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Tag: responding to questions

Nathan

In Case Of Emergency

Daily Post

There’s a relatively small chance that a question at the viva could make you feel like you’re in an emergency.

  • A stressful question.
  • A complicated question.
  • An unclear question.
  • A never-before-considered question.

If your first thought is “I don’t know” or “Aaaaaargh!” it can be hard to figure out how to respond.

Here’s the best advice I can give for those moments: do exactly what you’ve been doing for the non-emergency and non-stressful questions.

 

Whatever the question or comment from your examiners: pause, think it through and then respond. Your response could be an answer, an opinion, sharing an idea or asking a question.

If the question is really simple: pause, think and respond.

If the question is complex: pause, think and respond.

If the question makes you think “Aaaargh!”: pause, think and respond.

 

You don’t need an answer for everything. You do need to engage with every question.

Having one process that you can follow for simple questions and stressful questions makes it easier for you to follow and engage with the discussion in the viva.

Questions can be complicated. Your process for responding to them doesn’t need to be.

Nathan

Saying More

Daily Post

You can start a response at the viva with, “Well, my supervisor told me to…”

You always need to say something more.

You could talk about why your supervisor advised that. You could reference what stage of your PhD this was. You could unpick what you had already tried. You could say more about how you applied the suggestion. Depending on the situation you might even be talking about what didn’t work and what you then had to do instead!

Your examiners know that you’ve had support. They expect that you were given guidance or told what to do at many stages of your PhD. You can say that but you need to say more to show your role and efforts.

Nathan

Point By Point

Daily Post

Your examiners will have a lot of questions for you at your viva, along with various comments they will make.

You won’t know them in advance. You can get a sense of what to expect by consulting resources, talking with your supervisors and reflecting on your research. Anything you are asked is purely to help drive the discussion forward and create a space where your examiners can explore you and your work.

 

All of this could make someone feel intimidated but here’s the important thing to remember: you only have to respond to one question or comment at a time. Your examiners don’t serve you twenty questions to start the viva and expect you to keep track of them all. You aren’t given a sheet of comments to work through.

One at a time, point by point, you respond to what your examiners need so that they can confidently say you are good enough.

Nathan

Pause to Think, Think to Respond

Daily Post

One approach to engaging in the viva could be summarised as pause, think, respond.

  • Pause first to give yourself a moment. Consider the question or comment. Take your time.
  • Think to explore whatever ideas come to mind. Remember what you need. Put ideas together.
  • Respond to the point, clearly. Take your time to say whatever you need to say so that your examiners get what they need.

Another way to look at this is to see that all three points are linked. You pause to think, taking time to be sure of what you need to say. You think to respond well, being reflective and careful.

Pause, think, respond. Pause to think, think to respond. Whichever way resonates, the connection is that a candidate engages well at the viva when they take their time.

It doesn’t need to be a hard question for you to take a few moments to consider what you will say or how you will say it.

Nathan

Everything But That

Daily Post

“I don’t want to talk about my methods chapter.”

“I’m ready for any questions except something about my bibliography!”

“Please, please don’t let them ask about my interpretation of that paper…”

“I will be OK so long as……”

 

Sound familiar? If any resonate with how you feel about your viva and talking with your examiners then you are most definitely not alone.

You’re perfectly rational: the process and pressures of the viva could easily make anyone nervous about needing to talk about a particular something. It might even make them stressed.

What do you do? If a possible question makes you feel nervous or stressed before the viva, what are you going to do?

You could review part of your thesis, talk with a friend, make some notes, read a paper or ask your supervisor to bring it up in a mock viva.

If there’s something that troubles you then there’s something you could do.

Consider your options and make a choice. Don’t stop at feeling nervous or stressed.

Nathan

My Reminder

Daily Post

In an effort to speak clearly at webinars and cover what I need to say without too many words I have a small background pop-up on my desktop when I’m presenting that simply says “DON’T WAFFLE!”

It works quite well.

I don’t have a script for any session but I do have talking points. I can dig into most of them to much greater depth than I might typically. In the moment I might go on and on because I’m excited and then I notice the time and realise I have to now say less about the next topic and wonder, flustered in the moment what I could cut and so-

DON’T WAFFLE! has served me quite well as a little reminder.

 

A less direct and less exclamatory way that I might interpret this is say less, communicate more.

It’s a reminder to pause. To breathe. To think about the next words: I might know the point I want to make but the particular words matter. When I’m asked a question I can take my time to think if I pause.

All of these are reminders for me, but they largely apply to any kind of presenting or responding to questions – even the viva.

What reminders do you need to help you engage well in the viva?

Nathan

Different Words

Daily Post

The viva is a purposeful discussion or series of them: sparked by your thesis, made deeper by your contributions and aimed at providing enough evidence for your examiners to confirm that you’ve earned your PhD status.

What you and your examiners say helps to move the conversation along. Of course, different prompts and different responses mean different things.

A question has a different impact than a statement. An answer means something different to an opinion. A big general question is different to a finely-focussed small question about page 72. Saying “I don’t know” means something different to a three-minute monologue about something you do know.

Different does not mean better or worse. It’s just different.

Whatever your words, be clear. Be thoughtful. Take your time. Check the details.

Nathan

Certain & Right

Daily Post

Do you feel that you need to be right in your viva? Do you need to have an answer for everything? The right answer?

I think that would feel like a lot of pressure. Needing to be right might also remove a lot of other opinions, opportunities and perspectives from a discussion.

 

Perhaps it’s better to strive for certainty. Take time in the viva to put your thoughts in order so that you are careful and certain in what you’re saying.

It’s far better to be clear in your responses than push to be right about everything.

Nathan

Taking Your Turn

Daily Post

I like board games which have a bit of structure to them: on your turn play one card; follow the card’s rule; move your piece; draw or discard cards until you have a hand of three. There’s a large possibility space for what a player might do, but the structure helps things move along.

The viva isn’t a game thankfully, but there is still an element of turn-taking in a discussion. One person speaks and then another is given the opportunity to respond. You, the candidate, can ask questions in the viva, but more often than not you’ll be responding.

You have to wait for your turn and then you have to take your turn.

On your turn you might be faced with a big question or a small question, easy or hard, simple or difficult and you might or might not know immediately what to say. A bit of structure helps here too, whatever the question: on your turn, breathe; pause to consider the question; ask for clarification if needed; get your thoughts in order; then speak calmly and as clearly as you can.

The viva isn’t a game, you’re not earning victory points or trying to get ahead of everyone else in the room. Decide in advance what strategy you’ll employ to take your turn and use every opportunity your examiners present you.

Nathan

Guarding Your Research

Daily Post

It’s an easy enough mistake to hear “thesis defence” and believe that you have to guard your work.

Defence brings up ideas of protection, or courtrooms, of shielding and more.

An examiner might have a pointed question or comment, but you generally don’t need to worry about them piercing the armour of words and ideas you have fashioned during your PhD.

Defending your thesis means supporting your work. Defending your thesis means providing clarity. Defending your thesis means saying more after you’ve done a lot.

You don’t need to guard your research from your examiners. You do need to be ready to show exactly what it all means at your viva.

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