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Tag: the PhD journey

Nathan

The End Point

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When you come to plan your viva prep consider what you want to have and how you want to feel when you’ve finished the work.

  • What resources do you want to have made?
  • What tasks do you have to complete?
  • Who can support you?
  • Ideally, how do you want to feel while doing the work?
  • And, again ideally, how do you want to feel when you’re done?

Whatever your responses are, they can guide you into thinking about what you will do, how you will do it and what you are ultimately aiming for.

What do you want to have done? How do you want to feel?

Nathan

Write It All Down

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Before you begin your viva prep, write down everything you can think of that you need to do. This is before you make a plan. Get down thoughts of any little or big thing. After a few days of letting those ideas breathe you can start to make sense of how and when you’ll get things done.

As you do your viva prep, record what you do. Make a record of your actions, the tasks you complete and the outputs you create. This will help you to see that you are moving forwards to your viva with purpose. You’re not simply passing the time: you’re investing time in helping you pass.

After your viva is done, take twenty minutes to capture your thoughts about what the viva was like. What did you do to get ready? What made a difference? Keep a hold of these as you may have an opportunity to share helpful thoughts with a future candidate who needs a little advice.

There’s a lot to do to get ready for the viva. Take time to write and think, both to help you plan, to keep you on track and to help others in the future.

Nathan

The Best Bits

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What are the best bits of your thesis?

What are your favourite memories of doing research?

What stands out when you think about how you’ve developed as a postgraduate researcher?

It’s important to spend time to reflect on difficult things and hard topics – but equally important to be certain about the good in your work and in your growth as a researcher.

Focus on the best bits first.

Nathan

Most Vivas

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Most vivas are not too long. They regularly result in minor corrections. They most often have two examiners, with a possibility for an independent chair as well. The great majority of vivas result in success.

Remember all this, but also remember that your viva will be unique. Your research, your contribution and you are all unique elements to your viva experience.

As you prepare, take time to reflect on what your viva will likely have in common with every other viva. Be sure to focus on what makes your contribution and journey unique too.

Nathan

But You Didn’t

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There’s a lot you could have done during your PhD. By the time you submit you’ll be aware of the alternate methods, different approaches, endless questions you could have explored or papers you could have read but didn’t.

Particularly given the 2020s so far, you can imagine that many candidates will have made plans and had to change them: forced by COVID or other circumstances to find new ways to do things or different directions to go in. Maybe your own situation over the last few years has involved disruption or changes due to the pandemic.

“Maybe I should have… Maybe I could have… Maybe it would be better if…”

It’s only natural, with all these thoughts and more, to think about alternatives and other possibilities, even what might have been. It can be helpful as part of viva prep to be aware of how other methods work or have a guess at what a different research focus or opportunity might have brought.

However, it won’t help to think about those things at the expense of considering what you have actually done though. Whatever possibilities you’ve had to forego, if you’ve made it to submission and you’re preparing for your viva that means you did something right.

It means you succeeded. It means you have something to be proud of and something to focus on.

You didn’t do a lot of things during your PhD, for a lot of reasons.

What you did is amazing and worth preparing to talk about in your viva.

Nathan

How Many Times?

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How many times have you faced difficult challenges during your PhD journey?

Think about how many meetings you’ve had with your supervisor.

Think about how many times you’ve presented your work as a paper or poster.

Consider how many times you’ve shared your work in a departmental seminar.

Remember how many times you’ve had a discussion about what you do, particularly those times you’ve responded to difficult questions.

Think about how many times you overcame an obstacle in your work – and how many times you showed up to do the work of your research!

How many times have you already succeeded before you meet your examiners?

Nathan

Resolve

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Don’t make big resolutions for this year. Don’t set impossible goals for yourself.

Don’t put that on yourself, particularly if you’re finishing your PhD and your viva will be between now and December 31st.

Instead, try one thing. Every day, when you’re fully awake, before you start your work or leisure, just ask yourself: “What can I do today to make tomorrow better?”

It can be tiny. It could be a one-off. It could be the start of a habit. It could be by yourself or involve others. It could be the start of an activity or finishing something.

“What can I do today to make tomorrow better?”

Then do it.

 

All the best for 2024 and my particular best wishes if you’re working towards your viva. What can you do in the coming weeks and months to make that day better?

Nathan

Best of Viva Survivors 2023: Reflections

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If you read through any handful of posts on Viva Survivors you’ll come across a reflection. With the work that I do supporting postgraduate researchers – and having done this for a very long time now – I like to reflect, look for patterns, look for connections and try to find interesting ways to explore what the viva is all about.

You’ll read many more reflections on the viva, viva prep and everything related in 2024 – but tomorrow look out for my favourite short posts of 2023.

Nathan

Fun & Games

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The PhD journey is long, often tough and regularly features setback, failure and difficulty on the path to making a significant, original contribution.

It can also be very enjoyable, and while you can’t simply put all the obstacles to one side, it might help you more as you get ready for your viva to remember the good times.

  • When did you have fun while doing your research? What made those experiences fun?
  • Have you been able to challenge yourself to get better at something?
  • Was it possible to share your growth or your research with others?

Reflecting on how you overcame something can be powerful, but it’s also helps to remember those moments where you simply shone, where you enjoyed doing something that mattered.

Nathan

Keep A Record

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From day one of your PhD keep a record whenever you achieve something.

  • Learn something new? Write it down.
  • Finish a project? Write it down.
  • Read a helpful paper? Write it down.
  • Complete a task even when it is difficult? Write it down and underline it.
  • Thrive in a challenging meeting? Write it down and add an asterisk.
  • Present your work in any format? Write it down, underline, asterisk and break out the highlighter!

From the start of your PhD, keep a record of your achievements – and by the end not only will you have a very impressive record indeed, but you’ll have a strong sense of confidence that your talent, capability and knowledge have grown.

 

If today is not day one of your PhD – if it’s more like day one thousand, say – you can still get some of these benefits for yourself.

Start keeping the record today and invest some time in looking back. Remember the times when you learned something, finished a project or read a helpful paper. Make note of the challenging tasks you persevered with, when you rose to the challenge of a discussion or presented your work.

Day one or day one thousand, there’s always time to build up your confidence for your viva. You always have an opportunity to do something to build the certainty that you’ve done something good in your research and that you are good enough as you are.

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