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Tag: plan your prep

Nathan

Unique Prep

Daily Post

There’s a lot of viva help out there, particularly when it comes to ideas around viva prep.

Your PhD is unique. It’s reasonable to think your prep will be too. Take onboard suggestions and examples that you find when you look for help, then consider how you might need to adapt the idea to make it work for you.

The work to annotate a thesis by publication is similar but different to annotating a thesis which is a single project. Preparing to respond to questions about a creative work has similarities to preparing for questions about experiment-based research, but it will be different.

 

Your PhD, i.e., your research, your thesis, your process, your preferences, your situation, your knowledge, your skillset, your worries, your feelings, your plans and your hopes – all of it is unique!

It’s reasonable to think your prep will be too. Adapt ideas and good advice to fit your needs and circumstances.

 

PS: the latest issue of Viva Survivors Select, The Sparks Issue was released this week! It has twenty-five curated posts from the Viva Survivors blog archive and two original helpful resources as well. Your PhD and viva are both unique but you’ll find help in The Sparks Issue that you can apply to your situation, whatever it is and whatever you need. Please take a look. Thanks for reading! 🙂

Nathan

Five Times Five

Daily Post

Make a list of five papers you could read as part of your viva prep.

Make a list of five pages you’d like to be able to find easily in your thesis.

Make a list of five people you could talk to about your research.

Make a list of five days you could take a small break (even an hour) in the coming weeks.

Make a list of five questions you could write about before your viva.

 

Five lists with five points on each. They won’t take long to think or record.

Twenty-five helpful actions or activities you could do as part of your viva preparations, ready to go.

 

PS: Looking for more practical viva prep ideas? Explore June’s issue of Viva Survivors Select, my monthly viva help zine where I curate posts from the Viva Survivors archive!

Nathan

Planning Ahead

Daily Post

The viva is a big deal. Consequently viva prep can feel like a big deal too.

Viva prep isn’t trivial but the emotions and pressures of the viva and the end of the PhD – not to mention a busy daily life – could make viva prep time feel stressful.

One of the simplest ways to remove stress from viva prep is to plan it out. Sketch a plan when you submit. How would you space the work out? You can know what you need to do – there is a lot of information about it on this blog! – so by sketching a plan you can get a feel for how you can do the work given your situation and preferences.

Planning ahead isn’t the only way to approach viva prep. It is probably the path to getting the work done with the least stress.

 

PS: Looking for more viva prep help? Dig deeper into the topic with the third issue of Viva Survivors Select, my viva help zine of curated posts from the Viva Survivors archive!

Nathan

The Point Of Prep

Daily Post

Remember that your viva prep isn’t the point. Being ready for your viva is the point.

You need to plan your prep but the plan isn’t the point. It mostly doesn’t matter what you use to annotate your thesis, except that it makes your thesis better for you and your viva. You’ll probably benefit from a mock viva but the conversation with your supervisor isn’t the point.

Being ready is the point. How you exactly get there is less important than getting there.

Figure out what you need to get you to “ready”.

Nathan

Silver Bullets

Daily Post

In stories werewolves are powerful, almost unstoppable. Perhaps you can guard against them or run away for a time, but there’s no great defence you can mount. You have to hope that you can find or make silver bullets.

We sometimes use the idea of silver bullets as a shorthand for a solution to a particularly tricky problem. They are the one thing that will allow us to understand a situation, help us to plan better or get things done. It would cut through everything and solve the problem – if only we can find a silver bullet.

PhD candidates sometimes look for silver bullets for the viva. They hope for one thing that will help them to be confident. Or one thing that will help them feel prepared. Or even the one question they will definitely be asked that they can be ready for.

It might be nice to think about, but all of this forgets a couple of things:

  • Silver bullets, if they were needed, are rare, expensive and hard to make. Do you have time for that when you’re getting ready for the viva?
  • Werewolves, if they existed, are unique and difficult encounters. Your viva might be unique and difficult to some extent but vivas happen almost every day: there is a lot to learn about them and about how others have faced their challenges.

Don’t look for a single silver bullet to solve all your problems. Silver bullets are a distraction. You don’t have the time for them and you don’t need them.

Take simple steps to learn what you need to do to be ready for your viva – and then do the work.

Nathan

Planning Time

Daily Post

Viva prep typically takes between twenty and thirty hours. The range follows from the wide variation in thesis size, how a candidate might feel and practically how much time they can commit given their other responsibilities.

I think it’s impossible to plan out in advance exactly how much time you will spend each day over the course of your prep. On Tuesday 24th I will read my thesis for forty-five minutes… I don’t think that approach works well.

I think you can decide that you might read your thesis over the course of a week and allow an hour or so each night. You can set aside an hour on a date to write a summary about a particular chapter. You can schedule a mock viva for whenever is mutually convenient.

Sketching a plan at submission, figuring out generally how much time you might spend in the coming weeks is a good approach to prep that lowers stress. Detailing the minutes spent each day will most likely add more negative pressure and create standards that are hard to meet – and unnecessary.

Take a little time to plan your prep. Use the rest to get prepared.

Nathan

Viva Survivors Select 03

Update

It’s come around so quickly hasn’t it? Or maybe that’s just how I feel…

In any case the third issue of Viva Survivors Select is out today!

Viva Survivors Select 03, The Preparation Issue is here and I’m very excited to release it into the world. Twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive plus two new original pieces equals a lot of concentrated support for anyone who needs to get ready for their viva.

In this issue I felt it was time to dig into viva prep in detail: when do you start? What do you do? What tasks help? And how can you make the most of the time between submission and the viva to get ready for meeting your examiners?

Twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive and two new original pieces: a new resource for having helpful rehearsal conversations with friends and a confidence-building project you can start to help you feel better for your viva. Viva Survivors Select 03 is out now for £3 and joins the first two issues in this project of monthly viva help.

If you like the blog, want more help and want to support what I do then please take a look at and consider buying The Preparation Issue – and please do pass on details of this issue and Viva Survivors Select to anyone you know who is looking for viva help.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Nathan

Helpful Factors

Daily Post

Viva prep needs reading, reviewing, rehearsal and a lot of practical work on your part. There is also a lot you can do to help your preparations be as productive as possible.

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of helpful factors for viva prep:

  • Make a small plan. Sketch out what needs doing in the weeks leading up to your viva.
  • Meet your needs. Make sure that your plan actually addresses what you need.
  • Make time. Planning is great but you need the time to do it. Figure out when works well for you.
  • Be flexible. Leave room in the plan because something will need to change at some point. That’s life!
  • Find support. Ask for help before submission and be clear about what you need from others.
  • Review your progress. Take ten minutes every few days to check that you’re on track.

And rest. Remember that all of the work will be better if you are as well-rested as you can be.

Nathan

A Day Off

Daily Post

Rest is a part of viva preparation. There’s plenty of practical stuff you need to do to get ready – reading, making notes, rehearsing – but you have to rest as well.

You have to rest so that you can do the other stuff.

You have to rest so that you can have time to consider what you’ve done and what you still have to do. You have to rest to help you keep going.

I hope that you can find some rest today. I hope that you can take today off if possible! But if not today, then set some time aside soon. You need rest to be ready for the viva.

 

PS: if you have two minute spare today then check out Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. Registration is open now for my 3-hour live session all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready – and there are follow-up materials, a catch-up recording and plenty of time for questions. Take a look and see if it might help you.

Nathan

Don’t Rush

Daily Post

It’s not a good idea to rush into viva prep.

You don’t need to start the same day that you submit your thesis. You don’t need to start without a plan. You don’t need to over-invest time and effort. Following that path will lead to stress and missing things.

Don’t rush.

Focus on what you’re doing so you can do it quickly and well. A small amount of consideration can set you on the right path to getting the most from your viva preparation. Asking for help, fixing on what you need from the process and regular effort will help you get ready.

Get it done and do it well. As Seth Godin says, “Don’t rush… but hurry.”

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