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Tag: getting ready

Nathan

One Month

Daily Post

For a reduced-pressure, easy-going period of viva preparation you might need a month.

Between thirty minutes and an hour of work each day will cover you.

Read your thesis at least once. Make notes and additions to help your thesis be even more useful in the viva. Write a summary or two. Check references and useful literature. Simple, deliberate, scholarly work that builds on the thousands of hours you’ve invested already.

Rehearsing for the viva itself – with a mock or having conversations with friends – might take a little longer than an hour, but for the most part you need only a month of short work periods.

Sketch a plan. Gather your supplies. Build your confidence with thirty days of small differences, small improvements on the great place you’ve already arrived at.

Nathan

The First Step

Daily Post

Getting ready for the viva could take twenty hours of work spaced out over several weeks.

What’s the first task on your list?

  • Gathering stationery supplies?
  • Reading the first page?
  • Chatting to your supervisor?
  • Clicking for a random piece of advice from a pretty good blog about the viva?
  • Asking a friend for help?
  • Or something else?

You might have worries about the viva or preparing, but once you take your first step you’re on your way to success.

What will your first step be?

Nathan

Webinar: 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva

Update

A little webinar update!

I’m running my 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva session next Monday, 8th February 2021. It’s a 1-hour webinar all about why you can feel confident for your viva, exploring some of the things you can do to be ready, as well as giving space for you to ask any questions you have about the process.

I’ve run it many times since I developed it last spring, during the first UK lockdown, and it’s a real thrill to be able to offer it again. I’ve heard from people how valuable it’s been for them as they come to the conclusion of their PhD journey and am so happy I have the space to continue to offer this support. In a strange, weird and sometimes-awful time, 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva is one of the things I’m happiest I’ve been able to do in the last year.

Registration is open now, and there’s an earlybird discount for anyone who books before midnight tomorrow. If your viva is sometime this year then I think this session will really help you. Take a look at the session details here – if you have any questions, simply get in touch via email or Twitter.

I hope to see you at 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva next week! 🙂

 

PS: I have more sessions coming up in the next few months! Check out what’s coming soon at this hub page.

Nathan

Take A Blank Page

Daily Post

You can do a lot with one blank sheet of paper to help your viva prep.

You could write “What’s important?” as a provocation to get you thinking about what really matters in your thesis. Respond to the prompt using the rest of the page.

You could divide a blank page into three and capture responses to each of the following questions:

  • Why does your work matter?
  • How did you do your research?
  • What are your best results or conclusions?

Taken together, these create a good summary of your research.

With a single sheet of A4 paper, you could make a list of ten references that have really helped your research.

Or cut the paper up into ten bookmarks to help you navigate your thesis.

Or just put it in your printer and print a copy of The tiny book of viva prep from the Resources page!

A blank page can be intimidating before you do something – but you don’t have to do a lot to get something valuable.

Nathan

Do More

Daily Post

Viva prep is more.

More reading to help you remember and recall what you need.

More writing to help you bring everything together.

More thinking to help you figure out that you’re ready.

But, for all of these and everything else you do to prepare, only a little more – only a little more work, a little more effort, a little more time. You don’t need much. Not by the time you’ve submitted. Not with so much done already.

 

A little contrast to this post from November 2020.

Nathan

Bottlenecks

Daily Post

When you plan your viva prep, look for things that could slow your progress.

  • Creating summaries might not be rewarding unless you’ve read your thesis first.
  • Anticipating examiner questions won’t be possible until after you’ve learned about their research.
  • Building a set of expectations can only come after you’ve asked others about their viva experiences.

As you plan your prep consider what will help later work. You can choose where you direct your thoughts and efforts. Choose carefully so that you don’t have to over-invest your time. Plan clearly so that you don’t have to do more than is necessary.

Nathan

Imperfect Prep

Daily Post

Your prep will be imperfect. Getting ready for the viva, there’s no way to account for every bit of information you might need. You can’t anticipate every question you could conceivably be asked by your examiners.

Your prep is built on layers of imperfection too. Your research won’t be perfect. Your skills will not all be at their absolute peak. There will always be ways to make your thesis better.

In all of these things, you don’t need perfection. Your prep doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to make you ready. It needs to make you good enough.

Your prep, while imperfect, can help make you ready for anything you’ll find in your viva.

Nathan

The Supporting Skeleton

Daily Post

For a long time I’ve made the following viva prep suggestion in seminars:

Consider writing an edited bibliography. If your bibliography is a body of work that supports your thesis then an edited bibliography is the skeleton of that body, the references that give you the most support. What would they be?

Following the metaphor a little:

  • What references are like the skull, protecting the brain: what references do you really need to know?
  • What references are like the ribs? They cover your heart, the core references that support your arguments.
  • Which references are like your ear bones: small, but which can make a big difference?

Not all references are equally valuable. Not all references are present for the same reason. Useful questions can help identify helpful items from your bibliography, but unfortunately not every bone in the body can prompt one of those questions!

Still, whether you create an edited bibliography or not, do reflect and consider how different references support you and your work in different ways.

Nathan

You Have To Finish Sometime

Daily Post

Following on from yesterday’s post, it’s easier to finish when you know what success looks like.

You can feel confident you’re ready for the viva if you define in advance what you need to do to prepare.

  • What actions or tasks do you need to do?
  • What can help show you that you are done?
  • How are you going to define “enough”?

And to avoid stress, consider the limits you could put on any day that you spend time on getting ready. What is “enough” work for a day that you do prep?

Nathan

You Have To Start Somewhere

Daily Post

With viva prep you get to decide when, where, what and how.

(the why and who are already taken care of!)

Viva prep doesn’t need precision planning, but a little thought can help sketch out a useful idea of what you need to do to start and when you need to do it. Reflecting on the following questions around submission time should help:

  • How busy are you?
  • When do you tend to have periods of uninterrupted time?
  • What will you start your viva prep with?
  • And when do you need to begin to limit stress and pressure on yourself?

You have to start somewhere, and the good news is that you get to pick.

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