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Nathan

9 Questions For The End Of The PhD

Daily Post

How often did you reflect during your PhD? Here are nine questions to help with some end of PhD reflection. Write or record answers for them. Your examiners are unlikely to ask some of these, but perhaps you’ll find some new insights.

  1. What’s your PhD worth?
  2. What does your PhD mean?
  3. What will you do next?
  4. What can you do now that you couldn’t do at the start?
  5. What do you know now that you didn’t know at the start?
  6. What was the greatest challenge you overcame?
  7. How did you do it?
  8. What did you leave unfinished?
  9. How do you feel now you’re at the end?

Come back to your answers after the viva. See if any of them have changed. If they have, why?

Nathan

Play

Daily Post

Play never stops being important. Want to play let’s pretend? How would you explain your research to:
A five year old?
Your parents?
Your best friend?
Someone on the bus?
A well-educated person from the nineteenth century?
A well-educated person from the twenty-second century?
Your supervisor at the start of your PhD?
Your supervisor today?

Play is never just wasting time. Play helps to unpick the core of skills and ideas. Play at explaining your research. You might find something new and interesting.

Nathan

Your Greatest Hits

Daily Post

Examiners and graduates tell me that the viva typically starts with a question like, “Can you tell us about the most important parts of your research?” or “What is your work all about?” It’s a question worth practicing when the opportunity presents.

It is a big question though, so if you’re preparing for the viva, here are five questions that will help unpick it.

When were you most engaged during your PhD?
What do you want people to refer to in your thesis?
What would you most like to build on?
Which of your chapters or results is closest to perfection and why?
What parts of your research are least important? (followed up by “What’s left in your thesis after this?”)

You’re a talented researcher to have the viva in your future. You can think of more questions which will help you unpick this possible viva-opener.

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