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Tag: the PhD journey

Nathan

An Imperfect Thesis

Daily Post, Sabbatical

“Submitted is perfect” was a piece of thesis writing advice that jumped out to me on Twitter a few weeks ago. I wish I could remember where I saw it, though I imagine the person sharing it was not unique in expressing the idea. There are several ways that the advice could be interpreted, some very helpful and some much less so.

It was intended to mean that getting a thesis in is a big enough goal: a “perfect” thesis is one that is handed in on-time rather than one which is “perfectly written”.

A less helpful reading could be that a thesis is perfect when it is submitted – and that if someone receives corrections there must be a terrible problem or situation.

It’s important to know what corrections are. A typo. A passage that requires editing. An update. A change of structure to a paragraph or a reframing of ideas. Corrections are requested when there is something needed to make the thesis better – but only because the examiners recognise the value of the contributions within the thesis.

Corrections are one more step in the PhD process, not a sign of an imperfect thesis, nor a sign of a problem with your work.

 

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 March 14th 2023.

Nathan

The Formality

Daily Post, Sabbatical

There’s a general expectation that a candidate will pass their viva if they’ve submitted their thesis. The pass rate is so high that reaching that stage is a really good sign that success will follow in due course.

But the viva is not simply like ticking a box on some paperwork, nor is it a simple process in general. Perhaps compared to the scale of the rest of the PhD journey we could say it was “a formality” but only with reference to that great scale!

Expect to succeed – but also expect your examiners to be prepared, to do their jobs, to ask questions and expect you to respond. Do the work that’s needed, following a pattern of work and dedication that you have demonstrated over the course of your PhD and perhaps the viva will feel – with hindsight – like a formality.

 

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 February 19th 2023.

Nathan

Evidence

Daily Post

Confidence follows your actions. If you don’t feel confident ahead of your viva it’s not because you’re lazy. It’s not because you don’t have anything to show for all your work. It’s probably because the length, difficulty and circumstances of your PhD have made it hard to appreciate what you’ve done.

When you go looking you’ll find that the evidence of your capability is everywhere. As soon as you start to see the evidence you’ll feel capable – and in turn you’ll start to build your confidence.

Look at the hundreds of days when you’ve showed up to do the work. Look at the thesis you’ve produced. Think back over the many, many papers you’ve learned from. Remember the meetings, the seminars, the posters, the presentations and maybe the papers you’ve produced too.

None of this simply just happened. All of it exists because of you: your time, your effort, your determination and your willingness to grow and learn.

A PhD is hard for a lot of reasons. When you stop and reflect you’ll see evidence of your talent everywhere. Use that as evidence of your confidence as well. Then go and succeed at your viva.

 

PS: the Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical starts tomorrow! A daily post from the archives all through the summer while I take a creative break after seven years of Viva Survivors 🙂

Nathan

Take Your Time

Daily Post

Take your time as you finish your thesis. You’ll never make it perfect but you can be proud it’s as good as you can reasonably make it.

Take your time as you get ready for your viva. Plan your prep and give yourself space to do the work without stressing or rushing.

Take your time in the viva. You don’t need to speak as quickly as possible – you can think, you can be clear and you can respond confidently.

Take your time after the viva to breathe and appreciate what you’ve done. Getting a PhD is not something that everyone does; at the very least it marks you out as someone capable and determined.

If you can, when your PhD is complete, take some time to think about what you’ll do next.

 

PS: the Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical starts on Monday! A daily post from the archives all through the summer while I take a creative break after seven years of Viva Survivors 🙂

Nathan

No Shame

Daily Post

I’ve sensed the worry and the shame behind many PhD candidates’ questions about the viva.

  • If only I’d done more, I could have worked harder…
  • If I knew then what I know now I wouldn’t have made that mistake…
  • Ugh…
  • The stupid pandemic made it go wrong and now I don’t have what I wanted…

Could someone do more or different than what you’ve done for your PhD? Perhaps.

Should you feel ashamed or nervous or in any way bad because you haven’t done more or different to what you’ve done? Absolutely not.

Remember that you couldn’t have got this far with your PhD journey unless you had done something right. Not just one something. A lot of somethings. You have got this far because you did the hard work and enough of that hard work brought success to you.

Maybe you could have done more or different to what you’ve done.

Maybe, but taking time to think about that is probably a distraction.

If it helps, be aware of the alternatives, but focus on what you did and who you became – because more than anything that’s what your examiners will want to talk about at your viva.

Nathan

Show Them What You Know

Daily Post

At your viva you’re expected to explore your significant original contribution with your examiners, tell them about your PhD journey and demonstrate for them that you are a capable researcher.

Which is simple to understand but sometimes difficult to do!

You have to show your examiners what you know. Show them what you understand. Show them what it means.

Whatever their exact questions are you know the topics they will be interested in. Part of the challenge is being ready and able to respond well, whatever the question might be.

By the viva, you’ve done the work. You’ve done the prep. Take a deep breath and show them what you know.

Nathan

Meant To Be

Daily Post

Your viva is your viva. It’s what you’re supposed to be doing.

It’s your very own Goldilocks exam: just right for what you’ve done, how long you’ve been doing it, what you’ve written and who you’ve become.

The questions might be unknown before you hear them but they are all for you; they’re centred on your research, your experience, your thesis and you as a researcher.

It’s your viva, it’s for no-one else.

Being nervous is normal but you are exactly where you’re meant to be when you have your viva.

Nathan

Fortunate vs Lucky

Daily Post

Being fortunate means working hard and that hard work paying off.

Being lucky means that you didn’t need to apply yourself for the success you’ve found.

Being fortunate is achieving something through your labour.

Being lucky is getting something through a lottery.

As you get to your viva, be careful of the words you use to describe your progress.

Were you lucky to get this far or are you fortunate to have found the results you have?

Nathan

Where Will You Go?

Daily Post

Find half an hour in the days after your viva to sit and reflect on what you’ve done.

You stayed determined. You learned and developed. You created something that no-one else has ever done and that many people can’t do. You built memories. You added to human knowledge and understanding. You succeeded.

Then you passed your viva.

And think, with all of that behind you, where could you go now?

You might have very certain plans, but they are only one possibility. You have risen to an incredible challenge. I choose to believe that you have many more opportunities ahead of you where you can show that you can do something truly special.

Find half an hour in the days after your viva to sit and reflect and remember: I did this – and I can do a lot more.

Nathan

Personal Statistics

Daily Post

How do you measure or remind yourself of your confidence?

Do you do that at all?

For a long time I struggled with feeling excessively nervous. A lot of things I read and learned about told me that building up confidence would help: confidence would not get rid of nervousness but it would help to put it into perspective.

For all the little things I tried, I still encountered situations where I felt terrible because of nervousness. The situations – giving a talk, attending a meeting – still went fine, but they were more difficult for me because of how uncomfortable I felt.

A turning point was realising just how much work I had done in the past. If I felt nervous before giving a talk I could remind myself of how many times I had rehearsed it. If I felt nervous before giving one of my regular sessions I could remind myself of how many times I had shared it before and with how many hundreds of researchers.

Over time I realised I was counting many thousands of researchers.

 

I still feel nervous before any session I deliver. That’s OK though. It reminds me that I’m doing something important and I want it to go well.

I now feel confident before any session I deliver. I’m reminded by my numbers: I’ve now delivered over 400 viva help sessions to almost 9000 postgraduate researchers. I’ve published more than 2500 daily posts on this blog. These numbers help remind me of who I am, what I’ve done and what I can do in the current situation.

What stats could you track? What numbers might make a difference to you?

It could be the number of papers you’ve read. It might help to track the number of experiments you’ve run or people you’ve interviewed, depending on your kind of research. Work out the number of days or hours you showed up to do the necessary work of your PhD.

To help your confidence and help yourself find your own meaningful numbers and statistics.

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