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Tag: viva confidence

Nathan

Scratch Your Itch

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If I’m ever asked to give general advice for PhD candidates I suggest that they find some way to scratch their itch:

Find a nice little side project to your main research, something that might use your skills, talents or knowledge in a slightly different way. Find something that makes you smile to work on it. Find something perhaps even unconnected to your research but which helps you to make something or do something that helps others. If all it does is help you balance out your normal work time, then it’s time well spent.

There’s a place for itch-scratching in viva prep too. Make notes on the favourite parts of your thesis. Find interesting papers to read and challenge yourself with. Have coffee with friends to talk about the last few years or perhaps have a mini-viva. Even incentivise your prep with some kind of fun reward.

All of these sorts of things have a place in helping you get ready.

What could you do? What have you been putting off? What could you use to both scratch an itch – A new project? Answering a question to keep you thinking? Presenting your work? – and help you get ready?

Nathan

Your Best

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I’m preparing the blog for the end of the year and the start of 2021. My tradition is to do a few “best of” posts between Christmas and New Year, picking out prep ideas, reflections, short posts and the like – the things that stand out in over 350 days of writing. If any posts from this year have really resonated let me know! It might be interesting to do a day sharing reader choices.

But while I get thinking about the best posts of the year, consider that for the viva you need to bring the best of you – which hopefully won’t be too difficult because you must have been bringing that to your PhD for a long time.

Your best for your viva means being ready, being thorough, being willing to engage and think, doing something to build your confidence (if you need to) and recognising that you must be talented enough by now.

You’ve been doing your best for a long time. Clearly it’s worked.

Nathan

Move Past Mistakes

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Typos catch the eye. Muddled words bring distraction. Mistakes do matter, but for the most part only because they’ll be one more thing on the list of corrections.

When you see them during your prep – because it is when rather than if for the majority of candidates – make a note in a useful way for you, then move past them. Focus on what matters more. Focus on the stuff that your examiners will really want to talk about: your contribution, your choices, your knowledge and what makes you a capable researcher.

Contribution matters more than corrections.

Nathan

Being Thankful

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Every night before we put our daughter to bed, we share what we’re thankful for as a family. We’re thankful that we’ve had three meals that day, that something funny happened, that we’re part of a nice school community, that we read a good story, that we have a family… Big or small, serious and silly, we share what has helped that day be good (or what has been good in a hard day).

We’ve done this for three or four years I think, and it helps. It helps us not take things for granted.

It’s helped a lot this year.

I think it would have been a valuable thing to be aware of as I was finishing my PhD. It was easy to put a lot of pressure on myself, to doubt that things would go well in the viva (so many doubts!!), but I had a lot to be thankful for:

  • I could have been thankful that my supervisor was patient and supportive.
  • I could have been thankful that I had a community around me that cared.
  • I could have been thankful that I knew my examiners a little, so had some idea of how they would behave.
  • I could have been thankful that my thesis went in on time.
  • I could have been thankful that I had ample time to prepare.
  • I could have been thankful that I had results I was certain of.

But for the most part I read my thesis, made notes and wondered what my examiners would say. All of the above was true, but I didn’t recognise it. Simply reflecting on “What are you thankful for?” could have helped me appreciate some of it. I probably would have still been nervous, but perhaps with a little more perspective on how I’d got to the viva, and what that might mean. I think it would have helped me.

I offer it as a thought: when it comes to your PhD, your thesis, your viva – what are you thankful for?

 

Massive thanks to Dr Pooky Knightsmith, who was my guest on the podcast a long time ago! I spotted her daily practice of being thankful some years back on Twitter, and this inspired our family bedtime routine.

Nathan

Aspects Of The Viva

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There are lots of elements to the viva:

  • There is what’s presented in your thesis, the pre-requisite to being in the viva at all.
  • There is why you did it in the first place, a subject that often comes up in some form.
  • There is who you are, and to a lesser extent who your examiners are.
  • There is why you are there and what you have planned afterwards perhaps.
  • There is the logistics – how, when, where – and the expectations – the things that tend to happen and influence how people feel about the viva.
  • There is the beginning, middle, end and afterwards.
  • There is the dance between feeling excited and feeling worried.
  • There is the preparation, the support, the help – and then just you and your examiners.

There’s a lot to the viva. Focussing only on one element means you will miss something important in all the other aspects. But trying to focus on everything means you’ll also probably miss something.

Another aspect worth mentioning: they almost always result in success for the candidate. Whatever else you need to explore or reflect on for yourself, remember the most likely outcome for all your work.

Nathan

I Do This

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I got a new logo for my business a few months ago.

new logo, Nathan Ryder, helping PGRs become PhDs

I like it. For the longest time I struggled with how to explain what I did:

  • I’m a freelance skills trainer.
  • I’m a skills trainer for PhDs.
  • I’m a skills trainer and writer.
  • No, not with maths, I did a PhD in maths but I’m not a tutor…
  • I’m a researcher-developer.
  • I’m an independent researcher-developer.
  • I’m an independent researcher-developer and writer.

No. Simply: I help PGRs become PhDs.

Simple.

What do you do? How do you define what you do with your skills, your work, your research, or with the outcomes or mission?

When you can find greater clarity in explaining it to others, you might find some interesting or surprising things for yourself. Consider that, particularly as you prepare to explain who you are and what you do at your viva.

What do you do?

Nathan

A Few Thoughts On Feeling Ready

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“Ready for the viva” doesn’t mean “not nervous about the viva”.

Ready doesn’t mean perfect in any way.

Ready and prepared aren’t quite the same thing – but they travel in the same car.

Ready for the viva means you’ve practically prepared and found some confidence for the day.

There’s always more that you could do to feel more ready, but a finite list of tasks is sufficient to get you ready.

Ready is personal. What does it mean for you?

Nathan

Little Things Help

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Sticking Post-it Notes to mark the start of chapters.

Bookmarking the webpage with your university’s viva regulations.

Underlining a typo, and then leaving it alone.

Making a list of things you know.

Reminding yourself that you are talented.

There’s lots of big pieces of work that help someone like you create a thesis. There’s lots of big things that you need to do to get ready for your viva.

Don’t forget the little things that will help too.

Nathan

Moments of Success

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Count them up to build your confidence for the viva. All along the timeline of your PhD – months of work, weeks of grinding through papers, projects and problems – nestled here and there are moments of shining success. Brief joyous periods where you figured something out, or the data said what you hoped or you found an answer!

And then you were back to work, looking for the next thing…

The work matters: it shows your determination, your skill, your talent. You stuck to it!

The success matters: it shows that you achieved something. You did it!

It’s easier to see the work than the success sometimes. Recognise them both as you prepare for your viva.

Nathan

The Most Important

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What are the most important papers or ideas that started your research journey?

What were the most important days of your PhD?

What are the most important passages in your thesis?

Where did you do the most important work of your research?

What are the most important skills you’ve developed or built on while doing your PhD?

All of these questions have subjective responses, but are all worth considering. Your work must have important stuff, and even with typos or different perspectives or things that could be changed, it’s far better to focus on what is important and good about your research, than direct attention to things that could detract.

A question with an objective response: who did the work to create a thesis from all of this important stuff?

(don’t forget the answer to that one)

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