Daily viva help for PhDs
Very simple viva directions!
There’s a process and prep, a thesis and a candidate, two examiners with questions and comments and expectations and –
– really you just need to sit down and talk.
Have a conversation. A discussion. A chat.
Three prepared people, one thesis, one PhD journey and a few hours for everyone to do what they need to do.
Be ready to sit down and talk. Prepare, rehearse, be ready.
In tabletop role-playing games, players have character sheets. These are a way of capturing information about the person you are pretending to be in the game. Are you a warrior or a wizard? What equipment do you have? Character sheets list statistics about the character, measures of how skilful someone is and perhaps key details about their past or their talents.
If all of the above sounds totally unfamiliar then from real life picture a CV or resume. These do something similar to a character sheet. They show what someone has achieved, a shorthand for showing ability and success, essential skills and qualifications. It’s not the whole story, but a helpful summary for reminding someone or sharing key details.
As you prepare for your viva, consider making a character sheet for yourself. List your accomplishments, summarise the skills and talents that make you amazing, and highlight the ways you have levelled up. Summarise what you can do now as a result of your PhD journey.
In a game, a character sheet might describe someone fictional and amazing. For the viva, create something which shows a real, amazing person: you.
If it won’t cause pain or upset, think back to who you were when you started your PhD journey.
Consider what you knew and what you could do, and compare that with your capability today.
Being ready for the viva is partly all the work you’ve done, partly the specific preparations for the viva and partly how you feel about yourself and what you can do. A PhD journey can be long and difficult; sometimes, when reflecting it can be natural to remember the beginnings or the harder moments.
Instead, remember where you are today. Remember the skills, the knowledge, the talent and the success that you have. You are not the person you were. You are not who you were when you began.
Now you can do so much more.
You know so much more.
And you have achieved so much more than when you started.
You’ve written a thesis that captures a signifiant and original contribution to your field.
What now? What could you or someone else do to build on these ideas? How might this inspire someone else?
You’ve done several weeks of prep for your viva and there’s only a few days to go before the big day.
What now? What do you need to do to feel prepared? Who can help and what are your priorities?
Your viva is done and it’s been a great success, just like you hoped.
What now? What do you have to do finish things off? When and how will you get corrections and any other admin done?
Everything is finished. You’ve reached the end of your PhD journey.
What now?
A famous saying, or an approximation of it: if you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right.
Our mindset shapes how we view things and how we do things. If you don’t think something will work, you might not do your best to see if it will. If you’re confident of success then you’ll find a way even if you experience setbacks.
What kinds of mindsets could help with the viva?
A mindset, a sentence, a little saying – however you frame them they can motivate action and produce results. They are not the actions, but the framing for them.
For example, done is better than perfect puts limits on drafting and redrafting. It expresses an end-point. It gives a nudge for action – but then you have to take that action. You have to set a timetable, you have to do the work and decide when you stop.
I am here to respond to my examiners’ questions (whatever they might be) reminds you of what you have to do in the viva. To be ready you’ll need to rehearse, read and feel confident in what you do and say.
A mindset leads to action, the action embeds the mindset: a positive cycle that can lead to good outcomes.
I can’t believe I’ve never shared this before!
It’s this one weird trick that helps with the viva!!
One thing that universities, examiners and PhD graduates don’t want you to know!!!
Whatever discipline you are in, however long you have to go before your viva and whatever you feel about your viva, this one weird trick will help!!!!
Are you ready?
Do the work.
That’s it, the one weird trick that helps with the viva: do the work.
Take your time, but do the work. Feel frustrated, but do the work. Procrastinate, but take the time to do the work.
Have questions? Do the work to find out the answers. Unsure about something? Do the work to ask someone who can give you certainty. Feel unprepared for your viva? Do the work to feel ready.
And sometimes it’s really hard! Sometimes it is hard to get up and do the work you need to do because you’re tired, or you’re nervous or you just don’t know what you want or where you’re going.
There are even times where you know you need to do something but you don’t what that something is!
Then you have to do the work to figure it out.
Ask for help. Plan your prep. Rehearse for your viva. Explore expectations. Maybe finish your thesis first!
But do the work.
Do the work because it’s the one weird trick that really will help with everything.
To build confidence for your viva, write down three successes from your PhD journey. Think back over the years of work and find three things that have been good: maybe things you did well, results that didn’t exist before or ideas that you have developed and shared.
Find three successes and write a little about each, focussing on why they are a success and what you did to make them great. You don’t need to spend long to capture something good.
In fact, you could probably take ten minutes every day to write about three successes from your PhD journey. Between submission and the viva make a habit of looking back and finding three successes from your PhD: make a habit of building your confidence for the viva.
What could you do to boost or maintain your confidence for your viva?
Confidence helps put nervousness in perspective, and it’s to be expected that you might feel nervous for your viva. It matters. It’s important. Confidence won’t remove nervous thoughts, but it will help you to remember why you’re there.
There’s no magic pill for confidence, no simple button press. Thankfully, there are many things you could try. What else could you do to build your confidence?
First, a candidate can think that vivas are random. It’s true that you won’t know what will happen exactly until you get to yours, but there are general expectations that can help you understand the process.
Second, a candidate can think of examiners as opponents. This just isn’t the case: examiners are prepared, they ask questions and some of those questions could be tough, but that doesn’t make them your enemy.
Third, a candidate could believe that they are finished at submission. The PhD journey is a good foundation for the viva, but the viva is a particular challenge; there’s lots of prep work that can make a difference.
Fourth, a candidate could believe that corrections are a failure. It just isn’t so. Corrections are more work and might not feel fair – but they’re a part of the process for most candidates and not connected with failing at all.
Fifth, a candidate could believe that they aren’t good enough to succeed. But how else could someone get to submission other than by achieving enough along the way? How else could they write a thesis if they weren’t good enough to do the work?
Five big mistakes. Five simple remedies.
Find out about expectations. Understand the role of examiners. Invest time in preparation. Accept corrections as part of the process. Reflect on your journey to build your confidence.
Candidates need to know more about examiners: how they prepare, what’s involved, what they’re asking, what they might ask and do and why.
Examiners need to know more about candidates and the PhD journey in the 2020s: they need to understand the particular thesis they’re looking at, the general experience of PGRs, the impact of COVID and more.
Supervisors need to understand the viva situation: they need to have a good handle on expectations, what helps in preparation, they have to grasp their candidates’ situations and advise them well.
And then there are researcher-developers, policy-makers, regulation-writers, awesome administrators and sensational support staff.
The viva needs more understanding. Or perhaps it is better to say that if everyone involved knew more about it then the viva, how it happens, how it’s prepared for and how it’s talked about could be better for everyone involved.
What can you do to improve your understanding about the viva before you have yours? Who could you ask? What do you need to know? And when you’ve been through the process, who could you share your experience with to help others with their understanding?