Daily viva help for PhDs
It’s easy to forget the great stuff in the hustle and bustle of getting to submission and the viva. Draw on your past to remind yourself, if you need to, just how good you must be.
The highlights of your journey are assets you can use in your prep. Don’t forget.
I was reminded earlier this month of the coaching tool GROW, and how useful it can be to start conversations that help people change.
When I heard this again a little thought started to form about the kinds of questions that relate to these words. I was at a three-day workshop on leadership, and as my friend described GROW to the participants it struck me that this could also be a neat framework to help someone prepare for their viva.
A short, four-step sequence for figuring out options or a plan for viva prep. There’s no sense in making a plan that won’t work for you.
It doesn’t need to take long to get to work.
A possible screenshot of the viva has people imagining it’s like facing end-of-level baddies in a computer game.
After all of the trials and tribulations of doing research, your examiners appear through the fog, two mysterious and challenging foes! Whatever you’ve done before, the rules don’t apply to them!! They’re bigger than the other baddies, tougher, hit harder and if you’re not careful you’re doomed!!!
Well. That’s one way to look at things.
If we accept it then we have to accept everything else from the picture: you’ve reached the end of the level. You’ve fought your way through, and you’ve got there, and it’s not by accident. While a boss battle can seem much tougher, they’re based around all of the same moves that you’ve done in the rest of the game. There’s a different focus maybe, and a different challenge, but it’s well within your capabilities.
There are no cheat codes in the viva – but you don’t need them if you’ve got there.
You had them when you did the research, right?
The talent to do the work and the time to get it done.
It’s all still available for the viva.
Boxes of bite-size chocolate frustrate me. I eat the treats I love first, Twixes and Twirls, then days later I open to find that all I have left are so-so Milky Ways and Mars… Finally I’m left with Bounty and Snickers that I won’t eat at all.
I look at my bookshelves and see similar behaviour. I look at my stacks of unread books and go for what attracts me most, or for a book I know I’ve enjoyed before. I push to the back of the queue any books that seem too big, too boring or just not right. I’ve had books on personal improvement, award-winning novels and sci-fi escapes in my library for years and always pushed them away. “I’ll get to them one day.” I go for the fun or the familiar. Save the rest for later.
If you’re preparing for your viva then it’s OK to focus on things you like about your research. You can make notes on things that are most rewarding or fulfilling to you. You can prepare for the questions or topics that you like most.
It’s your choice, but all of the other stuff is still there. Just because you don’t look at it, doesn’t mean that your examiners will avoid it too.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. You might do the tricky stuff first, or you might set a particular time in your diary to look at it. But you have to do something.
You can’t always just have the fun stuff.
(having said all this, chocolate and books generally are fun and make excellent post-viva presents and rewards!)
Thesis or person?
What has more, and has done more?
Not a hard question.
Your thesis is a detailed summary of everything you did and thought about. It’s essential that you write a good one, but don’t put it on a pedestal above your own knowledge and skills.
(and see also)
I’m rounding 2017 off with five days of link sharing for five different areas I’ve posted on this year. Today I’m sharing some of my favourite short posts. Sometimes I’ll have a thought and realise it doesn’t take many words to explain it. Others, it’s the beginning of something else I’ll come back to another time. In any case, all of the posts below are brief but helpful. I’ve provided a tiny excerpt from each post to give a taste!
These aren’t the only short posts on the blog. In 2018 I’m hoping to make time to go through and tag shorter posts so they become more searchable. Good idea?
Found another post that you think is awesome? Let me know! And please share my best of 2017 posts with anyone who might need them. Retweets are always welcome!
I’m rounding 2017 off with five days of link sharing for five different areas I’ve posted on this year. Today we’re exploring posts about questions. I love using questions to help people unpick all sorts of aspects of the viva, from prep through to feelings and questions that candidates can work through and answer to get as ready as possible.
Questions help because they lead to answers. I like series of questions for digging into a topic, and hope to write more posts like this next year.
Found another post that you think is awesome? Let me know! And please share my best of 2017 posts with anyone who might need them. Retweets are always welcome!
If that question seems too vague, consider:
A thesis has to have a significant, original contribution to knowledge. I think a PhD graduate has to have made a significant change in themselves to complete. What’s yours?
I love walking along the promenade near where I live.
Every day looks different depending on the weather, the light and the tide. Sometimes you can’t see the shore. Some days waves crash over the railings, threatening to soak you if you walk too close.
On a quiet day when the tide is out you can get a really good look though. Just stand there and stare. See what you can see.
All the details of the shoreline jump out. The little features that get lost under ten feet of water. You have to stop at the right time or you’ll only see a blue-grey surface.
Doing a PhD sometimes you just keep going to get the research done and your thesis submitted. Work work work through good days and bad, great results and imposter syndrome, nervous talks and valuable conversations, you push on through until you’re done.
Then the tide goes out.
You can stop, and you can stand, and you can stare.
What do you see?