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Tag: viva advice

Nathan

Live Webinars, Autumn 2026

Event, Update

The Short Version: I have three upcoming dates for independent viva help webinars and registration is open now. Full details of all three dates are at the link and you can also find out more below. Thanks for reading!

 

The Longer Version: I got a really lovely email from a PhD candidate about one of my webinars over the summer.

“Thanks for your time and for setting these up – often it helps to hear about this from someone not in the department/same uni to get a broader perspective. I felt so assured when you said you’re more likely not to submit a final thesis than you are to fail a viva – so in a way that will make me have a much better summer knowing the hard slog is actually 90% over. I liked the structure of the session as well as your willingness to answer questions and interact with us.” – University of Leeds PhD candidate

It was nice to receive this after one of my independent sign-up 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva sessions in July. I love delivering this session: I’ve shared it over 100 times now to many, many PGRs!

I think of it as a 1-hour confidence boost for the viva. In the space of an hour I cover key reasons why people succeed at the viva. There’s space for everyone to ask questions, a copy of my 101 Steps To A Great Viva pdf and a catch-up recording of the session too.

I really love sharing this session and that’s why I have three dates coming up in the next few months where you can join me to find 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva:

These are the only independent sign-up sessions that I’m running between now and Christmas. I might be running a viva help session for your institution between now and then, so do check with your graduate school or doctoral college first before booking.

If I’ve not been invited to help your PGR community then please take a look at the details for these upcoming events. Registration is open now for all three events. If you’re looking for viva help or know someone who is then please take a look.

Thanks for reading – if you think it will help a friend then please pass on the news.

All the best,

Nathan

Nathan

“What You Should Do”

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Let’s assume that any viva advice you’re given is well-intentioned.

Let’s go a step further and assume that the content of the advice is also fairly sound and reasonable.

So when your supervisor, a friend, a video, an LLM-service or me(!) tells you something to help with your viva they’re doing it with good reason and they sincerely hope it will help…

…still you have to stop and think, “Is this right?”

When you get a piece of viva advice:

  • Check the regulations for your institution if it’s relevant.
  • Check with another source to see if there is similar advice, say, for a prep idea.
  • Then compare it with your particular situation to see it still seems good.

Generally, expectations and advice are broad and cover many circumstances. Your case might be different from the typical “should”. That doesn’t mean anything is wrong but you might have to think more about how you apply things to you.

Be careful with viva advice that says what you “should” do.

Nathan

Be Helpful, If You Can

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After your viva, be helpful for other PhD candidates if and when you can.

  • Share your viva experience if it will help someone understand what they need to do to get ready.
  • Listen to someone if they have questions about the process.
  • Give suggestions for helpful viva prep ideas.
  • Offer your time if you can to ask someone about their research (the mini-viva resource will help).

If you can, when your viva is done, share your experience. Share what helped you get ready.

Nathan

Advice > Anecdote

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Your friend’s experience might be useful to know but has to be placed into the wider viva context.

One good story shouldn’t be enough to help you feel better about the viva. Similarly, one person’s negative experience shouldn’t shift you to thinking that your viva will be bad too.

Ask others for help and ask for their stories but consider them alongside the wider advice about the viva, in terms of prep, expectations and approach. One story can be interesting; the patterns and trends in many stories can be valuable.

Anecdotes about the viva are good but good advice is much, much more helpful.

Nathan

“This Is What I Did”

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It helps to listen to PhD stories and experiences. It can be very useful to hear about how someone prepared for their viva, what they did and how it helped them. Often it can be enlightening to know that someone else had a good viva and the reasons why.

Advice can give options and stories can give directions but you have to take responsibility in applying the relevant points to your own circumstances. If you feel that following someone else’s advice and ideas seems like it is going to be the wrong approach for you then you’re probably right.

Ask for advice. Listen to stories. Apply the best of it all to your situation to help you be ready for your viva.

Nathan

Suggestions, Not Solutions

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If someone says do X to help with your viva problem Y…

  • …you shouldn’t do X if you’re not confident it’s a good idea.
  • …you shouldn’t do X if you don’t think it will meet your needs.
  • …you shouldn’t do X if your problem was Z rather than Y!
  • …you shouldn’t do nothing either if X seems like it won’t meet your needs.

Advice isn’t an order. Advice is an option. Assuming that anyone you look to for help is offering it with good intentions, ideas are still suggestions: they are not definite solutions to a problem.

Getting ready for the viva can be a stressful time for many reasons. Don’t let suggestions that aren’t suitable add to that.

If you can, be precise when making requests for help; if you receive suggestions that aren’t solutions to your situation then you have to decide on the next step.

Do you adapt the advice? Do you continue exploring options with the person who made the suggestion? Or do you look elsewhere?

 

PS: I’ll be offering a lot of helpful suggestions at Viva Survivor, my live webinar on Thursday 5th December 2024. I’ve delivered it for university groups for over a decade – to more than 7000 PhD candidates – and this is my first independent webinar. Do take a look and see if it might be a help – just a suggestion of course! 🙂

Nathan

Whatever You Need

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Your university will say, rightly, that you need to take a copy of your thesis with you to your viva.

The regulations will say that you need to have two examiners.

Good advice says that you need to invest a little time in viva prep and getting ready.

These are all general needs though. What do you need in order to succeed at your viva?

Make a list. Then consider how you could meet those needs. If you need to ask for help then ask. If you need to do something then do it. When your needs are all met you can feel better for your viva.

Figure out what you need to succeed at your viva – then figure out how to get as much of that as possible.

 

PS: if what you need is a little more help or a little more knowledge then take a look at Viva Survivor, my live webinar on Thursday 5th December 2024. Registration is open now and the fee includes a catch-up recording if you can’t attend the whole session.

Nathan

The Exceptions

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Viva expectations have exceptions. Aspects tend towards certain patterns, like viva lengths and opening questions. A thesis topic, the candidate, the day or the examiners could all have an impact on what actually happens.

Good ideas of viva preparation have exceptions. A mock viva is almost-universally seen as a great piece of preparation work but you might know for you, your supervisor or your situation it won’t be a help.

Advice about the viva follows certain well-intentioned tracks but there can be exceptions. Do this, unless… This is great, but…

Exceptions can be frustrating but you have to grapple with them. If there is a common idea for a typical situation (expectation, prep, advice and so on) then when you meet an exception you have to consider:

  • Is the common idea a specific detail of a broader idea?
  • Is it completely unhelpful to the exception or can it be adapted?
  • And whatever the case, what can we do?

That last question is key. Whatever the general situation, whatever the exception, what can we do?

Because, whatever the exception, we – the candidate, the helper, the person on the internet writing a blog post – have to do something. That’s the only way forward.

Maybe there are no unique solutions but there are also no impossible situations – no exceptions!

Nathan

Sixteen

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My viva was sixteen years ago today.

I’ve written about it many times over the last seven years on the blog and spoken about it probably thousands of times in seminars. For whatever they’re worth, here are sixteen things I remember about my viva day:

  1. I was tired.
  2. I was nervous because I was so tired, but this feeling only came ten minutes before we started.
  3. My examiners were friendly, polite and professional.
  4. My examiners were clearly prepared.
  5. I was very prepared!
  6. My examiners had asked me to prepare a presentation, but started asking me questions while I was working through that.
  7. I remained standing by the chalkboard for the entirety of my four hour viva.
    • Note: I have never met anyone else in the last sixteen years who has had this experience!
  8. My examiners had a lot of questions for me.
  9. My examiners had specific criticisms of the structure of my thesis.
  10. My examiners were fair with their questions and gave me plenty of space to respond.
  11. My viva had a single break around the 2 hour and 30 minute mark.
  12. I remember only one panic-inducing moment when a particular statement from my internal examiner really caught me off-guard: In Chapter 7 you detail your failure at something. That’s interesting.
  13. I felt exhausted as we got to the end…
  14. …but those four hours did seem to go by very quickly.
  15. My examiners asked me to leave the room and I then spent a slightly-nervous seventeen minutes waiting for them to call me back in.
  16. My examiners told me I had passed with minor corrections and congratulated me.

Sixteen things after sixteen years.

What do you think you’ll remember in the years after your viva?

What do you want your viva to be like?

What will you do to steer your viva to be closer to how you imagine?

Nathan

Red Flags

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Are there any red flags for examiner selection? Are there people I should try to avoid?

Let’s start with a caveat: there are people in every sphere of life who build up a clear reputation for behaving badly. In academia, these are the people who everyone knows at conferences as making long self-serving comments rather than asking questions after seminars. Perhaps they’re known for arrogance or for being thoughtless and rude.

People like this have a Semaphore Guilds-worth of red flags around them.

Clear signs of this behaviour are worth avoiding if possible – if asked for examiner suggestions by your supervisor – so that you can avoid the possibility of that behaviour in your viva.

 

Beyond that: I can’t think of any real red flags that people have shared with me or from the general expectations and patterns of viva life.

Anecdotally, new academics could be more thorough in the viva. They may ask more questions if it’s one of their first times acting as an examiner. That’s not bad: they’re trying to do the job well. It’s not a reflection on you or your thesis. A longer viva could simply be a little uncomfortable by the end.

Beyond bad behaviour there are no real red flags unless they’re personal ones. Maybe you would prefer someone you’ve cited; a personal red flag would be someone who has no direct contact with your research. Or perhaps you want someone who could be a future collaborator. A red flag would be someone who might not connect well with your future research goals.

You don’t get to choose your examiners. You might be able to make suggestions to your supervisors. It’s worth considering who would be a good choice if you do have the opportunity – and what might be a red flag for you.

If you have red flags, who might that exclude from a list of potential examiners? More importantly, who might be a good choice for you?

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