Daily viva help for PhDs
…but you don’t need perfect to succeed in your PhD or at the viva.
None of these are trivial but none of them requires perfection.
You don’t need perfection to pass your viva.
Compared to the start of your PhD journey, what can you do now that you couldn’t before?
How do you know this for certain? How can you demonstrate this? What are your skills as a capable researcher in your field?
Reflecting and unpicking the answers to these kinds of questions will give you a lot to share with your examiners in the viva.
The right words of feedback from your supervisor or a trusted colleague can make a huge difference to your work or your wellbeing. Think about what you ask for, when you ask for it and who you ask it from.
The right words of annotation on the pages of your thesis – by you – can make a huge difference to how ready you are for viva day. Think about what you need to add during prep, how you will do it and what the result will be.
The right words in the right way can make a huge difference to your PhD and your viva.
PS: looking for more about viva prep and getting help from others? These are two topics I’ll be talking about at Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. Registration is open now for my 3-hour live webinar – all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready – and attendees also get access to a catch-up recording and follow-up materials. Take a look at the details to see if this session might help you.
“Plan, Do, Reflect, Review” is a simple framework for getting things done. Plan what you’ll do, do it, reflect on what happened and review things formally so you have a better understanding.
If you’re reading this post then hopefully you followed a similar process during your PhD. There are lots of systems, resources and processes that use Plan, Do, Reflect, Review to underpin how they work.
As you get close to your viva you’ll be leaning much more on reflect and review. Give yourself time to really take in what you did, what happened and what that means. Ask yourself questions and find answers that will help you communicate what matters to your examiners.
(reflecting and reviewing your journey also helps your confidence to grow by bringing your progress and capability into the spotlight!)
Maybe you didn’t get all of the results you were hoping for.
Maybe writing your thesis was harder than you expected.
Maybe your external examiner isn’t the person you would have picked.
Maybe there’s something tricky in your third chapter that you find hard to remember.
And, who knows, maybe your viva will be longer than you would like.
Definitely: You did the work. There are regulations and expectations that create a knowable viva process. You can take time to prepare in a way that helps you. Your examiners will be known well in advance of your viva. You have time to get ready.
Every viva has maybes. Whatever maybes you can think of for yours, these are more than covered by the things that you will know and can do definitely.
As a former pure mathematician I suppose it was only a matter of time before I started thinking about confidence as a formula. I’m not saying that this is the final work on the topic, but here’s what I have so far:
Confidence = Hard Work x Good Fortune x Self-Reflection
Of-course, this is a simplification, but hopefully a useful one! It’s more accurate to say that confidence is a function of three variables (hard work, good fortune, self-reflection) but this simplification is enough to get the point across.
Real confidence in something is earned, so needs hard work. Good fortune amplifies hard work. Self-reflection builds things further when you realise the impact of your work.
We could try to unpick this more, maybe add terms involving deliberate practice or other confidence-building activities but the above expression is probably enough to get started.
The more important thing to consider is: if you have your viva in the near future, how does this formula help?
By now you’ve done the hard work, save for a little viva prep. You’ve had all the good fortune and success you can. So the thing that can make a difference now is self-reflection: looking back over your work, what happened, what that means and exploring the real difference in yourself since you began your PhD.
Hard work, good fortune and self-reflection can take you a long way towards the amount of confidence you need for your viva – and for life in general.
PS: I’ll be exploring this topic and many more at Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. I’m regularly invited to deliver this session to PhD candidates all around the UK, but this is only the third time I’ve opened up registration. A 3-hour live webinar, catch-up recording and follow-up materials all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready. Do take a look and see if it might be for you!
Every few months I make myself a simple desk calendar. One page of A4 in my notebook, week-by-week, each day lined out in pencil, dates in the top right corners and a small space to capture any work or life commitments. At a glance I can see what’s coming up and that helps.
What helps me more is that I tick off each day when it is done: whether I’m working a lot that day or a little, or even if it’s a non-work day and I’m with family, I tick the day off. I did it.
It’s been a very helpful practice in recent years to help as a reminder: you’re doing it.
I have to-do lists of course, both big and small, long term and short term, but the ticks on my calendar help a lot. When I’ve finished with a daily or weekly to-do list I review it and recycle it. I keep my calendar because they’re evidence for me. They remind me that I showed up and did something.
All of which is a long pre-amble to encourage you to do the same, at least as you work through your viva prep. A regular to-do list might be helpful, but reminding yourself of that bigger picture – “I showed up and did the work” – is a simple and direct boost for viva confidence.
Frame your viva as the next challenge of your PhD.
It might even be the last challenge of your PhD. It’s certainly not the first. You’ve overcome many others to get this far.
Remind yourself of the challenges that you’ve passed. What made them difficult? What did you do to get past them? Exploring a difficult situation might initially remind you of stress but steer yourself to focus on the positives: look for evidence of your talent and effort to help drive a growing confidence.
While your viva could be last challenge of your PhD it won’t be your last challenge ever. As you finish your PhD journey consider what you’re taking with you. What can you apply from your PhD to all of your future challenges? How much better will you be for this process?
PS: if you’re looking for help as you get ready for this challenge then check out Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. I have delivered this session to PhD candidates all around the UK at the request of doctoral colleges, but this is only the third time I’ve opened up registration. Viva Survivor is a 3-hour live webinar, you receive a catch-up recording and follow-up materials all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready. Do take a look and see if it could help you!
Hope is a good thing but we typically apply it to situations where our actions have little or no leverage. It’s probably not good to apply it to how we think about viva prep, building confidence or viva success.
Instead:
You don’t need to hope. You don’t need to wish for good luck.
Recognise you’ve done the work. Recognise that there is still work you can do.
Reflect on your PhD journey and think about any times that you felt friction in your research. Friction always tells you that there was something interesting:
Friction could also show that something just wasn’t working. Perhaps you needed to make a change. Perhaps you needed a different perspective.
Whatever the reason, if you find periods of your PhD where you’ve experienced friction then you’ve probably found something to reflect on ahead of your viva. There’s always something interesting to consider.
PS: if you’re looking for something else that’s interesting to consider, then take a look at the new issue of Viva Survivors Select. This is the second publication in my monthly pdf zine sharing a curated collection from the Viva Survivors archive. Take a look at The Uncertainty Issue for advice, practical suggestions and reflections to help with many concerning areas about the viva.