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Tag: maybe and definitely

Nathan

Best of Viva Survivors 2025: Confidence

Daily Post

For day three of my look back at 2025 I return to confidence. I really love exploring how to encourage confidence for the viva. Digging into this topic has had a huge impact on my life and I love sharing ideas with PhD candidates.

How confident are you feeling for your viva? What steps are you taking to help yourself?

One helpful step might be to take a look at The Confidence Issue, the seventh issue of curated help from my Viva Survivors Select series of zines!

Nathan

Maybe & Definitely

Daily Post

Maybe you didn’t get all of the results you were hoping for.

Maybe writing your thesis was harder than you expected.

Maybe your external examiner isn’t the person you would have picked.

Maybe there’s something tricky in your third chapter that you find hard to remember.

And, who knows, maybe your viva will be longer than you would like.

 

Definitely: You did the work. There are regulations and expectations that create a knowable viva process. You can take time to prepare in a way that helps you. Your examiners will be known well in advance of your viva. You have time to get ready.

 

Every viva has maybes. Whatever maybes you can think of for yours, these are more than covered by the things that you will know and can do definitely.