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Tag: i don’t know

Nathan

Maybe

Daily Post

It always helps to pause when you’re asked a question at your viva; take some time to think, consider, get your thoughts in order (and make notes, check your thesis and so on) before you respond.

You could do all of that and still, in that moment, think, “Well, maybe…” Taking everything into account, you might not know something or might not be sure.

That’s OK. The viva is not about demonstrating perfection or total knowledge: it’s about showing what you did, why you did it and how you can do things well. If you listen carefully, think carefully and your careful response to one particular questions begins with “Maybe…” then you’re doing fine.

You don’t need to know everything. You don’t need to have thought of everything beforehand.

 

PS: Looking for help with the viva discussion and expectations? Then check out my live 3-hour Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026 where I’ll talk about these topics and a lot more. You’ll get four-week access to a recording of the session and follow-up materials too. There’s more information at the link but please get in touch if you have any questions or want to know more. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Greater Than

Daily Post

Years of work and learning won’t make you infallible.

It’s entirely possible to get to your viva and be faced with a question you’ve never considered before. You can forget or go blank. And you can always be asked a question that – through lack of understanding, lack of knowledge or a glitch in the moment – it feels like the only thing you can say is “I don’t know.”

Taking all of this into account, how much more likely is it that you know something?

It’s not wrong to worry about what if’s, brain freezes or feeling uncertain as you respond to an important event like the viva. You can do something about all of these through preparation and through recognising that you don’t need to know everything.

Years of work and learning won’t make you infallible – but, for your viva, what you know is greater than what you don’t.

Nathan

Three Simple Words

Daily Post, Sabbatical

Are you prepared to say “I don’t know” in your viva?

There’s only so much information, knowledge and talent you can build up before your viva. You’ll have enough, but you might not have everything. Perfection isn’t required: but do you feel comfortable enough saying “I don’t know” so that you aren’t worried if you do need to say it?

To help build that comfort, and the confidence that goes with it:

  • Make opportunities where you can be asked real, relevant questions for your research, thesis and competence. You can’t predict in advance what questions you will be asked in the viva, or what questions will prompt a response of “I don’t know”. The more times you practise being in a similar situation to the viva, the more experience you will have and the better you will feel.
  • Review your work to convince yourself of how much you do know. You don’t know everything, but you know a lot. It would be impossible to write an exhaustive list of everything you don’t know, but you can reassure yourself that you have a good knowledge base.
  • Learn about viva expectations. Examiners could ask questions to which you can only respond “I don’t know” but they don’t do it out of malice or some attempt to belittle you or your work. They don’t ask unreasonable questions.

I don’t know what you might have to say “I don’t know” to. You can’t know that in advance either. But you can know that it is OK.

These three simple words don’t have to define you, your viva performance or how you feel going into the viva.

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on September 21st 2020.

Nathan

I Don’t Know

Daily Post, Sabbatical

“I don’t know” is not the end of the viva. It’s not a stain against your name. It doesn’t mean that you automatically lose.

It means you didn’t know something.

If you don’t have information, what do you have? I can think of a few possibilities:

  • Probably a question for yourself: you don’t know a definite answer, but what possibilities are there?
  • Probably a question or two for your examiners: can you tell me more?
  • Definitely a brain, and experience: given the question, given everything you do know, what does that lead you to think?

I don’t know is not the end of the viva. It could be the end of a strand of conversation. Or it could be an opportunity to show how you can think, and engage, discuss and decide. You can give an opinion. YOU can reason things out. I’ll say it again: You’re not here by accident.

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on May 19th 2017.

Nathan

Gasp!

Daily Post

If a question or comment in your viva makes you freeze then just stop.

Breathe again.

Think again.

Try to understand the question.

Think some more.

Breathe again.

And if the question or comment still makes you freeze then reflect, “Why?”

Why is this question or comment giving you trouble?

Once you start thinking about that, even if you still don’t have an answer or an opinion you’ll have the beginning of a response that you can share with your examiners.

If a question or comment gives you pause, makes you freeze or even makes you gasp, just sit with it a moment. Take a little time to think and explore how you can still respond.

Nathan

The Meaning

Daily Post

A simple and effective way to tackle a tricky question in the viva is to look for the meaning behind it.

  • If your examiner challenges a method, look for why they might be doing that.
  • If you go blank or think “I don’t know” then ask yourself why.
  • If you can’t see what your examiners are getting at then ask them why.

Searching for the meaning behind a difficult question or comment is far better than trying to stumble your way to a few words. It’s far better than sitting in silence and hoping that something clicks.

Ask yourself why or ask your examiners why, and watch as information and ideas start to move.

Nathan

Filling In The Blanks

Daily Post

There’s lots of blanks that could occur around the viva.

Key information you don’t know. Something you can’t remember. Before and during the viva, the feeling of suddenly knowing that you don’t know something can be uncomfortable, even stressful.

In both cases, before and during, the best thing you can do is ask questions.

Before the viva your question at encountering a blank might be one of the following:

  • Why don’t I know this?
  • Who could I ask for help?
  • Where could I find help?
  • What do I really need to know?

Any one of these questions might be the springboard to finding what you need to fill in the blank or gain more certainty about a situation.

In the viva, feeling blank is probably more stressful, but still the best thing to do is ask questions.

If your first response to a question or comment in the viva is “I don’t know” then ask yourself “Why?” Find out what’s in the way. Explore what’s stopping you. Ask “Why?” to prompt you to see what you need to do next.

Maybe you need to ask your examiners something. Maybe you need to pause and think more. Maybe you need to acknowledge a point before you can move past it. Maybe you need to check something in your thesis.

Encounter a blank, before or during the viva, and ask yourself “Why?”

Then find a way forward from there.

Nathan

Three Simple Words

Daily Post

Are you prepared to say “I don’t know” in your viva?

There’s only so much information, knowledge and talent you can build up before your viva. You’ll have enough, but you might not have everything. Perfection isn’t required: but do you feel comfortable enough saying “I don’t know” so that you aren’t worried if you do need to say it?

To help build that comfort, and the confidence that goes with it:

  • Make opportunities where you can be asked real, relevant questions for your research, thesis and competence. You can’t predict in advance what questions you will be asked in the viva, or what questions will prompt a response of “I don’t know”. The more times you practise being in a similar situation to the viva, the more experience you will have and the better you will feel.
  • Review your work to convince yourself of how much you do know. You don’t know everything, but you know a lot. It would be impossible to write an exhaustive list of everything you don’t know, but you can reassure yourself that you have a good knowledge base.
  • Learn about viva expectations. Examiners could ask questions to which you can only respond “I don’t know” but they don’t do it out of malice or some attempt to belittle you or your work. They don’t ask unreasonable questions.

I don’t know what you might have to say “I don’t know” to. You can’t know that in advance either. But you can know that it is OK.

These three simple words don’t have to define you, your viva performance or how you feel going into the viva.

Nathan

The Greatest Worry

Daily Post

I’ve thought a lot about what candidates have told me for the last ten years. I’ve been in a fortunate position to meet many thousands of postgraduate researchers, and to help them get through various stages of their PhD. And when you listen for long enough you notice patterns. Sometimes it’s the things that are said often but sometimes it’s how things are said.

And I think I know what the greatest worry of postgraduate researchers is as they get closer to the viva.

It’s not that examiners won’t like their work.

It’s not that the thesis will be somehow incomplete.

And it’s not that they will go blank or have to say “I don’t know” to a question.

The greatest worry is that they will get to the viva and discover that they are not who they think they are.

They will find out that they are not talented. They will find in that moment that they are not as clever, as quick or as resourceful as they had hoped. They will find out that they are not as knowledgeable as they thought they were. This doubt can be held quite deeply within; the fear, the worry that you are not as good, as clever, as confident as you think.

This kind of self-doubt can be hard to beat. I think a solution can be found though in questions and reflection. If you’re doubting yourself at all before the viva then start with these two questions:

  • How else could you have got this far?
  • What can you point to in your research that’s great?

The first question is needed to start to unpick doubt. Doing a PhD is hard. While you can be fortunate you can’t just be lucky. You can’t get to submission and the viva by chance alone. There’s no other explanation other than you must have worked for it. That work must have produced something. The second question is useful to start exploring just what that might be. If you list the great things that have come out of your research you can start to believe that you’re great too.

Self-doubt can be a hard problem, but it’s not intractable.

Rather than beat away your fear it might be better to build up your bravery instead.

Nathan

Things I Don’t Know

Daily Post

There are lots of things I don’t know about the viva.

I don’t know if there’s any great differences between the vivas of part-time and full-time PhDs.

I don’t know how well vivas over Skype work compared to vivas in person.

I don’t know what percentage of people submit a thesis-by-publication.

I don’t know all of the regulations for all of the universities in the UK. (but I’m working on it!)

And I don’t know what percentage of candidates fail their viva, because universities are very reluctant to share that sort of data.

I have theories or ideas about all of these; hunches based on incomplete information, or ideas about how to get more stats. I’d like to explore these topics and many others, I just need to find the time to do it.

But the information is out there.

On smaller scales, your personal scale, the information is out there. There are regulations for your institution. You have a supervisor who can help shape your expectations. There are graduates you can talk to about viva experiences.

Figure out what you don’t know about the viva, then get to work finding out more.

(and I’ll do the same!)

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