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Tag: reflection

Nathan

Techniques

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A small piece of viva prep: think back over your PhD and pick a method you learned, a piece of software or equipment that you became familiar with or a process for getting things done that you put together.

Unpick the steps involved for what you’ve selected.

  • What do you do at each stage?
  • How do you do it?
  • Why?
  • How well does it work for you?
  • And what has it helped you do over the course of your PhD?

When you reflect on the techniques you’ve learned or developed you have to appreciate the talent, work and time you have invested in your journey. There’s always more to learn and more to do, but you could only have come this far by becoming good at what you do. Remember that as you prepare for your viva.

Nathan

Changes After Submission

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You might have corrections to complete after the viva, but between submission and the viva you don’t need to make any alterations.

Find a typo? Underline it or add it to a list.

See a reference that needs a tweak? Write in the margins or add it to a list.

Read a sentence that could be better? Underline it, write in the margins or add it to a list!

You don’t need to make changes to your thesis, but you might need to make changes to yourself between submission and the viva.

You might need to change your mind on what the viva will be like, if you hear more positive expectations than the worries you’ve been carrying around.

You might need to change your perspective on your examiners if you learn a little about their research.

And you might have to change the story you tell yourself about how capable you are, if you’re feeling a lack of confidence after submission.

After submission, change yourself – not your thesis.

Nathan

Part Of Something

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Remember that as you finish your PhD journey and have your viva that you are part of something.

Several somethings!

  • You are part of a community: there are many people around you who can offer support.
  • You are part of a tradition: lots of vivas happen every year and lots have happened in the past – stories and expectations are not hard to find.
  • You are part of a genealogy of researchers: whatever your path from here on, you can still share your experience and help with future generations, just as you have had help on your journey.

Also remember that your PhD journey is only a part of you: not all of you and not the best of you. As you finish that journey you have to figure out what it really means for your future and what you will do next.

Nathan

To Be Continued

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After submission you need to prepare for your viva – but you also need to prepare for life after the PhD.

For some that could be simple (or welcome!) but for all candidates, particularly those who have attachments to physical spaces, people or even access to resources, consider:

  • What do you need to take home with you? When will you do it? How will you do it?
  • Who do you need and want to stay in contact with? How will you do that?
  • What will you do when you don’t have access to library resources, software or other things that disappear when you are no longer a student? If you’re typically contactable by a university email address, how will you tell people where to find or reach you?

If you’re not sure if you plan to continue with research in some way, then really think about what you need to take home. Do you need all your notes? Do you need all of your papers?

Whatever you need to do, remember that life goes on. You will continue to have opportunities to show your ability and knowledge. Reflect on what you are taking away from your PhD journey – and remember that all of that talent and capability is available to you in your viva as well.

Nathan

Three Things

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Do you want a simple task to help how you feel about your viva?

Every day after submission, take five minutes to write down three things about your research: things that you know are good, that you’re proud of, that you know turned out well or that you know make a difference.

Three things, every day. Three things about your work that then go into the mix of thoughts and feelings for your viva. Three things you could draw on as you go to the viva to share your work. Three things to help build your confidence before you meet your examiners.

Viva prep takes more than five minutes each day after submission, but little tasks can make a big difference. Start with three things to help your viva preparation.

Nathan

What’s Important?

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Two words to prompt reflection on nearly every aspect of the viva and viva prep.

What’s important…

  • …about your thesis? Explore it chapter by chapter with a notebook in hand. Make notes about anything that stands out to you.
  • …about your PhD journey? When you think back over how you did the work, what matters?
  • …about your viva expectations? What do you need to know more about and what are you comfortable with?
  • …about your examiners? Who are they, what do they do and what might they ask?
  • …about your viva preparations? What do you have to do and when will you get the work done?

What’s important? Two words that can start your thinking, exploring and working towards what you need. The examples I give above might help, but maybe for your situation you need to focus on something else.

So ask yourself: what’s important?

Nathan

The Exp Words

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What kind of speaking are you expecting to do in your viva?

Do you imagine you’ll have to explain what you did?

Do you think you’ll simply expand on what you’ve done?

Or perhaps you think you will explore what your research really means?

In truth: you’ll do all of these and more. The viva is a discussion centred on your research, your thesis and you. The conversation can go in many different directions. Expect that you’ll explain, expand on and explore a lot of what you’ve done.

Don’t expect that your examiners will expose big problems though – or explode your central ideas!

Nathan

Three, Two, One

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Three or more years of research and writing.

Two to four weeks of preparation time.

One day with a challenge.

Put the viva in the right perspective.

Nathan

The Red Button

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There’s a knock at your door.

A courier leaves a package in your arms. It’s not heavy, but it has a strange heft to it. You don’t remember ordering anything. You’re not expecting something. But here it is, addressed to you.

Unwrapping the package reveals a small brown paper parcel and an envelope. The stationery and packaging are both of a good stock, clearly not from a supermarket shelf or high street stationer’s. The handwriting on the envelope is familiar, but you can’t place it.

For your viva, it reads.

You open the parcel first, cutting the string when the knot proves too tricky. Beneath several layers of paper you uncover a polished wooden box. It’s old, you can tell, but you’re not sure where in the world it might come from. You hold it in your cupped palms, the sides are smooth to the touch. There seems to be no lid or opening. It is a box though, not solid wood: the contents don’t shift much as you carefully move it in your hands, but you can tell that the weight is not uniform.

Resting in the curved top surface is a small recess and a red button.

Perplexed by the box you open the envelope. The note inside has a scrawl for a signature, but the contents are clear enough.

Friend. In case this helps with your preparations. What do you not want to be asked in your viva? Think carefully and press the red button, and you won’t be asked. But think carefully. Yours [illegible]

A hoax. A weird joke from a friend who knows your viva is weeks away. And yet…

What if?

No. It couldn’t be. This is a strange sort of gift. You wrap the parcel up and put it in a cupboard.

Two weeks later you take it out and stare at the box and the red button for an hour.

You make a decision.

 

If the box was real, and you could press the red button, what would you not want to be asked in your viva?

The box is not real! But if there’s a question you don’t want to be asked in your viva then you probably need to do something to rehearse for that situation.

Not wanting to be asked a question won’t remove the possibility. Practice and preparation will help just in case you should encounter that one question you really don’t want to be asked.

Nathan

One More Thing

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There’s always more you can do.

More ideas to be pursued to add to your research.

A new perspective or an extra thought to include in your thesis.

Another paper to read. And another!

All that proofreading and there will still be a better way to say something – or one more typo that’s not been spotted.

There’s always more but remember, by submission and through preparation for the viva, you’ve done enough to pass.

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