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Nathan

Why Expectations Matter

Daily Post

Expectations give your viva a sense of shape.

Expectations help you understand the pattern even if you know your viva will be unique.

Regulations and stories help you understand the process (in some cases in a lot of detail).

Every viva will be one of a kind – but no upcoming viva needs to be a complete unknown to a candidate.

And with a sense of what to expect you can measure how ready you feel for your viva.

 

PS: I’ll be exploring viva expectations a lot at my Viva Survivor session four weeks from today! Check out my live 3-hour webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026 for more details of what I’ll cover: viva prep, examiners and a lot more. Attendees get four-week access to a recording of the session and follow-up materials too. There’s more information at the link but please get in touch if you have any questions or want to know more. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Closing Stages

Daily Post

When you’re close to being done with your PhD it’s a really good idea to pause and check you’ve not missed anything. This applies to all of the closing stages: writing up, submission, viva prep, the viva and the post-viva period.

As you finish writing up make sure you leave time to talk to your supervisors and reflect on their final feedback. With a little thought and planning you can submit your best possible thesis. Take time to check the regulations so you know you’ve not missed anything important.

Submission should be a happy exercise in following forms and guidelines! It might be an anti-climax in some ways though; one day you’re working hard to finish writing a book and the next day you’ve hit return on a webpage submission. You can still take time to make sure it’s done well.

Viva prep is best when it is personal and planned. Look for advice but do it your way. When you submit your thesis invest a little time to sketch out a plan for doing it well. Aim to remove stress from the process.

You’ve read the regulations but also remember to talk to PhD graduates about their viva experiences. Get a sense of what to expect. If you’re worried find an action to take that will lower the worry.

At your viva pause and think before you respond to any question or comment. Take it slow and remember how you’ve got to this point and all the work you’ve done.

Finally, when the viva is done and you know what corrections you need to do take time to make a plan. Check the regulations again. Ask for guidance on anything unclear. Figure out how and when you will get the work done. It helps to know in advance how much time is typically given for completing corrections and what the process is for submitting your final thesis.

There are lots of stages to the end of the PhD journey. As you get close to them take your time to do them well. Often this means checking details or making a plan – and typically the sooner you do these the more ready you will be for tackling the final closing stages.

 

PS: Looking for more help with getting ready for your viva? Then check out my live 3-hour Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026 – I’ll talk about a lot of things to help with your viva! You’ll get four-week access to a recording of the session and plenty of follow-up materials too. There’s more information at the link but please get in touch if you have any questions or want to know more. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

A Kind Process

Daily Post

Whatever your situation and circumstances you can make viva prep a kind process for you.

  • Find out what helps viva prep before you get to submission and read your university’s thesis examination regulations.
  • Sketch out a rough plan of what you need to do and how you might need to do it when you submit your thesis.
  • Be generous with your planning and don’t assume that life will allow your plans to remain fixed; work out good milestones for your progress.
  • Ask for help well in advance of when you need it so that you are sure that your helpers’ schedules will allow the support you need.
  • Find time to remind yourself every day that you have got as far as you have by being good at what you do and by making a contribution to your field of research.

Step by step and bit by bit you can prepare for your viva without stress and without unwelcome pressure. You have the opportunity to make viva prep a kind process for you.

 

PS: I’ll be digging into this kind process in much more detail at my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025. This is my comprehensive live session on getting ready. There’s full details at the link of what to expect from the webinar but please get in touch if you have any questions!

Nathan

The Ideal Viva

Daily Post

Defining an ideal viva is really tricky.

Do we start from the outline descriptions that emerge from considering the regulations? Or base our idea on the general expectations that rise from the many stories of viva experiences?

Would it be better to take notes from a candidate and see what they want? Or follow the experience of examiners and allow them to set out what a good viva would be like?

There could be more perspectives to take onboard too. These four alone make for an interesting collage of ideas. If you’re reading this post I’d assume you’re most likely a PhD candidate. What does this mean for you? Is it even possible to figure out anything related to the ideal viva?

Maybe it’s as simple as this: learn all that you can. Read the regulations and learn about expectations so you have a good sense of perspective of the general viva. Explore what examiners do to get a sense of what a good viva might be for them.

And finally explore what you want or need from your viva. If that aligns closely with everything else you’ve learned then great! But if not, what do you do?

 

PS: one thing you could do, if you’re trying to find out more about what to expect, is take a look at the second issue of Viva Survivors Select. This is my monthly pdf zine sharing curated collections of writing from the Viva Survivors archive. The Uncertainty Issue was released two weeks ago and contains advice, practical suggestions and reflections to help with a lot of viva uncertainty.

And if you’re looking for even more help the first issue is still available and The Preparation Issue is due on Wednesday 11th June! 🙂

Thanks for reading.

Nathan

Generalisations

Daily Post, Sabbatical

Be careful when you come to generalise your probable viva experience.

Regulations, viva stories and hearing about vivas from your department all have a role to play in building up your personal expectations. Be sure you have enough suitable information to build your expectations.

This idea also counts for when you think about your work.

You can’t generalise past experiences and responses to your research directly to your viva. Seminars, and past discussions don’t dictate what your examiners might make of your research. If you’ve had tricky meetings or difficult conference talks in the past that doesn’t have to define your future viva experience.

 

Read regulations, ask people you can trust and build up a good picture of what to expect. Reflect on your journey and remember that you have grown throughout the process.

You are capable, you are good enough and you must have made something by now.

That’s a reasonable generalisation to make about someone close to their viva.

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on November 11th 2023.

Nathan

Fear Of The Unknown

Daily Post

There are two steps to removing fear or worry about unknown aspects of the viva.

The first step is to try to accept that your viva will be an unknown in some ways until you experience it. You won’t know how long it is, you won’t know what questions will be asked and you don’t know how you’ll feel until you’re there.

The second step is to build up a reasonable sense of the general expectations before you get to the viva. Read your university’s regulations, learn about other viva experiences and ask your colleagues about their recent experiences. These different aspects can fill in many of the blanks you might have.

You can have a good sense of what happens at vivas. This is a massive help both practically and emotionally, even if you can’t know the exact details of your viva until it’s your time.

Nathan

Whispers About The Viva

Daily Post

Vivas are long.

Examiners ask tough questions.

Corrections are terrible.

Conditions are harsh.

There’s nothing you can do but hope.

Whispers about the viva are everywhere. They thrive because we don’t talk enough about what happens in vivas, at least not clearly.

Silence allows the whispers to creep in: the half-truths, the unexplored contexts and the unsubstantiated rumours.

Whispers can cause a lot of unnecessary worry. It’s not wrong to be nervous or worried about the viva, but the whispers aren’t worth your concern.

Ask more people more questions about their experiences. Talk to your supervisors. Read the regulations.

Beat back whispers with certainty. Bring your focus back to what matters.

Nathan

Behaving As Expected

Daily Post

PhD candidates can get a sense of what to expect for their viva from reading their institution’s regulations, learning about general viva experiences and asking about recent vivas in their department.

Together these create expectations.

Some expectations will be really clear, like knowing the people who will be examining. Others will cover a range of possibilities, like expecting the viva to be longer than two hours. Some aspects may be unknown but a candidate can still get a sense of the situation: you might not know the first question but will still have an idea of what examiners typically ask.

Viva expectations prompt behaviour. This sort of thing will happen so I will do this to be ready.

Consider what you know about the viva and how that can help you as you prepare.

Nathan

Find Out More

Daily Post

A lot of viva worries come from not knowing what to expect – so find out more.

Read the regulations. Ask your supervisors. Talk to friends, talk to post-docs, talk to people who have been down the path to the viva before and succeeded.

Check online. Read a blog or two. Listen to a couple of podcasts. Explore the many resources produced by your institution and others.

It’s not wrong to be worried about the viva. There’s work to do and academic culture makes the viva seem a bit daunting.

There’s a little mystery in the process and what to expect, but a wealth of information in so many places that can help take away any worries you have – or at the very least help you to figure out what you can do to beat those worries back.

If you feel worried about the viva, go find out more.

Nathan

Generalisations

Daily Post

Be careful when you come to generalise your probable viva experience.

Regulations, viva stories and hearing about vivas from your department all have a role to play in building up your personal expectations. Be sure you have enough suitable information to build your expectations.

This idea also counts for when you think about your work.

You can’t generalise past experiences and responses to your research directly to your viva. Seminars, and past discussions don’t dictate what your examiners might make of your research. If you’ve had tricky meetings or difficult conference talks in the past that doesn’t have to define your future viva experience.

 

Read regulations, ask people you can trust and build up a good picture of what to expect. Reflect on your journey and remember that you have grown throughout the process.

You are capable, you are good enough and you must have made something by now.

That’s a reasonable generalisation to make about someone close to their viva.

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