Daily viva help for PhDs
Yes, you had help, you had supervision, you had supporters – but you did the work.
Remind yourself as you get closer to your viva day.
You showed up to do the work.
You invested the time to learn more.
You invested the effort to develop your skillset.
You took the time to keep notes.
You wrote your thesis.
You did it.
…you did the work.
Not just the prep but all the work before that too.
You did the research. You wrote your thesis. You earned and achieved your way to submission.
You took time between submission and the viva to read more, check more and do more to be sure you were talented.
Ready means you’re probably still nervous but confident anyway; polished but not perfect.
Ready means you’ll go to your viva and pass.
Any PhD candidate can be ready for their viva, and that means you can be too!
When it’s time, go get ready.
You can’t be perfect: you can be good. You can know enough and do enough to be good enough for your PhD. You can show enough in your thesis and in your viva to convince your examiners that you’re good.
By submission you must be good. I think for many candidates there is a belief gap – they don’t believe that they have become good enough. Some are not sure that they ever will be good enough.
You can’t simply wish to feel differently. Instead, reflect on what you’ve done to get this far. Analyse and list all of your achievements, big and small, that have lead you to submission and to viva preparation. Reflect on your talents and really see that you’ve done enough.
Know what you are good at – and know that you are good.
You can read books about the viva. You can ask your supervisors for their advice. You can talk to friends and colleagues about their experiences. Get lots of recommendations.
And then you have to do something.
Take all the ideas and take action. Take everything you know about your research and thesis, factor in everyone’s advice, hints and helpful suggestions and take action.
Action that helps you remember what you need.
Action that helps you reflect on what you’ve done.
Action that helps get you one step close to where you need to be for talking to your viva.
At some point more knowledge and advice isn’t enough. You have to do something to help you get ready.
You’ve not simply done something for the last couple of years: you’ve made a contribution, made something different, made something that changes what came before. Made something that matters. You don’t need a model answer or script to hand to describe what you’ve done for your examiners, but it will help you in the viva to have reflected on how your work makes a difference.
So, quite simply, what’s your thesis contribution?
Before your viva make notes, reflect on your contribution and tell others about it. Then you’ll be more confident discussing what you’ve done with your examiners when you have to defend your thesis.
That’s not you. Whatever your misgivings, self-doubts or nerves: you could only have got through a PhD to submission and be preparing for your viva if you were good enough. That’s the only way.
If you have a specific concern about your research, talk with your supervisor or a trusted colleague and explore why you’re concerned. If you’re concerned about the process of the viva then find out more, learn about regulations and general expectations to get a full picture. If you’re not sure if you’re ready then learn what it takes to be ready (it doesn’t take much).
If you’re nervous, you’re not missing something. You’re right where you’re supposed to be. Feeling nervous is a way of recognising that something is important, not that something is wrong. You’re not fake, you’re not deficient: you’re human. Do what you can to build your confidence. Count your achievements. Reflect on your talents and how they’ve grown through the PhD. Don’t look for things that could be better, look for things that are already good enough.
You’ve got this far because you are good enough. Keep going.
Repeating.
You’ll probably be doing this in the viva. Saying similar things to what you’ve said or thought before. Rehashing old arguments and reasons. That’s OK – the viva is about exploring what you did and what you can do, so there’s bound to be an element of covering old ground (for you).
You need to do this in preparation of the viva too. Reading your thesis again, checking old notes and making new ones that summarise points. Checking papers you’ve read. Rehearsing with friends or supervisors the kinds of things that you might say in the viva itself. That’s to be expected.
But you could be repeating all through your final year too. Carefully, calmly repeating to yourself: I’m doing this. I’m good enough. I succeeded when I did X. I did something important when I finished Y. This chapter is good. I’m good. I’m good enough.
Repeating to yourself that you’re good enough isn’t magic or wish-making: it’s repeating the truth. It’s a reflection of yourself. Repeat the truth of how you’ve got this far, and you’ll find the confidence you need for your viva.
(this is a message I share a lot in my work, but let me know if you need to hear it again)
Every now and then my daughter goes through periods of worrying about spider shadows in her room at night: not spiders, but things that look like the shadows of spiders in the dim half-light of her nightlight.
We’ve explained they’re not real, we’ve shone torches in the past to show there’s no arachnid casting the hazy outline she thinks she sees. But when she feels she’s spotted one, she can’t help but fixate on it – and so my wife and I have to act again, try something new.
What are the viva shadows that keep you awake? Do you worry about things that your examiners might ask you? Are you finding yourself concerned about what might happen in your viva? Or how it might feel if you’re not quite ready for anything and everything that could happen?
Viva shadows can only be resolved through action. Like my daughter’s spider shadows, you might need help to expose the reality of the worries and concerns you have. A supervisor can shine a light on what you’ve done, and show you that it really is good. A friend could tell you about their viva to reassure you that yours will be too. Your supporters can give you the space and time to get ready.
Spider shadows and viva shadows don’t go away by themselves. Find someone who can help you with your viva worries. You’re the only one who can be ready for your viva, but you don’t have to get ready alone.
All the things you didn’t do. All the things you couldn’t do. All the ideas you didn’t follow. All the questions you couldn’t answer. All the opportunities you had to turn down.
You have to let them go when you prepare for the viva.
Whatever they mean, and whatever you might do with them in the future. They might be of interest in some way, or add context to something you could need to talk about. Exploring them might be a small part of your preparations but they can’t be your focus for getting ready.
Focus on what you did. Focus on the ideas you explored. Focus on the questions you answered, the results and conclusions you found. Focus on the opportunities that lead you somewhere.
Focus on who you are, not who you might have been.
Your final few days of viva preparations might involve a lot of work. If your time has been pressured because of other responsibilities you might feel like you have no other choice.
Your final few days of getting ready could involve talking with your supervisor or friends about your work, getting that final practice for engaging with your examiners in the viva.
Those final days should hopefully not involve reading and re-reading your thesis or notes to cram information into your brain: the viva isn’t a test of memory, you don’t need to have instant recall when you respond to your examiners.
Maybe, hopefully, the final push for your viva will be low-pressure, low-stress. I hope that after years of hard work and weeks of gentle prep you could have a few days of rest, relaxation and refreshing yourself before you meet your examiners. A few days before you pass, reminding yourself that you’ve almost done it, that you must be good at what you do to have got this far.
I think that’s the real final push: pushing yourself to believe that you are good enough.