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Tag: prep is personal

Nathan

Framing The Page

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Every page in your thesis has a significant border. You don’t need to fill all of that space to annotate your thesis well and be ready for your viva. You can make some sensible additions to your thesis pages to make your thesis as useful as possible:

  • You can add sticky notes or bookmarks to help navigate your thesis;
  • You can add short summaries at the top of key pages;
  • You can use colour to draw your attention to specific sentences;
  • You can add notes to help unpick or explain your writing;
  • You can add reminders for the things you really need to remember.

And you can do a lot more.

You don’t need to fill your pages to be well prepared. You can do what you need to get the most from your thesis.

Nathan

Perfect Prep

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There are core viva prep areas that any candidate has to focus on like reading your thesis, checking regulations, rehearsing and so on. The way you focus on these areas and how you spend your time is all about you.

You need to prepare in a way that responds to the research you’ve done and the thesis you’ve written. You need to prepare in a way that meets your personal needs and preferences for work. You need to consider your situation, your energy and your life circumstances.

When you take all of that into account you can start to find prep perfection.

At submission take a little time to think about what you’ve done, what you need and what your life is like. Sketch out a possible plan for getting your prep done. Gather the resources you’ll need. Rest! Make sure your needs are covered. Look for advice from others but make sure that you tailor it to your situation.

Perfect viva preparation means perfect for you – or as close as you can get it.

Nathan

Prep Is Particular

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There are big areas to cover if you want to prepare well for your viva:

  • Reading your thesis;
  • Annotating your thesis;
  • Rehearsing for the viva.

How you engage with these areas has to be particular to your preferences and situation. Your viva preparation has to be personal.

What you do matters but how you do it matters too. How do you need to get ready?

  • How do you need to read your thesis? All at once or spread over many days?
  • How will you annotate your thesis? Where will you put your focus?
  • When and with who will you rehearse? Is a mock viva enough or will you rehearse with other people?

How will you get ready for your viva? How will you plan your preparation?

Nathan

Try Something

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Viva prep shouldn’t be a terrible, all-consuming task. It shouldn’t require great changes to how you do things.

It might require that you try something different though.

You might need to try a different approach to your planning to make sure you have time to get things done. You might need to try annotation-making or summary-creating to help you focus differently. Or you might need to try something as you rehearse to give you a good process for responding to questions at the viva.

If you need to try something different during viva prep then there is time to do it. Don’t wait until your viva.

Nathan

Tidy Preparation

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Get organised for your prep when you submit your thesis.

If you need help then let people know as soon as possible.

Gather up your supplies: notebook, stationery, printing, files, links and more.

Make a plan. Make two! Sketch out how you might get the work done in several ways to see what works best for you.

As you work keep track of what you’ve done. A record of finished tasks will help you feel better as you get closer to your viva.

Keep everything nice and tidy. A little thought will help you get through prep well.

Nathan

Prep Matters

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People succeed at their viva, for the most part, because of who they became during their PhD journey. The amount of work, the amount of knowledge, the scale of results and the personal growth – that’s what helps them create a thesis and it’s what leads them to success at the viva…

…but prep matters.

Viva prep is learning what to expect and working towards meeting that challenge. By the time you submit your thesis you are well experienced at overcoming challenges. Viva prep is a little bit of necessary work to help you feel ready for and succeed at the particular challenge of your viva.

Prep matters for how it helps you to focus. Prep matters because you can see what really matters when you slow down and take a little time for yourself. Your prep will matter to you because you are doing it to meet your needs.

Nathan

Room To Rest

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It’s another public holiday in the UK.

I have the day off and I hope you do as well – and if you don’t I hope you can take a day off soon!

 

Remember that when it’s time to get ready for your viva too.

There’s work to do when you’re preparing for your viva but you can control the flow. Don’t make it too intense. Don’t leave yourself no room to rest. You can’t be at your best for the viva if you put yourself under enormous pressure while you’re preparing.

Make a plan. Take your time. Give yourself room to rest after the achievement of submission. Give yourself space to breathe while you get ready for your viva.

Nathan

Start With You

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The work starts with you. There are lots of possible motivations for your research but you did it.

All of the reading, research, results and outputs – all of the impact – comes from you.

Your PhD is personal. It makes sense for your viva and viva prep to be personal too.

Start with you. Look back over everything you’ve done and think about what it means. When you know what you’ve done and what you still need to do then you can move forward proactively.

Nathan

The 3Ps Of Good Viva Prep

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Good viva prep is practical: there’s a lot of thought involved but you are doing things, not simply thinking about your research, thesis and viva. You might be writing summaries, rehearsing, reading and annotating or something else. Good viva prep is practical.

Good viva prep is personal: there are big picture principles of the work involved but you need to do them in a way that meets your needs, your research and your circumstances. How will you write summaries, rehearse or annotate your thesis? Good viva prep is personal.

Good viva prep is planned: there’s plenty of time between submission and the viva to get ready but you also have a life. Rather than wing it with the work and potentially build up stress, plan for when you will write summaries, rehearse and annotate your thesis. Good viva prep is planned.

Good viva prep is practical, personal and planned.

Nathan

Secret Prep

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My friend Shaine didn’t tell any of us about his viva.

We didn’t even know he was actively preparing for it. We found out about his viva as it was happening! There was a hurried series of text messages around our group when we learned on the day. It was a shock but he had his reasons. And we still celebrated with him when it was over and done.

My typical viva prep advice would be to tell friends about your viva, ask for their help with your prep and so on. This is overridden by the greater need to make sure that your viva prep process meets your needs, preferences and circumstances.

If it’s important to you that your viva and prep time be secret then do that. And, more importantly, if you realise that something else is really important for your prep then follow that instinct too.

Prep is personal. Do what you need to do to get ready.

 

PS: You’ll find a lot more help with viva prep in the latest issue of Viva Survivors Select! The 2025 Issue collects twenty of my favourite blog posts from last year and adds two new pages of viva help – including a game that’s all about viva prep. You can find the zine here along with a few of the pages to get a sense of what the issue is like. Do pick it up if it seems helpful and you value what I share on the Viva Survivors blog 🙂 And please spread the word if you can!

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