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Tag: viva confidence

Nathan

Legend

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There are several ways we use the word.

Someone is a legend if they’re amazing. They have talent and are someone who has demonstrated that for a long time. For example, a postgraduate researcher when they reach thesis submission…

A legend can also be about someone or something, perhaps a story or collection of stories. Quite often this describes how the person or thing came to be great. For example, consider a PhD journey with all of its ups, downs and ultimate successes…

Less well known is using the word legend to describe the marks on a map. The legend explains the symbols of important features, which isn’t all that dissimilar to when someone looks for the highlights in their story. For example, a postgraduate researcher reflecting on their PhD journey as they prepare for their viva…

Taken together: consider the highpoints of your story so that you can appreciate your capability and how you got here.

Or perhaps: the legend of your legend makes you a legend!

Nathan

On The One Hand…

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…your examiners are experienced, they have to ask questions, they have to challenge you and they will be prepared for your viva when they arrive.

But on the other hand, you are experienced, you have experience at responding to questions, you can rise to challenges and you can be prepared for your viva when they arrive.

Everyone at your viva is capable, ready and engaged. The viva can be a difficult challenge and you can be ready for that challenge.

Nathan

Set Prep Goals

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It’s not enough to plan your viva prep and write read my thesis: you have to spell out what you’re trying to achieve by doing that.

Don’t just pencil in a date for your mock viva: what do you want from that experience?

And you can’t simply allocate time for checking a few papers written by your external: what do you want to know from reading them?

Plan your prep so you have an idea of how and when you’ll do the work.

Set prep goals so you have a good sense of what you’re achieving and how it will help you.

Nathan

Small Step, Big Impact

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What viva prep actions would have a great impact on how ready you were for your viva?

I’m thinking about the Pareto principle – in brief, that 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes – and I wonder how it might apply to viva prep and building confidence for the viva.

I don’t have an answer! I do have some thoughts though:

  • Having certainty about the viva process increases calm and confidence. Asking supervisors and colleagues, reading regulations and even searching online are all small actions that can have a big impact.
  • Reading your thesis again won’t take a very long time but can really help with sharing your research, formulating responses and generally feeling secure for the viva.
  • Rehearsing and talking about your thesis is a great preparation step that doesn’t take very long compared with tasks like annotating or reviewing papers.

Some big activities in viva prep can be broken down into little steps that add up. But perhaps some small actions by themselves can give big advantages to being ready.

I’ll have to think more about this! But perhaps you already have ideas of little things that you know will help you to feel ready.

Nathan

An Alphabet Of Actions

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What could you do to get ready for your viva? A lot! For example you could:

  • Annotate your thesis to make a better version for yourself.
  • Brief your friends and family on how they could support you.
  • Create a cheatsheet of key ideas and notes about your research.
  • Discuss what you can expect with your supervisor.
  • Explore the thesis examination regulations for your institution.
  • Find out what friends and colleagues have heard about the viva.
  • Give a seminar to have a little practice talking about your work.
  • Host a viva prep club where you meet with others getting ready.
  • Identify key points about your examiners’ recent research.
  • Join a friend for coffee and a chance to share your research.
  • Keep a record of your actions to help boost your confidence.
  • Listen to podcasts or interviews of PhD graduates.
  • Make a plan for your viva prep.
  • Notice what stands out about your research.
  • Organise your notes and resources for prep.
  • Prioritise your preparation to make sure you cover the important tasks.
  • Question your supervisor about your research.
  • Rest. Simply rest.
  • Summarise your research contribution in a single page.
  • Talk about your research more generally to have some rehearsal for the viva.
  • Understand the viva experience and how that relates to regulations and expectations.
  • Verify your viva date, location and process.
  • Work towards being ready by simply doing things and ticking them off your list.
  • X-out, or mark the days leading up to your viva when you do something to get closer to being ready.
  • Yawn – in which case you need to rest some more!
  • Zero in on what makes you a good candidate.

All of these could help but finding what makes you a good candidate – in terms of your knowledge, your research outcomes, your thesis, your success – is really important. It’s the kind of work that helps develop confidence.

It’s last on this list, but not least in importance. Take time to reflect on what makes you a good candidate.

Remember that success and confidence are founded on your actions – and there are many, many actions you can take to build confidence for your viva.

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

Pick A Number

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Pick a number between 1 and 10 to describe how happy you feel about your upcoming viva, 10 being very happy and 1 being not happy at all.

Whatever the number, whatever the reason, what can you do to make that number higher?

  • What can you do today?
  • What information do you need?
  • Who could you ask to help you?
  • What tasks can you schedule or do?

Even if you feel very happy, a 10 today, just reflect on whether or not there are gaps in your viva knowledge. Information, expectations, regulations, prep ideas and more are not hard to find if you really want to know.

However you feel about your viva, you can take steps to feel better.

Nathan

Best of Viva Survivors 2023: Confidence

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Confidence is one of my favourite topics to explore when thinking about the viva. Good research, a good candidate and good prep can be assumed of any viva – but confidence makes a big difference for how someone engages with their examiners and the situation.

Here are five posts from this year that have dug a little deeper on the topic of confidence.

Tomorrow is the last round-up post of the year – and the last post of the year! – and we’ll come once again to the topic of surviving. How do you “manage to keep going in difficult circumstances”?

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.

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