’s one more thing to do. It’s only for a limited time but it could feel like a lot.

Thankfully, taken together, all of the tasks you might do to get ready for the viva don’t amount to much. Making space to do them means, depending on how busy you are, just finding a little room:

  • Breathe. Remember that many, many people have had their viva and have got ready for it. You can too.
  • Plan. Think ahead. Explore when you need to start and sketch out when you will do certain things.
  • Get help. There are many people around you who can give you support. Ask!
  • Do a little work, often. You don’t need to spend hours at a time. Small tasks build up how ready you are.

Thinking ahead and planning can create the space and environment you need to do the work as stress-free as possible. You’re busy, but only a little space is needed to get your prep done.

Nathan

Final Prep

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What’s the last thing you will do to get ready for your viva? What final action will leave you satisfied, a small smile on your face that you’ve done all you can?

When will it be? The morning of your viva, a final check of some detail? The day before, deciding what to wear? A few days ahead of your viva when you have a final chat with your supervisor?

Sketching out a plan for prep helps to make it real. Knowing the final step can give you something to guide you. Deciding for yourself what that final task will be really cements that this is for you.

Your research. Your prep. Your viva.

Nathan

Ready or Not

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When the date is in the diary your viva is going to happen whether you’re ready or not.

Don’t agonise over the date. Don’t fret about what might happen or what your examiners might ask.

Instead do the work. Do the work that’s needed to get ready.

The work will help steer you away from concern and lead you towards confidence. Preparing for the viva is a practical path and not a long journey – certainly not compared to your PhD as a whole.

Your viva is going to happen, ready or not. Choose to be ready.

Nathan

Taking Rest

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Rest before the viva is as essential as reading your thesis or having a mock viva.

Rest needs to be planned into your viva prep, even if that seems at odds with the work you’re doing.

Take time to rest and feel the benefits when you return to doing things to get ready.

Nathan

Change of Plans

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I’m thinking back to this time last year. In the UK there were various permissions extended to allow families and friends to meet over Christmastime-

-and then there weren’t.

Very quickly plans were changed, compromises were reached and make-do decisions were made.

That was hopefully just for one year. If you’ve had to make a similar change of plans for your PhD since March 2020 then that could have had a big and continuing impact on your PhD journey. Everything from a lack of access to equipment or materials and reduced meeting opportunities with your supervisors, all the way to a fundamental change of direction to your research.

It’s natural to be concerned about the questions that could be asked about this at the viva. It’s natural to worry. Not just common viva nervousness from anticipation of the event, but concern for communicating the practical changes and the impact – perhaps even wondering about what might have been.

It’s also natural to expect your examiners to be understanding about how the pandemic has had an impact on your PhD. They will know the changing situation of the last two years will have been difficult: in whatever way it comes up in the viva they will simply want you to be clear. Be clear about the impact. Be clear about how you changed your plans. Be clear about how you navigated the work despite the situation.

Be clear. They will understand.

Nathan

Need, Nice, No

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When I work with final year postgraduate researchers I ask them to consider prioritising the work they think they have to do with three lists:

  • Need: the things that are absolutely essential
  • Nice: work that would be good to do but which isn’t neccessary
  • No: tasks or projects that aren’t needed to fulfil the main objective

Way back in the distant past of 2007/8 I had projects that would become chapters I needed in my thesis. I also had nice ideas which I didn’t have time to develop. My supervisor agreed they weren’t essential to my thesis contribution, so I put them to one side. There were also things I said no to. I said no to paid part-time work so I could focus on getting my thesis finished. I said no to new ideas as there wasn’t time to add more to my thesis. I said no to fun things that would have been a distraction.

This kind of prioritising can help with finding focus for the final year, but Need, Nice and No can also help with getting ready for the viva.

Viva prep isn’t a great challenge, but there are lots of things you could do in that period. It helps to separate out the kinds of work that are essential from what would help if you had time – and also from what you don’t need to focus on to be ready.

For example:

  • Need: read your thesis, check regulations, use rehearsal opportunities…
  • Nice: re-read your key references, have a mock viva, practice sharing a summary…
  • No: look for typos, consider improvements to your thesis, become an expert in your examiners…

When you put something in the No category you free yourself to focus on what you Need. Prep tasks that are Nice you can do if you have time or if, like the mock viva, you feel it is right for you. Not every candidate needs a mock viva – although they can be very valuable – but every candidate needs to rehearse responding to questions as they would in the viva.

Find your focus for your viva prep. Reflect and think ahead. What do you need to do? What would be nice as you get ready? And what will you say no to so that you can focus?

Nathan

The PhD Is A Journey

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A long journey.

Tiring and stressful perhaps. At times the destination might have seemed uncertain – or perhaps even changed! But if your viva is somewhere in your near future then you’ve almost reached your journey’s end.

As you get closer, pause and take some time to reflect:

  • When has the journey been most joyful?
  • When has it been hard?
  • When have you been lonely?
  • When have you been supported?
  • When have you made the quickest progress?
  • When have you struggled the hardest?
  • When have you had to make difficult choices? (and how did you make them?)

And most importantly, what’s kept you going?

Reflecting on the PhD journey can bring up sensitive or upsetting memories sometimes. It can also help to show your progress, your success, your development.

You got this far. Now keep going. Your journey’s final destination isn’t too far away.

Nathan

Kind Prep

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Bring a quality of kindness to your preparation for the viva.

Don’t overload yourself.

Don’t start late so that you put pressure on your work.

Don’t rush so that you can make the most of it.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Be kind to your future self by taking some time to plan what you need to do. Figure out a good start time. Don’t overwhelm your future self. Make a good space to work in and organise a good flow to get the work done.

Viva prep is work, but it shouldn’t be a chore. Be kind to yourself as you get ready.

Nathan

One Weird Trick For The Viva

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Alas! There isn’t one.

No shortcuts. No hacks. No loopholes.

No tricks. No weird little things that will just make it all better.

But you don’t need them.

You need someone who has done the work. Someone who has put in the time and dedication. Someone who takes things seriously. Someone who takes the time to get ready.

Someone like you.

You have all the magic you need for your viva.

Nathan

Survive Sounds Scary

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We hear survive and think of tragedy. Desperate situations. Almost impossible and yet somehow someone makes it through. Of course, given those associations, survive sounds scary.

Survive sounds scary but survive means manage to keep going in difficult circumstances.

Survive sounds scary but it doesn’t have to be life and death. It could be much less serious.

It could be difficult to meet with your examiners. All you feel about your work. All you’ve done. The anticipation and the nervousness making you uncomfortable.

But how difficult has your PhD been already? You’re still here. You survived. You managed to keep going in difficult circumstances.

Survive sounds scary. For the viva the simple thing to hold in your mind is you need to keep going.

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