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Nathan

The Pillow Fort Principle

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How can you make a sanctuary for yourself before your viva? How can you make a nice space for preparing, or create an environment that is going to help you feel good as well as get ready? It probably won’t involve setting up cushions and a blanket, but the same idea applies: how can you make a safe, sheltered, secluded space that’s comfortable, quiet and just for you?

What do you need to help make this real?

How do you need your friends and family to support you?

How can you take a little pressure out of your situation to help you get ready for your viva?

I could make suggestions, but they wouldn’t be as good as your responses to these questions.

What kind of a viva prep space are you going to make for yourself?

Nathan

A Few Thoughts On Feeling Ready

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“Ready for the viva” doesn’t mean “not nervous about the viva”.

Ready doesn’t mean perfect in any way.

Ready and prepared aren’t quite the same thing – but they travel in the same car.

Ready for the viva means you’ve practically prepared and found some confidence for the day.

There’s always more that you could do to feel more ready, but a finite list of tasks is sufficient to get you ready.

Ready is personal. What does it mean for you?

Nathan

Clear (To You)

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Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide…

 

A few weeks ago I was half-humming, half-singing Bohemian Rhapsody as I was tidying up.

“What’s that?!” asked my seven-year-old daughter.

I started singing the song properly. I stayed in tune. I know the words pretty well and thought I did a good job.

When I stopped, I waited for applause and appreciation.

My daughter said, “No, what was that? I don’t know that. Is it new? Or is it really old?”

She could hear all the words, catch the tune, see her dad making a bit of a fool of himself (that’s standard operating procedure), but was at a loss for trying to really get what she was listening to. She’d never heard Bohemian Rhapsody, was unfamiliar with that kind of song or style of music, and so all she got from my virtuoso performance was confusion.

Whereas I thought I was being very clear!

 

Consider, as you prepare for the viva, where you feel you’re clear – in your thinking, in your knowledge, in how you communicate your research – and explore what you could do both to check how clear you are and improve how clear you are. Share your research with friends and ask them about what they understand and what they want to know more about. It’s not enough that you get it: check that they get enough of what you’re trying to share.

You know a lot and can do a lot to have got this far through your PhD. Now check how clear you are when communicating with others – something you’ll have to do when you meet your examiners in the viva.

 

Any way the wind blows…

Nathan

Consulting Your Supervisors

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Your supervisors will be able to help with lots of things related to the viva. It’s good to consider them in the role of a consultant.

Consultants take a step back, they’re there to advise: you have to do the work. It’s best to ask highly-targeted questions and make specific requests – both to get the best response from them and respect their time.

  • Before submission they can offer feedback on your research, guidance on your thesis and talk through expectations for the viva.
  • During preparation time they can steer your perspective, share insights into your examiners and perhaps practically help your preparations with a mock viva.
  • After it’s all done they can support you as you deliver on your corrections, and hopefully even find a way to help you celebrate!

There’s lots of possibilities: before you ask for help, consider what you might really need from them. Then focus on asking for that.

Nathan

Action Overcomes Fear

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I looked back over the last three years to see how I’d been inspired by Halloween previously:

I’m not going to be silly or spooky today though – this year has had enough fear and worry in it.

If your viva is coming up and you’re worried or afraid, the first step to resolving the situation is to figure out what the problem really is. Ask for help from someone, or think about how you’re going to do something about it. Then do something! And remember why you’re doing it.

Your fears come from somewhere. Beating them comes from you.

Nathan

No Hurry, No Pause

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The work of Tim Ferriss has helped me a lot over the last decade. I’ve enjoyed all of his books, but one of his must-read posts that I keep returning to is “Testing The Impossible: 17 Questions That Changed My Life” from 2016.

While the post is about business and lifestyle design, re-reading it for the 73rd time today I’m struck by how so many of the questions resonate with my view on viva preparation too:

  • If I could only work 2 hours per week on my business, what would I do? Leaving business aside, the time restriction is an excellent provocation. What do you need to do first?
  • Am I hunting antelope or field mice? This makes me think of obsessing over typos and what-ifs. You could hunt for endless little things, or focus preparation efforts on the larger “antelope” that will provide you with more!
  • What would this look like if it were easy? A simple prompt. How could your preparations be easy? What conditions would you need? Now which of those can you create?
  • No hurry, no pause. As Tim notes, not a question! But something that has stuck with me personally, and which I think applies really well to viva prep. A little planning before submission goes a really long way. A little organisation makes your preparation come together nicely, stress-free. You might be anxious about your viva still, but your preparation will not be a contributing factor.

I thoroughly recommend the article. See how it might prompt you to reflect on your preparations before the viva. Look for ways to make the process as valuable as it can be.

Nathan

A Viva Prep Top Ten

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It has to be a top ten rather than the top ten, because there are so many useful things that one could do to get ready for the viva!

  1. Sketch a post-submission timeline.
  2. Stick a Post-it Note at the start of each thesis chapter.
  3. Read recent papers by your examiners.
  4. Check the regulations for your institution.
  5. Read. Your. Thesis.
  6. Have a mock viva.
  7. Write a few summaries.
  8. Check the details of the viva arrangements.
  9. Explore the why of your research.
  10. Find ways to remind yourself that you are good at what you do.

There’s more you could do, but this list would give someone a good overview of the practical work that helps.

What else would you add to this list? And what are you going to do next to get ready?

Nathan

Start Prep Well

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Everyone has responsibilities or time pressures.

Yours might include family life, a job, research you’re working on, caring responsibilities, illness or many other things. Way before you submit, sketch out what a typical day or week is like for you. You don’t need to take days off work necessarily to get ready for the viva, but you might want to mark out a couple of evenings in each week. You might need to block out a Saturday morning. Or ask a family member to cover a responsibility around your home so that you have a little time each evening.

Everyone has responsibilities or time pressures – but preparing for the viva doesn’t need to feel pressured. A small amount of thought, the simplest of sketches for a plan can help you to begin getting ready without a rush, without a feeling of uncertainty, without a sense that you don’t know what you’re doing.

Start well with a plan; start as you mean to go on.

Nathan

Little Things Help

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Sticking Post-it Notes to mark the start of chapters.

Bookmarking the webpage with your university’s viva regulations.

Underlining a typo, and then leaving it alone.

Making a list of things you know.

Reminding yourself that you are talented.

There’s lots of big pieces of work that help someone like you create a thesis. There’s lots of big things that you need to do to get ready for your viva.

Don’t forget the little things that will help too.

Nathan

All-You-Can-Prep!

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When I was a kid I used to love all-you-can-eat buffets. Some of this, some of that, pile the plate high and devour! And repeat! And repeat!

And then regret…

Sore stomach, parched throat, and a fuzzy head from too much of everything.

As an adult, my preferences have changed. Far better to have things you really want, rather than consume everything because it’s there.

I think it’s similar in a way with viva prep.

Most candidates will have between six to twelve weeks after submission. There’s lots you could do. You could read your thesis a few times, make lots of notes, have lots of conversations with people, a mock viva or two, read all of your references, check to see if there’s any new good ones and just keep doing more and more work. There will always be more you could do, and there’s a big gap of time (leaving aside how busy you probably are) to prepare in.

But all that focus will probably leave you with a fuzzy head from too much of everything.

Far better to act with intention. Decide in advance what outcomes you’ll need to satisfy to consider yourself prepared. You really can’t do everything. You don’t need to use every hour of every day to get ready.

So what do you need to do? Who do you need to help you? When will you get it done?

Don’t treat prep as open-ended task. A little thought and a little plan will go a long way to helping you get the work done.

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