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Tag: viva confidence

Nathan

Viva Day Confidence

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Feeling confident on the day of your viva isn’t a magic shield against difficult questions. It doesn’t mean that you won’t or can’t feel nervous about the prospect of meeting your examiners.

Feeling confident for your viva means you’re as certain as you can be you’ve done as much as you can to get ready. You’re certain your work has value. You’re certain that you are capable. And you feel certain that whatever questions your examiners ask you will be able to engage with them and respond to them.

Viva day confidence is built up through work and reflection – and thankfully you have plenty of opportunities over the course of your PhD and in your viva preparation to build up your confidence.

Remember the work you’ve done. Remember what it means. Remember what a difference your learning and research and effort have made to you. Reflect on the work and all the impacts and you have the firm foundations for feeling confident on your viva day.

Nathan

Remember The Right Things

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You don’t need to recall all the details of every day of your PhD to pass your viva. You don’t need to have memorised every page of every paper you have read when you talk to your examiners – or remember every page that you have written for that matter.

Of course, you need to read your thesis to prepare for your viva. It help to review what you’ve done and consider likely areas you’ll discuss. It helps to have a way to remember what’s really important.

But, more importantly, you need to remember that you did the work.

You need to remember what the viva is really for.

You need to remember what your viva and what success means to you.

And you need to remember that there are lots of things you could do to help you remember the things that matter the most.

Nathan

On Worry Tummy

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Worry Tummy – that’s what we call nerves and apprehension in our house.

That’s what my daughter called it. Over time my wife and I took it on as part of the “secret language” of our family – the in-jokes, portmanteaus and phrases that probably don’t make sense outside of our little context.

But worry tummy is hopefully clear enough.

 

Worry tummy is the general feeling of apprehension that bubbles up when an event is imminent and you’re not really sure you feel ready for it.

Perhaps you don’t have a good enough sense of what it will be like and consequently don’t know if you can meet the challenge. Perhaps you know a little but can’t feel sure that you are ready or that you’ll enjoy it.

Often, worry tummy occurs when there is almost no chance of avoiding the situation at all, making it doubly difficult to deal with.

 

I imagine that worry tummy is more common in the very young than people working towards a PhD! If there was one educational event that could cause worry tummy in people past their teens it’s the viva.

The last exam of the final degree. Talked about in hushed tones and rumours. The viva isn’t clear most of the time so how could you know if you are up to the challenge?

By finding out more. By reflecting on your journey. By realising just how good you must be to get this far.

 

It’s not wrong to experience worry tummy at any age – or to feel nervous about your viva.

Whatever you call it, whatever you feel, there’s a reason for that feeling.

And if you don’t like it, you can do something about it.

Nathan

A Manifesto On Good Viva Prep

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This isn’t finished, but here are some thoughts that I’ve been knitting together for a long time…

Good viva prep is personal. It responds to the needs of a candidate.

Good viva prep is effective. It takes only the time needed and meets the needs of a candidate.

Good viva prep is planned in advance. A candidate’s time is valuable and stress and rush can only hinder readiness.

Good viva prep creates greater certainty. It improves understanding of the general experience of the viva and gives greater confidence in being ready for the viva.

Good viva prep is supported by others. This happens in big and small ways, because while getting ready is the candidate’s responsibility it will be better with help.

And good viva prep is only as good as a candidate makes it – so make yours good!

Nathan

Believe It Or Not

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If you believe your examiners will be fair with their questions then you’ll be more likely to try to engage with them, rather than suspect a trap or harsh comment.

If you believe you can get prepared during the submission period then you’ll be more likely to feel ready when the time comes.

If you believe the mostly positive stories about viva experiences that you hear and read then you’re going to act as though your viva will be a mostly positive occasion too.

 

What have you heard about the viva? What do you believe about it? And how does that help you (or not)?

Nathan

One More

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One more hour of reading could help you to remember that key piece of information that’s slipped your mind.

One more conversation with your supervisor might boost your confidence for meeting your examiners in the viva.

One more look through your thesis with a highlighter in hand might show you that detail you’ve been missing – or the typo you’ve missed so far!

 

One more of any of these might be one too many things though: there is a practical limit of how much prep you can do and how much prep you need to do.

The viva is only one more day when you have to show up and do things you have done many, many times before.

Nathan

Prep Progress

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Keep a tally of your viva prep. Every day you do something to help your preparations, big or small, make a mark. One mark per day, not one mark per task. Watch as the number of marks build over time.

If you’re pre-submission this could be a task as simple as downloading regulations or as big as finishing your thesis. After submission this could be marking when you write a few notes or have a mock viva.

Just one mark per day. Every time you add a mark you’re showing your commitment.

It’s a simple little message that you’re sending to someone: you, days or weeks from now on the morning of your viva.

Whatever else you feel, whatever else is happening, when you look at your tally you can see clearly that you’ve done the work.

Nathan

Fortunately

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No PhD candidate gets to their viva or passes because they are lucky.

When we reduce the situation to the simplest terms, a PhD candidate submits their thesis and succeeds in the viva because they work hard and enough of that hard work pays off.

PhD success is not a lottery. You have to work hard. When you do enough, fortunately you find what you need.

Nathan

Mini-Viva Modifiers

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In a few months it will be five years since I first published 7776 Mini-Vivas – a little game to play and get practice for the kinds of discussion you might face in the viva. I’m going to do something special to mark five years since I made it, but I don’t know what yet!

Since making 7776 Mini-Vivas I’ve made a small printed version, adapted it in several ways and occasionally shared other posts here with particular question sets. You can use it as a reflection tool, as conversation practice and as a means to rehearse key questions or ideas.

Take a look at 7776 Mini-Vivas if you haven’t already; explore the resource and think about how you could use it to get ready for your viva. I’ve been thinking about ideas for variants on the concept a lot lately. If you’re looking for more fun ways to use it, here are six:

  1. Reverse: roll dice but then start with the last question and work backwards.
  2. Extra: for a longer mini-viva, get a second person to ask another question from each set.
  3. Keywords: take twenty seconds before responding to write down keywords to help your response.
  4. Five Minutes: take a question from each set and use them as the backbone for a five minute presentation.
  5. All The Ones: take a single sheet of paper and use question 1 from each set to write a summary of your research.
  6. And All The Sixes: take a sheet of paper and use question 6 from each set to reflect on the more challenging aspects of your PhD.

How else could you use the idea of having a mini-viva or two to help you get ready?

Nathan

You Get To Have A Viva

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It’s worth remembering, when you’ve submitted and you’re working towards your viva day, that it might not have gone this way. Despite the associated nerves and negativity that people attach to the viva, having one is not guaranteed.

You might have decided to stop pursuing a PhD. Circumstances, particularly during the last three years or so, might have made continuing with research impossible. Things might not have worked out with your supervisor, financial pressures could have been too great or your research ideas might have not developed.

But instead you did the work. You solved problems and overcame challenges. Things worked out enough. You submitted your thesis and now it’s not the case that you have to have a viva – you get to have a viva.

It’s work. It’s a challenge. It matters so it might make you nervous. But it’s a really good thing.

You get to have a viva. Remember that.

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