Daily viva help for PhDs
Your examiners make a note. They check their prompts. They quickly confer.
Breathe. Take a sip of your drink. Breathe. Think about what you’ve done so far. Think about what you might still want to talk about.
Just wait for the next question or comment. It won’t be a long time coming. Then you’ll have to think and say something.
For now, wait. Breathe. Relax if you can.
The next opportunity to show your talent is coming.
A simple distinction for the viva: your examiners might have difficult questions for you but they’re not asking them to be difficult.
Difficult questions naturally follow your work. They come from doing something original. They result from writing a book and needing to explore it deeply. They follow the challenges of your research into the particular challenge of your viva.
Neither your external or your internal is purposefully asking difficult questions to make you sweat, to make you worried, to tear your work apart or to bring you down. The viva is not a hazing ritual you have to get through before you’re allowed to call yourself Dr.
Expect difficult questions at your viva – not difficult people.
If a question or comment in your viva makes you freeze then just stop.
Breathe again.
Think again.
Try to understand the question.
Think some more.
Breathe again.
And if the question or comment still makes you freeze then reflect, “Why?”
Why is this question or comment giving you trouble?
Once you start thinking about that, even if you still don’t have an answer or an opinion you’ll have the beginning of a response that you can share with your examiners.
If a question or comment gives you pause, makes you freeze or even makes you gasp, just sit with it a moment. Take a little time to think and explore how you can still respond.
Some of your viva questions will have great answers.
You’ll know something for certain, either because of your reading or your research. In that situation, when asked you will be able to give an answer.
You won’t know in advance which questions will lead to that in the viva. In fact, aside from some good guesses or small hopes, you won’t know any of the questions or comments that your examiners will ask or offer at your viva.
You might not have an answer standing by but you can always be ready to respond. Through practice and preparation, no matter the question or comment, you can:
Some viva questions or comments won’t have answers. Some don’t need them. Your examiners are looking to you to offer a good response by engaging with their words and doing your best.
Great is great but good is good enough. Engage with your examiners’ questions; offer the best responses you can and you’ll succeed at your viva.
I will engage with my examiners’ questions, whatever they are.
If you commit yourself to this goal then you won’t go too wrong in the viva.
Keeping this in mind means you’re open to discussion. You’re ready to listen. You’re well-prepared.
You’re not listening to worries about “hard questions” or hoping to keep certain topics off the table.
You’re remembering that while you can’t know every question ahead of time, you can take your time in the viva to think and respond as well as you can.
Pause, think and respond as well as you can to each question and comment in your viva. Engage with your examiners’ questions, whatever they are.
Some PhD candidates think of the viva as a TV quiz show. How do I know this? Because many, many candidates over the last decade have asked me questions like:
…OK, maybe they haven’t asked that last question! 🙂
But the questions people do ask give a window into how they think of something.
Thinking of the viva as being like a game show, even in some small ways, is not helpful. The viva is not a quiz show. Questions are not only true or false, they’re not multiple choice or needing to remember a fact.
The viva, first and foremost, is a discussion. That’s how you respond. That’s how you engage with your examiners.
Knowing things and being able to share information helps, but be ready for a conversation and not a quiz at your viva.
A simple and effective way to tackle a tricky question in the viva is to look for the meaning behind it.
Searching for the meaning behind a difficult question or comment is far better than trying to stumble your way to a few words. It’s far better than sitting in silence and hoping that something clicks.
Ask yourself why or ask your examiners why, and watch as information and ideas start to move.
I think a huge part of viva confidence for a candidate is based on feeling comfortable when talking about their research.
Examiners need to ask the candidate questions, they need to share opinions and they need the candidate to respond so that they can have a discussion and examine. Candidates have to do their part and want to do their part, but too often worry that they won’t be able to in the moment.
The short answer for all of these questions and worries is that the viva will still happen. It’ll continue however you feel, but will feel better for you if you’re able to talk with some confidence about your research and all the related things your examiners want to discuss.
How do you get to talk comfortably? You prepare. You read your thesis and think and make notes. More important than anything you take time to rehearse for being in the viva through opportunities like a mock viva.
You can’t be ready with pre-loaded responses to every conceivable question or comment.
You can be ready to engage with whatever question your examiners ask by taking time before the viva to rehearse.
Have a mock viva. Talk with friends. Talk with your supervisor. Make opportunities to be in situations where you’ll talk about your work and respond to questions. Make sure you have real experience before the viva so that you feel more comfortable talking about your PhD research.
As you prepare for your viva, always ask for help if you need it. Ask your supervisor for their advice or guidance, ask your friends about their vivas and ask your family and friends to support you as you get ready.
While you’re in the viva, always ask your examiners if something is unclear. Ask them to rephrase a question, ask for more information and ask for their opinion if you really want to know.
As you get ready, always ask yourself how you’re feeling. Ask and reflect on whether or not you’re moving in the right direction, ask yourself if you need to do something more than your plans and consider whether you need to do anything else to build yourself up.
And again, while you’re in the viva, always ask for a break if you need one. Ask yourself to breathe. Ask yourself to take it one question at a time. And ask yourself to be kind to yourself in those hours, if you’re nervous or stressed or uncertain.
It’s reasonable to expect that examiners might object to something in a thesis.
In all the many words you’ve written – the ideas, results and conclusions, and the chapters, methods and formatting – in all of this there’s a chance there’s something they might object to.
Does an objection mean there is something “wrong”? Does it mean you need to make changes? Does it mean you need to apologise?
No, not necessarily; it would be rare for something to need an apology!
An objection needs to be understood first. You might need to ask questions if the comment or point isn’t clear. You might need to think. You might need to read or check something in your thesis. And it’s possible that you can’t simply give a short, quick response to an objection.
You need to understand what the objection is, then respond to it.
And that could be it. That could be all you need to do. It could be that you need to add a sentence to your thesis. It could be that you just need to explain your thoughts because they weren’t clear on the page.
Objections: understand, then respond.