Daily viva help for PhDs
…by being lucky.
…without talent.
…without results.
…without challenges along the way.
…without making difficult decisions.
…without answering questions.
…alone.
…without hard work.
…if you haven’t sacrificed something along the way.
…if you don’t have a significant, original contribution.
…unless you’ve survived for a long time.
…unless you’re good.
Keep going.
I couldn’t sleep the night before my viva because:
These are common problems for PhD candidates, and can be really stressing, though thankfully I’ve not met many people who’ve had insomnia the night before their viva!
I didn’t know why I was lying awake at the time, I wouldn’t have known what to do had I realised why I couldn’t sleep, but both problems have solutions.
The first is solved simply by asking and exploring. Check regulations, talk with academics about their approaches as examiners, talk with graduates about their experiences. Building a set of expectations for the viva is useful to shape how you think about it. Generally, vivas are fine, but you need to know more about them to really believe it.
The second problem has solutions, but they are not so quick. Building self-confidence takes time, but the rewards for time spent dramatically outweigh the investment. Of course, in preparation for your viva spend time reading your thesis, making notes, reading papers, having a mock viva and so on. All of these are necessary and can help with confidence. But what else will you do to confirm to yourself that you are an excellent researcher? That you are capable and accomplished? That you have done the work and have the talent to be at your viva?
It takes longer to solve the confidence problem, but every step you take will help.
You have to do this all the time for your viva.
Take the first step to the viva when you submit.
Take the first step with your prep by sitting down and getting your thesis out again; or by asking for help (plenty of people can help but you have to ask for their support).
If you find a mistake – more than a typo – you have to take the first step, however tricky or uncomfortable, to figuring out what makes it right.
If you want a mock viva, you probably have to email and ask when your supervisor might be free.
If, in the viva, you are stumped by a question, you have to take the first step to responding to it. That could be awkward, you might feel pressured, but you have to do it.
All of which is a long way of saying, that for all the puzzles, problems and challenges you find with your viva, you have to take the first step to resolving them.
There’s no-one else to do it, but also no-one else who could do it.
So take the first step.
(and if you don’t feel you’ve found any puzzles, problems or challenges, take the first step towards finding some, because they’re there…)
Tread carefully when preparing for your viva, in case you find yourself tumbling down a rabbit hole.
You get the idea. There’s always more things you could do to get ready for the viva. And there’s so much you can do to help yourself that it can be tempting to do more and more. If you start your prep without a plan but just a goal (“get ready!”) then you can just keep going and going until all you can think about is doing more, and wondering have you done enough?
So start with some limits. A to-do list, finite and bounded. This, this and this, and no more. Decide before you turn to page 1 of your thesis, what are the things you have to get done. You can add to the list of course, but you have to have a good reason.
Don’t tumble down a prep rabbit hole! Tread carefully when you make your plans.
I had a great time last week sharing Viva Survivors: Getting Creative with PhD candidates dotted all around the UK (and the world!). It was really fun to take my creative prep ideas and see them connect: it was just lovely, as was the opportunity to respond to questions in real time. Bar the odd Zoom-related technical hitch it all worked wonderfully.
Just attended an online session from @VivaSurvivors on preparing for your #viva. Absolutely brilliant! Loads of useful tips, presented in an easy way to follow. Creative & fun approaches to prep. Thank you! #phdchat #KeepGoing pic.twitter.com/xhVaF7rpUQ
— Natasha Clarke (@psychinthecity_) April 8, 2020
I’ll be sharing Viva Survivors: Getting Creative again in the future, but next I’ll be sharing another new free 1-hour session, Viva Survivors: 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva on April 22nd 2020. This is for PhD candidates who have their viva coming up and want to know why it’s going to be fine. Lots of people tell PhD candidates not to worry about the viva – relax, don’t stress, it’ll all be fine – sentiments which don’t always help because they often miss an important Why.
For some candidates, one thing – the right thing – can be enough to make the difference and help them feel certain about their viva. I have seven reasons to share next Wednesday, and my aim is to convince anyone coming that they will be fine for their viva. They may have work to do, things to check or prep to complete, but when the time comes, they can be ready. They will pass.
Like last week’s session, I want to run this again, but don’t have firm plans for now. If you want to come to Viva Survivors: 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva then book now! Full details are at the link: the session is free, but you have to register to attend. It’s open to 60 participants like the last session – which was fully booked – and at the time of writing 40% of places have gone. Simply click through to sign-up; all of the joining instructions will follow on after that.
Thanks for reading this. If it sounds like it might help you, then please register for a spot on the session. Hope to see you there.
Nathan
Actually, it’s impossible.
Trying to be perfect for your viva will only cause you pain, stress, worry and other feelings of falling short.
Perfection will always be ten steps ahead of you, but ready can be right by your side.
Aim for being prepared: perhaps a little nervous still, but confident, fully capable of successfully meeting with your examiners and doing what you need to.
Part of the viva process is your examiners exploring your significant, original contribution. They will want to discuss your work with you, to find out more about it, to see what it means, to see how it applies, maybe find the edges or exceptions. Whatever their questions though, it’s all about what you did.
And what you did was make a difference.
You’ve changed what was before and made something new.
There’s a time and a place for summaries and defining what you did. Start with appreciating first that you did it. You made a difference. Through your effort, your learning, you skill and your time. You made a difference. You did it. Something exists because of you. Remember that before you do anything else for your viva.
You made a difference.
You can write a good thesis.
You can make yourself prepared for your viva.
You can know what to expect from your examiners.
You can know what to expect from the viva.
You can learn about remote vivas, if that’s likely to be the scenario for your viva.
You can build your confidence to balance out your worries.
You can’t be perfect, but you can do your best.
You can be good enough for your viva.
I think it’s you.
Your examiners have your thesis already. It’s possible they have questions about this or that, but if you’ve got to submission and the viva your work must be good enough. Perhaps a detail isn’t quite right, or a paragraph could be made clearer, but you don’t get to submission by accident.
But do you believe that? Where are your doubts when it comes to the viva? What do you need to convince yourself of? How could you do it?
You need to discuss your research with your examiners. You need to explain your thesis and your decisions to them. You might have to defend those decisions in some cases, adding additional support to your arguments and ideas.
But you need to convince yourself: you are the right person for this. You are talented. You are good enough.
You are.
Virtual vivas, Skype vivas, Zoom vivas – I see lots of names being used for the same thing. The current situation in the world means some vivas will be delayed, and others will necessarily happen online. Remote vivas are needed, a sudden change in procedure, and so naturally that creates a space for worry and concern.
Thankfully, while previously rare, remote vivas aren’t new. There are people who can help you understand what might be ahead if your viva is in the near future.
Find academics and ask them about what doing a remote viva is like, what they might have to take into account. Ask PhD graduates who have had their viva over video, and see what that felt like. Set your expectations, and check if there is anything special you might need to prepare for. See if there was anything that surprised them – that perhaps now doesn’t have to surprise you!
A few weeks ago, when universities started closing their doors, I asked for help on Twitter. I knew a little about remote vivas, but it was more on the technical help side – check the software beforehand, check regulations, and so on. Thanks to the generous contributions of many Twitter users I was able to curate a thread of help starting here:
Remote vivas, a thread 😃 #phdchat
Many PhD candidates are probably concerned about what their viva might look like over Skype or Zoom.
I asked for help yesterday – https://t.co/oPhNHPscp9 – and got a wealth of support! Many thanks to everyone who shared!
(1/13)
— Viva Survivors (@VivaSurvivors) March 18, 2020
There are lots of valuable points here! If your viva is likely to be sometime in 2020, it’s probably worth taking a look.
By the end of the year, perhaps, universities will be opening their doors again. But it won’t hurt you to find out a little more. It’s always been useful for candidates to check expectations; it’s hard to prepare and feel confident if you don’t have a handle on what’s ahead.
Now particularly, when the backdrop of the world is a little more scary and uncertain, it’s important to bring your viva into focus. See what it might be like, as clearly as you can, and you can make your viva a little less scary and uncertain.