Daily viva help for PhDs
Why does your research matter? If you can find a good way to explain that to others then you’ll start to feel ready for your viva.
Why does your PhD matter to you? If you can find a good way to explain that to yourself then you’ll start to feel motivated for your viva.
I live in the north-west of England and a few times per month we have cause to travel through one of the Mersey tunnels.
It’s gloomy in there no matter the time of day: the rear lights of cars, the not-daylight of the tunnel lights and the monotonous blurring of the walls.
Then you hit the end. Daylight reaches in-
-and you have less than ten seconds to be sure of which way you’re going! There are two exits and you need to be sure because there’s no turning back!
Veer left or right? Towards the stadia or the city? There are two lanes and it helps to get into the correct one before you enter. That way you’re on track for the whole journey.
Which brings us to the PhD journey, submission, viva prep and the viva.
The final weeks and months before submission can be a bit like the Kingsway Tunnel. You’re going forwards but it’s all a blur. You have to focus to get through but if you’re not careful you can reach the other side and not know where you’re going next.
Plan ahead. Decide on your route to being ready for your viva. When you get to submission do you need to take a break or keep on? Will you take your time or power ahead? You can decide how you make your way to the viva.
Sketch out a plan for your viva prep and don’t be surprised when that time arrives.
“Confidence is not being strong; confidence is knowing your strengths.”
A webinar participant shared this observation with me a few months ago. There’s a lot of wisdom to it.
For the viva in particular, you don’t need to know everything. You can simply know that you are capable. You can simply reflect on what has brought you so far. You can simply know what you know.
Know your strengths and you’ll know that’s enough.
No tricks, no pranks, no double-meanings and no jokes today!
You’ve come as far as you have on your PhD journey because you kept doing the work. You were good at what you did and you became better. Whatever your field you learned and explored and produced.
You get to submission by being good enough. You get to and through your viva by being good enough.
You might need to prepare a little and you might need to do something to build up your confidence, but don’t be deceived: you must be good enough if you have got this far.
And if you’ve got this far, keep going!
What are your sources of encouragement ahead of your viva?
You’ve done the work to get you this far. You can prepare for the particular challenges of the viva.
Don’t forget to find encouragement. There are plenty of sources when you look.
Here’s a little model that I’m still working out to see if it makes sense.
Procedural expectations about the viva are what happens generally: the typical lengths, common questions, the process of the exam and so on.
Emotional expectations about the viva are how candidates might generally feel: it’s not uncommon to be nervous, it’s human to wonder “what if…?” and so on.
Personal expectations about the viva are how individual candidates feel: the particular worries, specific requirements, self-knowledge and so on.
Knowing more about procedural expectations can have an impact on the other two areas for a candidate: a greater sense of the process could reduce nervousness and any worries. That’s not to suggest that someone shouldn’t do something directly to improve the other areas; perhaps starting with a good foundation of understanding the process will have an impact on the other areas and mean there is less to tackle.
So, if this seems reasonable: what do you not know about the procedural viva expectations? And what are you going to do to fill that gap?
When someone asks me about the most important viva prep task that they need to do, I offer a lot of encouragement and I ask a few questions.
The truest response for a lot of questions about the viva begins with “It depends…” because there are always lots of factors.
Viva prep helps someone get ready for the particular challenge of the viva. In general, it’s important to plan first to reduce stress as you prepare. It’s important to have a clear idea of your thesis and the contribution. It’s important to annotate your thesis but also important to create summaries to help you think. And it’s really important to feel confident about being in the viva – so it’s important to make time for rehearsal.
By asking someone questions I might be able to give some more specific suggestions to them. I can tailor all of the general points above to the person: everyone needs to rehearse, but a mock viva might not be the best choice for someone. Annotation is key but everyone has different needs for a well-annotated thesis.
While a lot depends on the unique situation and individual, every PhD candidate benefits from remembering that the most important tasks are the ones that have lead up to submission. Every candidate creates a unique body of work, a unique thesis and a unique set of circumstance that leads to their viva. But no candidate gets that far without overcoming challenges, learning a lot and doing a lot.
The important tasks of viva prep help someone be ready for the particular challenges of the viva. The important tasks of the PhD journey help someone be ready for facing difficult challenges in general.
There’s a moment coming when you will start your viva.
All of your preparations will stop. You will have to be ready.
What do you want that moment to be like? How would you like to feel? What would you need to know by then?
Whether your viva is a week away, a month from now or some date later this year take a little time to reflect on the questions above. You can’t directly control how ready you’ll feel but you can decide on and take steps that lead you in that general direction.
So what steps will you take? How do you want to feel when you have to stop?
The failure rate of the UK PhD viva is not zero but it’s very close. An incredibly rare event might still be enough to make someone worry, particularly when the outcome is so important.
If you are worrying at any stage before your viva then please consider:
If you have all of the above then you have nothing to worry about. You can work past worry ahead of your viva. You can do your best over a long period of time. The overall failure rate might not be zero but your actions can put you in a category all of your own.
If all of the above points are true for you, what are the chances that you’re really headed towards failing your viva?
How close am I to levelling up? How much more do I need? When do I get the next thing?!
Video game status bars tickle my brain in just the right way. Not every game has them, but they help me a lot when I’m playing challenging games. They track experience and help me know I’m moving forward, even if sometimes I still have a lot to do.
As a PhD candidate, you can be sure your personal status bar has been moving in the right direction for a long time. As you get closer to submission and the viva it could feel like there’s always more to do – or things you could have done but have missed.
Just like most video games you don’t need everything in order to be complete. You don’t need every achievement in order to be good enough. The status bar leading up to your PhD completion needs to be fairly full but you don’t need to be superhuman to succeed.
By the time you get to submission and your viva you’ve levelled up enough.