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Tag: the PhD journey

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

You Got Here

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If you’ve submitted your thesis remember that that’s down to your time and work.

You had help and support. There were expectations that shaped what you did.

You did the work.

Having got this far there’s not much further to go on your PhD journey.

If you got this far, keep going. If you got this far, despite all the challenges within your research and from the wider world, keep going.

Survive can be defined as manage to keep going in difficult circumstances.

You got here. Keep going.

Nathan

Saying More

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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

Happy Times

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When were you most happy on your PhD journey?

Your first thoughts probably tell you a lot about what you value from your PhD. They may or may not line up neatly with your research, your thesis or things you think you’ll share with your examiners. But they’ll give you something to think about.

The viva is a big important day in your life – and then you’ll do something even more important afterwards. Whatever it was you were doing when you were most happy, it probably makes sense to see how you can have more of that in the future.

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

Routes To Confidence

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Confidence comes from lots of places. The confidence you want for your viva could be found in many things.

You can feel confident if you feel capable. Your talents can help you to see you can manage this challenge.

You can feel confident if you’re calm. Putting problems and stress to one side can help you find self-confidence for the viva.

You can feel confident if you reflect over your PhD journey. You have got as far as you have by doing well, by making something that matters.

You might not be able to do all of these to the full extent you would like. Doubt, time and other pressures might get in the way. Make an effort with any of the steps above and however far you get will prompt greater confidence for your viva day.

There isn’t one way to viva confidence. Find a route that works for you. Don’t hope you’ll feel good – work your way to feeling good.

Nathan

The Time

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If your viva begins at 2pm there might be a limit on how long your viva could be.

If your viva starts at 10am that doesn’t make you more likely to be discussing your work still when the sun sets.

Wondering about viva length is a distraction. It doesn’t correlate to anything useful about the outcome. It is helpful to get a sense of viva length to manage your expectations. If you have concerns about being present for a long time because of health reasons then you can figure out what you need to make the viva fair for you.

Long viva, short viva or somewhere-in-between-viva, the time you’re in the viva is very, very short compared to the rest of your PhD: all the time you’ve invested in becoming good and doing something good.

Nathan

Point By Point

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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

Looking Forward

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I didn’t think my viva would be terrible but I also wasn’t thinking, “I can’t wait!”

Looking back 17 years, I could best describe my feelings in the days leading up as resigned.

I guess I have to do this.

I slept only a few hours the night before. At the time I couldn’t understand that sleeplessness. I had never experienced insomnia in that way. Afterwards I came to believe it was connected with not really knowing what to expect from the viva experience and not feeling like I was a good candidate.

 

It’s only recently that I’ve realised just how connected those two thoughts might be.

How can you feel like you’re a good candidate if you don’t know what to expect?

If you’ve no idea then you can’t know if you’re good enough.

 

If any of this resonates with you I think your next steps are clear.

  • Find out what to expect. There are regulations to check and people who you can ask to learn more about viva experiences.
  • Remind yourself of what you’ve done and what that means. You’ll see that your capability is more than enough to meet the requirements of the viva.

If you know what the viva is and are sure of who you are then the experience can definitely be something to look forward to.

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