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Nathan

In Case Of Emergency

Daily Post

There’s a relatively small chance that a question at the viva could make you feel like you’re in an emergency.

  • A stressful question.
  • A complicated question.
  • An unclear question.
  • A never-before-considered question.

If your first thought is “I don’t know” or “Aaaaaargh!” it can be hard to figure out how to respond.

Here’s the best advice I can give for those moments: do exactly what you’ve been doing for the non-emergency and non-stressful questions.

 

Whatever the question or comment from your examiners: pause, think it through and then respond. Your response could be an answer, an opinion, sharing an idea or asking a question.

If the question is really simple: pause, think and respond.

If the question is complex: pause, think and respond.

If the question makes you think “Aaaargh!”: pause, think and respond.

 

You don’t need an answer for everything. You do need to engage with every question.

Having one process that you can follow for simple questions and stressful questions makes it easier for you to follow and engage with the discussion in the viva.

Questions can be complicated. Your process for responding to them doesn’t need to be.

Nathan

Three Words For The Viva

Daily Post

Pause: you don’t need to rush to speak after a question. Take your time, check your thesis, sip some water and catch your breath. The viva is a test of how well you engage, not how quickly you answer.

Think: you don’t need to fire away with your first thought. Pausing gives you space to think deeply. Again, check your thesis, make a note or two if needed. Get your thoughts in order.

Respond: calm and careful, say what you need to say. Remember that not every question has an answer. You might be sharing an opinion, offering an idea, asking a question or even saying that you don’t know. The viva is a discussion, not an interview, not a Q&A.

Pause, think, respond. Don’t forget.

 

PS: this month’s Viva Survivors Select is subtitled The Focus Issue, because that’s what a summary helps you do: focus on what really matters in your research and thesis. The issue has twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive and two new pieces, including an original reflective game that would be perfect for you to practice pausing, thinking and responding! You can find out more details here 🙂

Nathan

Pause to Think, Think to Respond

Daily Post

One approach to engaging in the viva could be summarised as pause, think, respond.

  • Pause first to give yourself a moment. Consider the question or comment. Take your time.
  • Think to explore whatever ideas come to mind. Remember what you need. Put ideas together.
  • Respond to the point, clearly. Take your time to say whatever you need to say so that your examiners get what they need.

Another way to look at this is to see that all three points are linked. You pause to think, taking time to be sure of what you need to say. You think to respond well, being reflective and careful.

Pause, think, respond. Pause to think, think to respond. Whichever way resonates, the connection is that a candidate engages well at the viva when they take their time.

It doesn’t need to be a hard question for you to take a few moments to consider what you will say or how you will say it.

Nathan

My Reminder

Daily Post

In an effort to speak clearly at webinars and cover what I need to say without too many words I have a small background pop-up on my desktop when I’m presenting that simply says “DON’T WAFFLE!”

It works quite well.

I don’t have a script for any session but I do have talking points. I can dig into most of them to much greater depth than I might typically. In the moment I might go on and on because I’m excited and then I notice the time and realise I have to now say less about the next topic and wonder, flustered in the moment what I could cut and so-

DON’T WAFFLE! has served me quite well as a little reminder.

 

A less direct and less exclamatory way that I might interpret this is say less, communicate more.

It’s a reminder to pause. To breathe. To think about the next words: I might know the point I want to make but the particular words matter. When I’m asked a question I can take my time to think if I pause.

All of these are reminders for me, but they largely apply to any kind of presenting or responding to questions – even the viva.

What reminders do you need to help you engage well in the viva?

Nathan

Take Your Time

Daily Post

Take your time as you finish your thesis. You’ll never make it perfect but you can be proud it’s as good as you can reasonably make it.

Take your time as you get ready for your viva. Plan your prep and give yourself space to do the work without stressing or rushing.

Take your time in the viva. You don’t need to speak as quickly as possible – you can think, you can be clear and you can respond confidently.

Take your time after the viva to breathe and appreciate what you’ve done. Getting a PhD is not something that everyone does; at the very least it marks you out as someone capable and determined.

If you can, when your PhD is complete, take some time to think about what you’ll do next.

 

PS: the Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical starts on Monday! A daily post from the archives all through the summer while I take a creative break after seven years of Viva Survivors 🙂

Nathan

In The Frame

Daily Post

Pause, think, respond.

That’s how you engage with a question or comment in the viva. You pause in order to think and you think in order to respond well.

Pause and Think: Are your examiners clear with their question? Do you know what they are asking or needing you to speak about?

Think and Respond: Be calm and clear as you respond. Are you responding to their question or comment directly? If not, how are you reframing that?

If you can’t respond directly to a question then you need to think about how you can still engage with it. “I don’t know” and exploring why you don’t know is a good response. Trying to steer away and talk about something different is a bad response.

Pause and think to fully understand how a question or comment is framed. Think then frame your response well so your examiners can clearly understand you.

Nathan

A Moment’s Panic

Daily Post

Last month I was finishing my setup for a webinar when something unexpected happened.

I was using Zoom, as I have for four years, and when I shared my screen it looked very different: I was in my slides! I was overlaid on my introduction, confined to the bottom left like a TV news presenter.

I panicked.

For five seconds I looked at the options, the images, the words, the clock in the corner ticking to when I had to start talking. For five seconds I panicked and frozen whilst also doing 101 things.

And then I remembered a key idea from my session: pause, think, respond.

  • I closed my eyes and took a breath. For five more seconds I just stopped.
  • I opened my eyes and looked at the screen and thought. What mattered here?
  • I responded and stopped the screen share. I still had time. I was no longer looking at the wrong thing. With no active problem in front of me, could I find the right thing?

Five seconds later I did and everything was fine.

It was a simple update to Zoom’s interface. An extra option and a change to the default. Something unexpected, leading to a very stressful thirty seconds.

After years of doing things one way – whether it’s Zoom or your research – it could be surprising or even panicking to be faced with something different.

In your viva, you might encounter questions you’ve not considered. You might hear an opinion that is counter to your own. You might need to think about options you’ve not thought through before. Any of these might cause a moment’s panic, but if that happened it’s OK.

Pause. Think. Respond.

Take your time. Get past the panic. Work past the worry. Respond as best you can.

Nathan

Silence In The Viva

Daily Post

Like nervousness, silence might not feel comfortable sometimes but it doesn’t necessarily mean something negative.

In your viva a moment of quiet could be while you or an examiner checks a detail or finds the right place in your thesis. You might need a quiet pause to think or read, or to make a note. Silence could be a side-effect of a video viva delay or a simple pause to settle after a noise from outside.

Silence in the viva is a brief quiet between questions, responses and discussion about really important things. Silence in the viva is not for long before the words flow again. Silence in the viva is just one of those things that will happen.

Prepare for talking at your viva by rehearsing and talking before your viva. Use that opportunity to prepare for the silence too.

Nathan

Your Role

Daily Post

At the viva you have to engage with the questions and comments of your examiners. You have to be a good participant in the discussion that rises from your thesis, the questions and what unfolds naturally.

That’s it.

You don’t have to be extra-smart or super-relaxed. They’re not looking for you to take on a persona. You don’t have to have an answer for everything or speak in a certain way.

Your examiners want to hear what you think and see what you know. Your role in the viva is to respond. You don’t have to be anything you’re not.

Nathan

The Pauses

Daily Post

There are no bad reasons for taking a pause during your viva.

A pause to check you’ve heard your examiners correctly. A pause to get your thoughts in order is helpful. Checking a detail from your thesis is a useful beat of silence.

The pauses in the viva aren’t limited to your side of the table or the Zoom call. Your examiners may have to read their summaries or make a note for later. They may need to check between them to see who will speak next.

The pauses in your viva are the punctuation for the discussion. Like punctuation in a book they are just as necessary.

Pause, think and respond. Pause, check and ask. Pause, note and consider.

Silence isn’t always comfortable but pausing in the viva is never bad.

Take your time.

Pause.

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