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Nathan

The Challenging Questions

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Two types of questions can seem challenging: unexpected questions and tricky, topic-related questions.

You can’t prepare an answer for an unexpected question, but you can be prepared to answer. You can build confidence through a mock viva or by just finding situations where you can talk about your work and take questions. You’ll never predict every question, but you can at least get comfortable with thinking in those kinds of situations.

Tricky, topic-related questions could be more challenging to some candidates than unexpected questions. Tricky questions are the ones you’re aware of, or the aspects of your work that leads to them. They can seem challenging because there’s something there to focus on, something to worry about. Maybe it’s how you explain something, or a contentious detail, an idea that’s not 100% proved.

You can build your confidence for unexpected questions through practice, and you can improve how you think about tricky, topic-related questions through reflection and writing summaries. Take the topic apart, explore it and find the bits that you need to address. Thinking is good, but writing will help you shape those thoughts into something concrete.

Both types of question – the unexpected and the tricky, topic-related – can be challenging in the viva.

Thankfully, both types of question can be prepared for.

Nathan

Time For Prep

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There’s no meaningful viva prep that needs to happen before submission. Given the kinds of tasks involved – reading your whole thesis carefully, making notes, having some kind of meaningful practice with questions, and so on – an estimate of around 20 to 30 hours of work seems reasonable. But rather than simply block that much time out in your diary, I think it’s better to ask more useful questions about the post-submission period:

  1. How long might you have between submission and the viva?
  2. How busy is your life, or how much of your time is already accounted for?
  3. What do you think you need to do in order to feel happy about your viva?
  4. How long do you think that might take? (and how certain are you of that estimate?)
  5. Given the answers to the previous questions, how much time can you regularly commit to your preparation?

And finally given the answers to all of these questions, when do you likely need to start preparing for the viva?

Twenty to thirty hours could be right, but it depends on many factors. Pay attention to your situation and how you feel. Make a little plan and then take the time you need.

Nathan

The Best Way To Say I Don’t Know

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I don’t know could be your answer to a question in the viva, but it doesn’t have to be all of your answer.

Say why.

It can be as simple as “I didn’t do that” or “I didn’t read this.” Or perhaps, “I’ve not thought about it that way, but let me have a think…”

If your first thought is “I don’t know,” say why and engage with the question.

Nathan

Best of Viva Survivors 2018: Lists & Questions

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To finish 2018 I’m sharing my favourite posts from the last year. I find lists helpful. I find questions helpful. A list of posts about lists and questions should be super-helpful! Structure helps, and having organised sets of tasks can make prep or thinking about the viva better. Useful questions to dig into topics helps a lot too.

A real mix of topics in today’s post. What did you like? What other areas would you like to see me explore? Drop me a line and I’ll add it to my musing for 2019. Do share this post if you think it will help someone else!

Nathan

7 Questions To Help Make An Edited Bibliography

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I’ve advised candidates for a long time to think about making an edited bibliography as part of their viva preparations. Your research is based on a body of work: the edited bibliography is the skeleton you can identify supporting what you’ve done.

You could write it simply by thinking about what papers are important. If you need help, then try the following questions to start a list:

  1. What references have most informed your background reading?
  2. What references have most shaped your methods?
  3. What references have provided the most useful data or information?
  4. What references have helped you be sure about your conclusions?
  5. For each chapter of your thesis in turn, what references are most crucial to the material you present?
  6. Which papers do you need to remember?
  7. Which papers do you find it hard to remember?

Trim out any duplicates from the list this makes. Make sure you add the details of the authors, the journals, the year of publications. Then answer two questions for each reference: which chapter is it most relevant to? Why?

An edited bibliography can be a useful resource. I wonder if it’s even more useful when you’re creating it? Reflecting on where your research comes from is a valuable task in preparation for the viva.

Nathan

7 Questions For Selecting Examiners

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Need some help thinking of who could examine you? Start with these six questions to get a list of names:

  1. Whose work have you built on in a meaningful way?
  2. Who have you met at conferences?
  3. Who has a good reputation?
  4. Who is an expert in your field?
  5. Who have you cited a few times?
  6. Who do you think you can trust to do a good job?

With these six questions you can get a long or short list quite quickly. Then you have to figure out how you narrow it down so that you can have a chat with your supervisors.

A more useful question perhaps: what are you really looking for in an examiner?

Once you know the answer to this, you can have a more meaningful conversation with your supervisors about who might be a good choice.

Nathan

Ask Your Examiners

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Consider your examiners. Two people sat across the table from you and they’re interested. They’ve read your thesis, thought about it and now have questions for you. You’ve got to answer their questions to pass, but maybe you can get some answers to questions of your own. You might ask:

  • What did you think of this?
  • I haven’t published a paper about Chapter 3; what journals might be good for that?
  • I was thinking of extending my work in this way – what do you think?
  • What next steps might I take?

You don’t have to ask them questions, but there’s an opportunity in the viva to get ideas and insights from two experienced researchers who’ve read your thesis.

What do you most want to know?

Nathan

What’s Your Why?

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Almost finished your PhD but getting discouraged? Take a minute or two to reflect on one of these questions:

  • Why did you get originally get interested?
  • Why was this something worth doing?
  • Why had no-one else done this before?
  • Why have you kept going?

Whatever your why, it matters. If the end of your PhD starts to drag, if it becomes a grind to get it done, then return to your why.

And keep going. The end is in sight.

Nathan

Are You Sitting Comfortably?

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There’s a connection between how comfortable you are in the viva and how confident you are. I’ve written a lot before on getting comfortable with the thought of the kinds of questions you might get, but that’s not the full extent of what you can do to explore comfort and confidence for the viva. Instead of thinking in the abstract about process and possible questions, get really practical:

  • What is the room like? What’s the layout? What does it have in there that could be useful (whiteboard, flipchart etc)?
  • Where will the room’s windows be in relation to the sun during your viva?
  • What do you know about your examiners? How comfortable are you with your awareness of them and their work?
  • What are you wearing for the viva? How comfortable are you in that outfit?
  • What can you take with you or do on the day of the viva to make you more comfortable?

Answers are about comfort, but also lead in the direction of confidence. Your clothes can make you more confident; being sure about the viva room can make you more confident; being aware of your examiners can make you more confident.

Nathan

Think Twice

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When you’re asked a question about your research, unless you’re completely surprised or stumped, the shape of an answer appears in your mind. Think of it as a sketch of a response. The outline of what you could say. It’s suggested by your brain because of your experience and your talent.

Your first thought has given you a shape; a second thought can help you refine it a little more. If the shape is five reasons why such-and-such is a good idea, a second thought can help you quickly reflect on a good sequence for those five reasons. Maybe one is better than all of the others, maybe another isn’t as important as you thought at first glance.

In most cases in the viva, when you’re asked a question the shape of an answer will appear. Still, think twice. And if you go blank, if your first thought is “Huh?” or “…” or “I don’t know,” then have a second thought. Don’t let the pressure of that moment stop you from responding.

There’s plenty of time to think twice in the viva.

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