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Nathan

Push & Pull

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Your success is partly the result of many actions that push your work forward and create your thesis contribution.

Your examiners will want to know all about this at your viva: the story of your research, the actions that got it done and the result now that your thesis is finished.

The actions that push your work forward also pull you along. Through the process you learn, understand more and become a capable researcher.

Your examiners will want to know all about this at your viva as well: what you know, what you can do, how you think and more.

Remember in viva prep to reflect on and review both your thesis and yourself.

Nathan

The Best Support

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What were the best references that supported your research?

Who were the most helpful people who have supported you?

What practices have you used for getting things done?

Whatever your best sources of support – whether they’re papers, people or practices – it’s a good idea to think about them as you get ready. In some cases, it might be a good idea to consult or use them one more time.

You did the work but everyone needs support.

Nathan

What You Learned

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You invested years of work. Read countless papers. Many months following the practical steps necessary in your discipline.

Was it experiments, interviews, reading, modelling or something else for you? Whatever it was, you did it.

What you learned matters.

You need to have a thesis to pass your PhD but that book is only an expression of the learning and development that rests in you. What you learned shows your capability. Being able to talk about what you learned, what you know and what you can do matters. You need to be able to communicate this to your examiners.

And even more importantly: understanding just how much you’ve learned and grown can be a huge boost to your confidence as you get ready for your viva.

So, what have you learned?

 

PS: Need more viva help? Check out the latest issue of Viva Survivors Select: The Focus Issue explores writing summaries as part of viva prep to focus your thinking and highlight what matters most.

Nathan

Anti-Perfect

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You can’t write a perfect thesis from a perfect piece of research that then leads to a perfect viva experience.

I can understand aiming for perfection and trying to make something as good as possible but working towards “enough” is probably more sensible.

You can define enough. Enough has a quantity: enough research, enough words, enough work to get ready. You can plan for enough. You can work for enough.

No corrections doesn’t mean that your work was perfect.

Enough. You are good enough. You have done enough. Do enough for prep and do enough in your viva. Perfect is a distraction and you can do better. You can do enough.

Nathan

Hundreds Of Somethings

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700 to 800 days.

A not unreasonable estimate for how many days a PhD candidate might show up to do work.

Some days might be bigger or more important than others. Some days you stare at a screen and try to work, others you punch the air and celebrate. Some days you read a whole book and others you can barely write two sentences.

What matters is that you keep going. What matters is that those hundreds of days include hundreds of somethings: actions, experiments, thoughts, conversations and opportunities that you apply to your research, your talent and your capability.

A long process of small steps that leads you to success. No two days the same. All those days and somethings adding up to a thesis and a candidate that are good.

Nathan

Explaining Enough

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How do you define what “enough” means for a contribution to knowledge?

How do you know that you have read “enough” to have a good understanding of your research area?

How do you feel like you are capable “enough” as a researcher in your field?

How do you explain to someone that what you have done is “enough” for your thesis – or your PhD?

 

These are hard questions. It’s unlikely that your examiners will ask you them directly. Being able to think through and consider how you respond to them will help a lot as you get ready for your viva.

Think it over, talk with your supervisor and talk with friends. When you know how to explain that you have done “enough” you’ll feel better about responding to questions more generally in the viva.

Nathan

Silver Bullets

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In stories werewolves are powerful, almost unstoppable. Perhaps you can guard against them or run away for a time, but there’s no great defence you can mount. You have to hope that you can find or make silver bullets.

We sometimes use the idea of silver bullets as a shorthand for a solution to a particularly tricky problem. They are the one thing that will allow us to understand a situation, help us to plan better or get things done. It would cut through everything and solve the problem – if only we can find a silver bullet.

PhD candidates sometimes look for silver bullets for the viva. They hope for one thing that will help them to be confident. Or one thing that will help them feel prepared. Or even the one question they will definitely be asked that they can be ready for.

It might be nice to think about, but all of this forgets a couple of things:

  • Silver bullets, if they were needed, are rare, expensive and hard to make. Do you have time for that when you’re getting ready for the viva?
  • Werewolves, if they existed, are unique and difficult encounters. Your viva might be unique and difficult to some extent but vivas happen almost every day: there is a lot to learn about them and about how others have faced their challenges.

Don’t look for a single silver bullet to solve all your problems. Silver bullets are a distraction. You don’t have the time for them and you don’t need them.

Take simple steps to learn what you need to do to be ready for your viva – and then do the work.

Nathan

By Now…

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… you must be good at what you do or you wouldn’t still be doing it. You are not the person you were when you started your PhD. The things you have learned and done over the past few years put you in a good position for meeting the challenge of your viva.

It might be that you have weeks or months to go until your viva, or maybe even more, but you have time to get ready. The stage you’re at right now is a good foundation to build on. By now must recognise that you’ve made a contribution. There might be more to say or other things to do, but you can’t do everything.

Your examiners are expecting to see a good contribution made by a capable candidate. It’s helpful, to begin with, if that’s what you can see in yourself and your work.

Nathan

The Last Few Years

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Three to seven years is a long time in anyone’s life. It may be that while you’ve been working on your PhD that you’ve had big changes in your personal life, not all of them good.

The last five years have been really hard at times in the wider world. We’ve seen daily life change and change again. We’ve seen disruptive alterations to the way the world seems to work. It’s not always clear what these changes will mean – or what changes are still to come.

And all of this is besides the nature of doing a PhD: learning how to research, potentially learning through failure and finding your way while working at a really high level.

 

If you’re feeling bruised by your PhD journey and your viva is coming then you can still make a choice.

If the last few years have been a lot, acknowledge that it’s been hard and acknowledge that you would wish for things to be different. Do that but remember that despite everything the world has sent your way you are still here.

You kept going.

It didn’t happen any other way. The world, your life, your research, whatever tried to hold you back – you said no and kept going. It doesn’t make all of the hard times go away. It might not make them hurt or matter less. But you kept going.

Keep going now. Success is not far away.

 

PS: something else that’s not far away is Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June – only four days from now! I’m regularly invited to deliver this session with PhD candidates all around the UK, but this is only the third time I’ve opened up registration. Viva Survivor is a 3-hour live webinar all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready and participants receive access to a catch-up recording and follow-up materials. Do take a look and see if this could help you keep going. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Magic Numbers

Daily Post

Some magic numbers can help stir up your confidence for meeting your examiners.

  • How many papers and books have you read for your PhD?
  • How many days have you showed up to work even if you didn’t feel like it?
  • How many words have you written? (if your answer is the number in your thesis then remember you’ve edited away many more)
  • How many times have you presented your work?
  • How many deep conversations have you had?

The numbers you might put forward for these aren’t magic in a fantastical sense. They can still do something extraordinary.

The effect they produce is to remind you as you prepare for your viva: you are not at the beginning of your research journey. You are dedicated, capable and successful.

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