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Nathan

Your Significant Original Contribution

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It’s right to reflect on the significant original contribution that your research makes to your field as part of your viva preparation. It helps to consider how you can share that. If your examiners asked you to dig deeper, what would you say? What would you focus on?

Making notes, writing summaries and talking can all help to make that easier in the viva.

While it’s right to focus on the contribution in your research and thesis, it’s also important to invest time reflecting on yourself: what is the significant and original contribution you have made to your own development while working for your PhD?

What have you learned? What do you know now? What can you do now that you couldn’t before?

You need a good thesis to pass your viva. You also need to be sure that you are a good candidate. Reflect on the contributions you have made to both over the course of your PhD.

Nathan

Clear Your Head

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Begin viva prep by writing down everything you think you might need to do.

Write down any upcoming work – projects, tasks, employment, responsibilities – that you also have to complete.

Sketch a plan of how much time you have to get ready.

And finally decide on your priorities for your viva prep. Which tasks have to be done? Which ones do you have to complete first? Are there any which are good ideas but less crucial?

Don’t start your viva prep by wondering where to begin, or juggling everything in your mind. Clear your head by getting everything out: make sense of what you could do, how much time you have and when you really need to get started.

Nathan

7 Starts To Viva Prep

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1. Read a handful of posts from a blog!

2. Sketch out a plan of the weeks leading up to your viva, noting busy days and quiet times.

3. Read the introduction to your thesis.

4. Search for and download the last two papers by each of your examiners.

5. Page through your thesis and insert sticky notes at the start of each chapter.

6. Ask your supervisor when they might be free for a mock viva.

7. Download the regulations for thesis examination for your university.

 

Viva prep takes a fair amount of work, but small tasks help. Little things get you moving if you’re not sure what to do. The smallest of steps can help energise you to the next thing you need to do.

If you’re procrastinating or unsure of what to do, or even worried about what’s still to come with your viva, remember that getting started puts you on the path to being done.

So start!

Nathan

Too Much

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You can’t be overprepared for your viva, but you can be overinvested. You can do too much by doing more than is needed.

Through uncertainty or worry you could easily spend more hours, do more tasks or obsess more than is required.

Keep it simple. Plan ahead. Don’t fill your days. Figure out the core tasks required and do them when the time comes.

Not too much, just enough – just like your thesis, your research and you.

Nathan

3 Kinds Of Viva Prep

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Rushed: done in a hurry in the days leading up to the viva.

Worried: done while wondering whether or not the right things are being done.

Overinvested: a LOT done, far more than needed, either through concern something will be missed or perfectionism.

Thankfully, these kinds of viva prep aren’t the only options!

You can do the combined opposite of all of these to get ready. Plan ahead so there’s no rush. Find out what you really need to do so you have no worries and use your time well. Let’s define this fourth kind of prep as…

Relaxed: done over a suitable timescale for the candidate, with clear activities and goals that lead to being ready.

Nathan

Prep Club

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I often describe the work of viva prep as being similar to the work of a PhD. The work has a different focus but it exercises the same knowledge and abilities. For the most part it continues to be something that a candidate would do alone.

But does it have to be work you do solo? Whether or not you have friends and colleagues around you who are also getting ready for their viva, do you know people who could:

  • Be in the same space as you while you read your thesis, so that you’re not alone?
  • Bounce ideas around with you about how to annotate your thesis?
  • Go for coffee and listen to you talk about your research?
  • Help you even more by having a mini-viva with you?

If you know fellow PGRs who are also preparing then even better, but start by considering who your allies are. Start by asking for the support you need, if you need something.

The first rule of Prep Club is you tell other people about your need for Prep Club.

Nathan

Summary & Memory

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Writing a summary of some aspect of your thesis or research before the viva can do a lot of things to help you. It forces you to focus on something, to highlight the best parts or the most difficult sections and can really support you as you fine-tune your thinking.

It’s important to also recognise that creating a summary can help your memory too. It helps embed ideas. You don’t need to memorise your thesis, or a list or a page of notes, or anything like that. Your examiners want to talk to a person and hear their research, their story and what that means. They don’t need you to recite your work to them.

The focus of writing a summary can help boost what you remember for the viva. You know enough and have done enough or you wouldn’t be working towards finishing your PhD. A little more work can help you remember what you need for meeting your examiners.

Nathan

Swallow The Frog

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What part of viva prep are you not looking forward to? What task do you wish you didn’t have to do?

An old piece of productivity advice centres on a sort-of analogy: “If your to-do list for a day included swallowing a live frog, wouldn’t you do that first to just get it out of the way?”

I.e., if swallowing a frog was the worst task you had in a day – and you had to do it – then doing it first would mean that everything else would seem easy by comparison.

When it’s time to prepare for your viva, what’s the frog in your situation? What do you have to do but not look forward to doing?

Do that part first. Get it out of the way or, if you really can’t, do something towards moving that task closer to completion. Don’t be simply frustrated. Don’t look away.

Get the frog task done and the rest of your viva prep is just work.

Nathan

Extreme Prep!

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Good advice about viva prep doesn’t include the following:

  • Read your thesis for twelve hours a day, every day!
  • Make notes on everything you can think of!!
  • Re-read every reference in your bibliography!!!
  • Have three mock vivas! Do one while balanced on a unicycle!!!

Of course, these are a little silly- but I have heard from candidates who push themselves way too hard or believe they’ll need to so they’ll be ready.

You don’t need to be perfect. You don’t need to memorise everything.

Keep it simple. Read your thesis, annotate it, check a few things out like regulations and key papers, and do make sure you rehearse a little for talking to your examiners.

Stay away from the extremes when it comes to viva prep.

Nathan

Three Easy Wins

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I start most working days with “three easy wins” for my productivity: before I get stuck into the harder stuff and deeper thinking I do three things that help me feel like I’m already making progress.

A walk is often top of my list. I’ll check accounts and spreadsheets to see if I need to do anything. And I’ll sort out newsletters and spam that have arrived overnight.

Nothing strenuous: easy or simple tasks that help clear my head, free up thinking space or help me to move on to tougher work.

What could you do to give yourself three easy wins when you sit down to prepare for your viva? Here are some ideas!

  1. Remember and write down one success from your PhD research.
  2. Write “You can do this!” at the top of page 1 of your thesis.
  3. Google the regulations for vivas at your university.
  4. Ask a friend to meet you for coffee and talk.
  5. Find a good page in your thesis and stick a bookmark in.
  6. Decide on one thing you will do to celebrate your success.
  7. Note down one question you think you’ll get in the viva.
  8. Take two minutes to write out a short summary of one result in your thesis.
  9. Attach sticky notes to the start of each chapter in your thesis.
  10. Underline what you wrote for suggestion 2!!

There are big tasks that you can do to help you get ready for your viva. There are lots of little things you can do too that will add to how you feel. Start small each time and do things that build you up for your viva.

 

PS: Number 11 on the list could be “Check out and back 101 Steps To A Great Viva on Kickstarter!“

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