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Nathan

Schedule Your Prep

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You might not know your viva date at submission. Confirmation could come weeks after you have submitted. In some cases a candidate might only get two weeks warning of a viva date (assuming that the date works for them too).

Sketch out a plan for viva prep at submission. This might have some blanks. It might not have precise dates. But consider how busy you are and what commitments you have already.

When, where and how would you fit in viva preparation?

A schedule could have tasks broken down date by date or be a list of points you have to tackle. Any helpful structure you can give yourself at submission will help you appreciate the scope of what needs to be done, what questions you need to ask yourself and what further planning you need to do.

Then you need to do the work!

Nathan

Friendly Questions

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Around submission time reach out to your friends and colleagues in your department.

For the particular friends who might know a little about your research, ask for time: can they listen to you talk about your work? Would they have an hour in their schedule to get coffee and give you a mini-viva? Or perhaps get a group together and listen to a seminar?

For friends and colleagues who have had their viva, ask for information: what was their viva like? What happened? How did they feel? Consider what you might need to know about to help you get a good sense of what vivas are like or to put your mind at ease. Ask for details.

Who do you know who could help you?

Nathan

No Shortcuts

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There’s no quick three-step process to getting ready for the viva.

You can’t bypass reading your thesis to refresh your memory.

No-one has invented a 5-minute mock viva that gets you two-hours of practise in 300 seconds.

There are no shortcuts to just doing the work – but the work involved in viva preparation really doesn’t take all that long. Maybe an hour per day for about four weeks leading up to your viva could be enough, even with taking a day off here and there.

It’s not nothing, but it’s a lot less than the hundreds of days and thousands of hours invested in your PhD up to submission. It’s a little more work to help you be ready for the particular challenge of your viva.

And given what’s at stake, why would anyone want a shortcut to being ready for their viva?

Nathan

6 Reasons To Create A Summary

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There are lots of reasons to create summaries as part of getting ready for your viva. Here are 6!

  1. They help you to figure out what you think.
  2. Writing a summary can help you find clarity about some aspect of your thesis or research.
  3. You can highlight key information or details.
  4. You can gather useful thoughts you might want to use in the viva.
  5. You can build confidence by reflecting on what you’ve done.
  6. A summary is a small project.

I think number 6 is overlooked sometimes. Viva prep can feel big, daunting and even open-ended. A summary is a finite task to be done. The process helps and the output is a resource.

Find an important aspect of your thesis or research. Spend a little time thinking about it and capturing useful thoughts about it.

Nathan

6 Ways To Read Your Thesis

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An incomplete list of ways to read your thesis in preparation for your viva.

  1. At the last minute: waiting until the day before to cram it into your brain!
  2. Casually and without care: just reading whenever and wherever with no agenda.
  3. Late in the day: after all of the other work for the day is done and you’re tired.
  4. At a glance: just skimmed because you wrote it!
  5. Obsessively: read and re-read and re-read again to make it stick.
  6. Planned and with purpose: read carefully to help your thinking.

To avoid any doubts, I’m clearly signposting the last option!

Sketch out a plan around submission time for how you will read your thesis. Don’t leave it until the day before your viva. Take time to read your thesis in a way that suits you and your other responsibilities. Consider the best time to get the work done. Read your thesis carefully at least once. You don’t have to re-read your work: you just need to feel confident that you know what you’ve presented in your thesis.

Sketch a plan. Read your thesis well. Be prepared.

Nathan

Capturing Thoughts

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There are lots of posts on this site that encourage creating summaries or making lists. This isn’t because your examiners need to see them or expect you to quote from them in the viva.

Creating a summary is an opportunity to capture your thoughts on a topic, whether that’s the broad details of a research method or the key points of your examiners’ recent papers.

A summary or a list helps put your thoughts into words. If you have any topics, ideas, results or research that you need to make clearer as you prepare then take an hour to write a summary. You’re not crafting perfect paragraphs to quote: you’re finding words to help you think clearly.

Take a little time during your viva prep to make notes, write summaries and break down key information.

Nathan

Before You Prepare

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Viva prep is a set of tasks and activities you complete between submission and the viva which help you to feel ready for the viva. Before submission, to create a good space for your prep, do the following:

  • Read the viva regulations for your university.
  • Gather some nice stationery to help with note-making.
  • Sketch out a rough plan for how you will do your prep.
  • Ask your supervisor about their availability.
  • Ask friends and family to support your prep time.
  • Finish your research and your thesis.

Of course, the last one is pretty important!

The other points are also importatant but they’ll take up far less time to help you make a good space for getting ready for your viva.

Nathan

Build Your Habits

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Viva prep is work: a series of actions that steer you towards being ready for your examiners.

You can approach it as a finite project, setting out tasks and activities to a plan for yourself, but it might also help to think of it as a cluster of habits – regular tasks or processes to help you prepare.

  • You could, for example, get in to the habit of writing down questions about your research whenever they occur to you.
  • You could find a convenient ten minutes every day to write about your thesis contribution.
  • You could start a practice of looking at difficult parts of your thesis with an open mind, “What can I learn from this?”

We are the sum of our habits. The things we do often, good and bad, give us a foundation for how we approach whatever situations we find ourselves in.

What habits could you choose for viva prep? How can you steer yourself in a good way for your viva?

Nathan

A Few More Words

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Annotation helps you to prepare in two ways.

First, you have to think carefully about your thesis while you add the notes or emphasis you need.

Second, you have a more helpful resource for your viva.

 

Annotation is effective when you do it in two stages.

First, think carefully about what you really need or want your thesis to have. What do you want to see or find more easily? Make a list.

Second, consider how you will do each of the items on the list in a clear and consistent way. How can you make your annotations simple so they don’t confuse you?

 

In the big picture view of viva prep, annotation is a few more words to add to your thesis to help you get ready. With a little thought it can be a relatively simple exercise to make your thesis better.

What do you need? How will you do it?

Nathan

A Month To Prepare

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I don’t advise every PhD candidate take a month to get ready for their viva but a month is a good place to start from when considering your plans.

Viva prep – the deliberate tasks someone does to get ready for their viva – takes between 20 and 30 hours for most candidates. Viva prep includes activities like reading your thesis, rehearsing for the viva, annotating and making notes, checking papers and any other practical task you can think of that might help.

Taking a month for viva prep means that 20 to 30 hours breaks down to half an hour or an hour most days. You might take days off, you might do more each day in the final week, but there is a lot of time to spread things out. There is space to change plans. There is wiggle room in case anything goes wrong.

Some people thrive with the pressure of a tighter deadline. Two weeks can be enough time to get ready for your viva, but with two weeks you are committing to one or two hours every day and there is less margin for error.

For your viva and your viva prep you have to decide what is best for you. I would recommend starting with a month, sketching out a plan taking into account your other responsibilities, then see how that feels.

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