You Are Here

Tag: reflection

Nathan

A Reflection

Daily Post

To reflect a little ahead of your viva, take a sheet of paper and divide it into four parts. Respond to each of the following questions with a few sentences.

  1. What was the starting point for your most significant work?
  2. What were the three most useful papers you read?
  3. What words come to mind when you think of your PhD challenges?
  4. What was the most helpful skill or understanding that you developed?

You can always build on any of these thoughts by reflecting on your responses and asking why.

A reflection or a summary is a chance to think ahead. What other useful questions can you think of to explore topics and that will help you at your viva?

Nathan

More & Different

Daily Post

There is always more work you could have done. There are different questions you could have asked. There are other ways you could have approached your research.

More and different do not mean better.

They’re just more or different.

As you prepare for your viva, work to find the confidence to acknowledge alternatives but support what you did. Explore and explain the choices you made, easy or difficult, and build the certainty that what you’ve done is enough.

Build your confidence that you are enough.

Nathan

Choose Your Highlights

Daily Post

There’s a lot you could highlight in the text of your thesis as part of viva preparation. You could highlight:

  • Key questions you have found answers to;
  • Essential references you want to make stand out;
  • Quotes that help you to explain something;
  • Key numbers that make sense of data;
  • Important pages or sections you want to be able to find.

There’s a lot you could highlight. It’s your choice to decide what matters most and where to direct your attention.

 

The same is true when it comes to the things you highlight from your PhD journey. What are the highlights of the years you have spent working on your research and thesis? What do you want to remember? Where will you choose to put your attention?

What you choose to highlight makes a difference to your preparation and your confidence for your viva.

Nathan

The Starting Point

Daily Post

The most important thing you can remember about the start of your PhD journey is that you are a long, long way from it.

This is more important than remembering your first meeting, the first paper you read or even why you wanted to pursue a PhD!

 

You have done more. You know more. You can do more.

You are more knowledgable, more capable and far better at what you do.

Remember that whatever else has happened in your PhD you have come a long way. You have not got this far through luck. You got here because you are good at what you do. You can build on that foundation to be ready for your viva.

Nathan

The Buddy System

Daily Post

I’ve wondered about whether a viva prep club is feasible. Whether it’s centred around a university or in some kind of distributed community, would a group of PhD candidates be able to work alongside each other in some way – practically and being supportive – in order to get ready?

I don’t know. Given the different paths and timescales of PGRs, perhaps a club is too grand a scale to work on. It did get me thinking though. Here is a little idea:

  • Could you find a partner or a buddy to prepare alongside?
  • Someone to check in with you?
  • Someone to ask you questions?
  • Someone to help you reflect back on your journey and someone you could help in the same way?

A viva prep buddy could help you, nudge you, share ideas and help by understanding what you’re going through.

When one of you has their viva the other can report back. You can congratulate them and then look for a new buddy, who will start the process with you again. Over time, stories, experiences, expectations and help would pass from one person to another.

Can you find a buddy so you can help each other get ready for the viva?

Nathan

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Daily Post

Looking back is part of getting ready. You need to review and reflect on what you’ve done, why you did it and how you got here.

Looking ahead is part of getting ready. You need to know what to expect, what examiners look for and consequently think about how you will meet the needs of the viva.

You might need to focus on one more than the other for your personal viva preparations, but you need both in order to be ready for your viva.

Look back. Look ahead. Recognise how you got this far and what you still need to be ready.

Nathan

Three Prompts

Daily Post

Take ten minutes to complete the following sentences. Write them out in full for yourself:

  1. When I started my PhD I didn’t know…
  2. One thing I did that I am proud of…
  3. I am confident that…

Sometimes questions, particularly questions about what we did or how we grew, can allow us to be humble or to evade or to get stuck on how things weren’t quite as we wanted.

Prompts are more direct.

“How did you do this?” gives room for you to talk around things.

“I did this…” is finishing a thought.

The three prompts above encourage reflection on your development, progress and ability. What other prompts might help you dig into your PhD success?

Nathan

Talent, Work and Time

Daily Post

Success at the viva takes talent, work and time.

Talent means that you’re capable. As you get closer to submission and the viva take time to reflect on what you know, what you can do and how you think. Be sure of how you developed.

Work means you applied yourself. Reflect on what you did. Explore the practical elements of your research, the choices you made and the outcomes of your research.

Time means that it didn’t happen overnight. Remember the time to understand the real effort you’ve committed.

A PhD journey is busy. It’s long. It’s easy to forget or be distracted.

As you get closer to your viva date reflect on the talent you’ve built, the work you did and the time it took. Remind yourself that you’re the reason you have come so far.

Nathan

It Didn’t Work

Daily Post

A failure or setback in your research doesn’t have to be a terrible source of stress for your viva. For any problems you faced, take a little time in your preparation to reflect and make notes:

  • Why was there an issue?
  • How did you attempt to resolve it?
  • What was the result of your efforts?

If something didn’t work then understand why and decide on how you might explain this to your examiners. If something didn’t work you need to prepare for talking about it.

Then, more importantly, remember what did work and explore how you would talk about that with your examiners.

You have to be ready to talk about problems- but it’s more important to talk about your success.

Nathan

Now & Then

Daily Post

A lot can happen during the work of a PhD journey.

You might face challenges that seemed too big to overcome. You could have realised after weeks of work that you were at a dead end and would need to start again. You could make mistakes, fail or need a break to get your thoughts together.

 

That was then.

Now you know more. Now you know better.

Now you’re not perfect! But you are good.

You have learned a lot and done a lot. You might still feel some of the things that you felt during your PhD like a lack of confidence or a lack of capability.

It might not be simple, but try to remember that there is a big difference between now and then.

In a very real sense you are where you are now because of what you did then.

1 2 3 … 35