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Tag: viva confidence

Nathan

Sounds Of The Season

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It’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas. Everywhere I go I hear seasonal music. Cheesy 80s number ones, crooners from a former era, carols.

Of course there are other signs too that Christmas is weeks away! – but the sound is the thing that sticks with me. There’s a series of associations building up the feeling and the energy.

 

I wonder if something similar could help for the viva? Actually, it’s more than a wonder, I’m sure it could!

I’ve heard from plenty of candidates and graduates over the years who have a viva prep or positivity playlist that helps to boost them. Songs that help someone to just feel better. Music that helps someone to concentrate. Sound that helps people to feel more confident that things will work out well.

What sounds – music, songs, tracks, whatever you call them – could help you as you prepare for your viva? And could they help steer your confidence positively?

Nathan

Decide On Your Focus

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You could focus on being perfect for your viva, but you’ll end up disappointed by the unattainable nature of your goal.

Or you could focus on being prepared for your viva, plan what needs doing and take practical steps to getting things done.

You could focus on not knowing what exactly your examiners will ask you, in which case you’ll probably be worried in advance of meeting them.

Or you could focus on rehearsing for the viva so that you’re confident about engaging with whatever questions are asked.

You could focus on your examiners and their lengthy careers, reams of publications and status at the viva – but you’ll probably feel bad doing so.

Or you could focus on your PhD journey: the effort you’ve put in, the success and progress you’ve made and the personal development you can see over the last few years.

Despite the title of this post you don’t need to have a singular focus for your viva and your preparation. You get to decide what you give your attention to in the weeks leading up to it.

Where will you put your focus?

Nathan

Prompt

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If you’re concerned about remembering certain things at your viva then it’s alright to use prompts. Highlight keywords on thesis pages, mark the beginnings of key sections and prepare summaries before the viva to help bring your thoughts together.

You’re not expected to be perfect, but you can help your confidence by finding useful prompts in your preparation.

You can directly prompt your confidence for the viva too. Consider what helps you to feel better and feel confident. It could be something you wear. A small ritual or item could help. Listening to a song or playlist could give a boost.

Prompt your confidence by whatever means help you so that you don’t forget that you are good enough.

Nathan

Your Role

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At the viva you have to engage with the questions and comments of your examiners. You have to be a good participant in the discussion that rises from your thesis, the questions and what unfolds naturally.

That’s it.

You don’t have to be extra-smart or super-relaxed. They’re not looking for you to take on a persona. You don’t have to have an answer for everything or speak in a certain way.

Your examiners want to hear what you think and see what you know. Your role in the viva is to respond. You don’t have to be anything you’re not.

Nathan

Personally Developed

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Personal development is sometimes seen as a box-ticking exercise during a PhD: perhaps a form or report that has to be filled in every now and then. That’s a shame, because I think personal development is what the PhD is all about. A PhD is not just a piece of paper or a couple of extra letters around your name. It stands for something. It represents the change you’ve made in yourself.

Reflecting on that before the viva helps you. You don’t want to stand on a chair and boast of your talent and knowledge, but you do want to sit there and be confident. Reflect on your journey. Reflect on the change in yourself. Consider how you have grown and developed and use that to build your confidence for the viva – where you can calmly explain and explore what it all means.

Nathan

Small Beginnings

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Do you remember the first day of your PhD? Do you remember what that was like?

I do! I can vividly remember showing up at my office, being told which of two desks I could commandeer for the next few years and then waiting and wondering what I should do next. I knew my supervisor already, but knew that I wasn’t due to see him for several days. I knew, kind-of, what area I was going to be working in.

So I started reading my Master’s dissertation. I had carried that into university with me that day, in my bag, proof for myself that I was meant to be there. As I worked through the pages of a short book I hadn’t read in over a year I found typo after typo. Clunky line after clunky line. I picked up a red pen and started amending my previous work in the margins.

And I felt bad.

Foolish. Naive even. What was I doing here? What was I going to be doing…

…for the next three and a half years?!

I had no idea.

 

And then Shaine asked me if I wanted to go for a cup of tea as it was eleven o’clock and that’s what happened at eleven in the maths department. For the rest of that day, and the rest of that week – and the rest of the month – I was slowly introduced to the rhythms of life in the maths department.

Meeting by meeting, I figured out what I needed to do to get started. Chat by chat, I started to understand what being a PhD maths researcher meant.

One thing stood out to me: research takes time. It takes work over a long period of time. You might have breakthroughs or periods of intense activity, but it all takes time.

 

From small beginnings you must have come a long way over the course of your PhD. Do you remember your first day? Your first week or month? Can you compare and contrast that to where you are now?

I imagine if you’re reading this that your viva is some time in the near future. At the very least you can have a good idea of when it might be. Look back to the beginning of your PhD journey and realise: you have come a long way.

You’ve invested the time and the work to become better, to build your research and develop yourself. Remember and realise that you must be good by this stage of your journey; you might not be at the end, not yet, but you have made a lot of progress and found a lot of success since your beginning.

Nathan

You Are Enough

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You don’t have to work every hour of every day to prepare for your viva.

You don’t have to be word perfect in your viva to succeed.

You don’t have to be perfect.

You can be you and that’s enough.

Nathan

Warming Up

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How will you warm up on the day of your viva? You might not need to perform vocal exercises or physically stretch, but you could:

  • Read through a summary of your thesis one more time.
  • Check that you have everything packed in your bag.
  • Select a special outfit to wear.
  • Rehearse using your computer and software if you have a video viva.
  • Chat with your supervisor if there’s one more point to be sure of.
  • Write something to get any thoughts or feelings out of your head.

Or you could simply sit down with a cup of tea or coffee and wait for the right time to arrive.

Nathan

Daily Confidence

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I worry about my viva every day…

These were the first words I saw in the chat window during a viva help webinar when I asked for questions. In a few short sentences the person described how they couldn’t help it: they felt nervous and worried every day when they thought about their upcoming viva.

There are useful big picture things that could help – learning about what to expect, preparing for the viva, talking to friends – but nervousness for the viva can persist regardless.

Feeling nervous is not always an easy thing to switch off, but building confidence can help; confidence doesn’t eliminate nervousness, but it does help to put it into perspective.

The person in my webinar worried every day. I wonder what might happen if they did something for their confidence every day?

What would happen if you did something every day for your confidence? For example, you could:

  • Reflect on the contribution in your thesis.
  • Bookmark a page in your thesis that you’re proud of.
  • Create a playlist of music that helps you to feel confident.
  • Tell someone about your research.
  • Make a list of successes from your PhD.

Worrying and feeling nervous are perfectly human responses to big, important events. They can become habitual though, a recurring issue to be dealt with. Rather than wait for them to arrive, invest in a daily practice to build your confidence.

Nathan

A Key Expectation

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It occurred to me recently that a key expectation for the viva, very rarely expressed, is that the candidate will not know what questions they will be asked until they get there.

There are helpful lists of potential questions on the internet. You might suspect or guess some topics. You have your thesis and know that everything you’ve done will be a possible area for discussion. And you can get some ideas of what to expect from your supervisors, your colleagues and the stories that people generally tell about the viva.

But you won’t know.

That’s not a cause for panic or concern, and it doesn’t mean that you can’t be prepared to respond to a question. Rehearse for the viva, place yourself in situations where you have to engage to build your comfort and competence for doing it again in the future.

You don’t need to be prepared to respond to particular questions; you can be ready to engage with whatever question is asked in the viva.

You won’t know what you will be asked at your viva until you get there, but you can still know that you will succeed.

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