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Tag: viva confidence

Nathan

You Can’t Know Everything

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There might be lots that you don’t know. If you tax yourself by thinking about all of the papers that you didn’t read, all the practical research you didn’t do (or couldn’t do) and all of the things you know that others know but you don’t then you could easily talk yourself into feeling bad about your thesis or your viva.

What you know, matters. You don’t know everything. You know enough. The things you know, the things you can do, have got you where you are. Not everything, but enough to get you to the viva and through the viva.

Not knowing something isn’t comfortable, but what you know can be enough to help you find confidence for your viva.

Nathan

Good Things

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A simple piece of viva prep and confidence building: make a list of as many good things about your research and thesis as you can think of. Add anything about your development too, what knowledge or skills you’ve built up over the course of your PhD years.

It’s fine to list items, but even more powerful if you go back and add details as to why these things are good. Why is that result or piece of research good? What did reading that paper allow you to do? How does a skill help you?

A PhD can be hard for many reasons. There’s a lot of good there too.

Find the good, and use that to help you feel ready for your viva.

Nathan

Great Power

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With great power comes great responsibility.

It’s fun to know that Stan Lee didn’t quite invent this phrase, but lovely to know that it’s popularisation is pretty much all due to Spider-Man. It applies to more than just superheroes and those in positions of power, it’s a beautiful truth that applies to many situations.

Like PhDs, of course! I have a couple of thoughts in mind for today.

First, through what you’ve built up over the course of your PhD, you owe it to yourself to prepare well for the viva. This doesn’t have to take a lot from you – remember, you’re powerful! – but you have that responsibility after all this work to see it through to a good conclusion. You have power in that.

Second, and more important by far, with all that power, you have a responsibility to do something that matters after your PhD. That could be a job in academia or somewhere else. It could be you start a business, or you volunteer your skills; it could be that you do something to help one person or many. Your family, your local community, your organisation or people all over the world. You can make a difference.

Knowledge is power, but you have more than just that. You have skill. You have talent. You have know-how as well as knowing lots. With the great power that you have, you have a responsibility to make a difference.

Spider-Man isn’t “better” than someone without powers. A person with a PhD isn’t “better” than someone without. But you might have skills that they don’t, skills that they could really need.

So help. Make a difference.

Be a hero.

Nathan

The Long Way

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Between the first day of your PhD and your last you travel a huge distance. From potential to results, you’re talented when you start and even more talented when you submit – plus you have a lovely book too!

Across all that time it’s sometimes hard to see the moments when you succeeded, when you’ve had amazing times of personal growth or completed projects. The great stuff can be hard to pick out from all the days of hard work: reading, thinking, writing and developing what you did.

You can’t get to the end of your PhD, to submission and on track for the viva any other way. There’s no shortcuts, you have to come the long way.  To be sure of your confidence for the viva you have to review that journey when it nears the end. Look back over what you’ve done and consider how you got to where you are.

The PhD journey is long. It can be hard. It can be so hard to get to the end.

But you will – you will reach the end. As you get closer to the viva, reflect on how you got there and what that means.

Nathan

7 Nudges For Viva Prep

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While there are lots of good tasks that can help with viva preparation, maybe it would be better to gently nudge candidates. A few gentle nudges could be far more helpful to offer than a super-structured programme of work and deadlines.

So:

  1. Sketch a plan for your prep.
  2. Ask for help.
  3. Your thesis can help in the viva – how could you prepare with it?
  4. Tell people about your work, and invite questions.
  5. Listen to stories about viva experiences.
  6. Reflect on the work you’ve done already.
  7. Explore what you could do to build your confidence.

A few gentle nudges can move someone to figure out what they need to do to feel ready for the viva.

Nathan

Confidence & Contribution

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Real confidence isn’t just a feeling, it’s based on facts.

Confidence for your viva is grounded in evidence. One place to look for that confidence is in what your research is all about. The phrase significant, original contribution can be broken down into three questions that lead to more confidence for you:

  • Significant: why does it matter?
  • Original: how is it new?
  • Contribution: what did you do?

Taken together, your responses can lay the foundations for greater confidence in your work, your ability and for the outcome of your viva.

Nathan

Yet

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If ever you’re tempted, by a hard day or a tough moment in your PhD to say one of the following, remember to add the word “yet”:

  • I haven’t got it to work…
  • I haven’t figured it out…
  • I’ve not submitted my thesis…
  • I’m not ready for my viva…

“Yet” is a reminder – you can do this, you want to do this, there’s time to do this – and even a promise, I will do this.

You might not be there yet, you might not be ready yet, but you will be.

There’s time. Keep going.

 

(inspired by countless posts and podcasts by the always-inspiring Seth Godin)

Nathan

Bringing It All Together

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Viva preparation is not the hardest part of the PhD journey by a long way, but it requires a little thought for it not to be overwhelming.

What do you need to do? Where do you see the gaps for yourself? If you have trouble remembering things, then re-read them and make useful notes. Consider what you could add in annotations to help your thesis more useful. Think about when to rehearse with a mock viva or a good chat with friends. Make a list of what you really need to do, rather than work in an ad hoc way.

When do you start? Consider your responsibilities, consider when you could fit in thirty minutes to an hour a day. It’s better to view prep as a daily practice in most cases, a gentle lead up to feeling you are prepared, rather than a last minute cram to get “everything” done.

It could feel like there’s lots to do to be prepared for the viva. In comparison to the time and effort of the rest of your PhD there’s really very little. If you have a busy life already then it’s worth planning in advance how you will make space for it.

But remember: you can do it.

Nathan

Diamonds and Pressure

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“You need pressure to make diamonds.”

It’s a cheesy sentiment, but it’s true that sometimes we need the pressure of a situation to have a breakthrough, grow, build talent or find something amazing.

The viva isn’t one of those situations though. Your success there shouldn’t be via pressure on the day. If you talk to plenty of graduates about their experiences, pressure isn’t something they describe.

Diamonds need pressure, but they need time too. If we want to think about diamonds, the PhD and metaphors, then really it’s you who is the diamond in the story.

Nathan

Things That Aren’t Big Deals

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This is a non-exhaustive list of things that candidates, in my experience, consistently throw lots of energy and attention at – despite none of these things really being problems.

  • Answering every question you set out to with your research.
  • Not publishing during your PhD.
  • Not citing your examiners in your thesis.
  • Citing your examiners in your thesis.
  • Finding spelling mistakes in your thesis after submission.
  • Pausing to think in the viva.
  • Being asked to complete corrections afterwards.

It’s not wrong to feel concerned about something, but better to check if it really is a problem. The list above is non-exhaustive, but it could be exhausting for you to deal with. It’s much more useful to find things that are really worth your attention before the viva. Invest time in getting ready. Invest attention in your confidence. Invest your time in finding out more about the viva.

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