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Tag: viva confidence

Nathan

Facing Fears

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If you’re not just worried about your viva but afraid, to the point where it is having an impact, you need to stop and find help.

The right person could be your supervisor, a colleague, a friend or family member. You have to pass your viva on the day by yourself, but you don’t have to prepare for it alone. If you feel fear before your viva it won’t be removed by simply sweeping it to one side.

Tell someone who could help. Get them to gently help you see what the issue is. Make small steps towards resolving it. For example, being worried about answering questions won’t be overcome by jumping straight into a mock viva – a short, sharp shock is not what this doctor prescribes! But one question is a start. Maybe even writing something down rather than speaking first.

If you’re facing fear: Who could help? What steps could help? And when will you start to make them?

Nathan

A Careful Candidate

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I think this is the overall mindset I’m trying to encourage when I try to help people get ready for their viva.

Careful doesn’t mean cautious or pessimistic. Careful doesn’t mean trying to game the process or gain an advantage. Careful, in this sense, means someone taking their time to think things through – only a little – and trying not to leave themselves open to errors that could have been avoided.

For example, if you want to be a careful PhD candidate for your viva you could:

  • Discuss possible examiners with your supervisor and say what you would look for.
  • Plot out the weeks when you’re likely to be preparing for your viva to get a sense of what time you might have.
  • Decide on what you will wear for the viva to help you feel your best self.
  • Make opportunities to present and discuss your work to gain confidence.
  • Read your examiners’ work, both to show a little respect and to get a sense of their perspective.
  • Read the regulations for your institution and ask about anything that is unclear.
  • Ask recent graduates about their experiences to help set your expectations.

Be careful – full of care – to respect the moments you have coming up in the viva. Approach the viva confidently, having understood what it’s about, and what you can do to do it well.

Nathan

Option Two

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As a PhD candidate, I think you have two main strategies to manage how you feel about your viva.

Option One is to try and squash down any nerves that you feel. Take any worries and anxieties and just push them down, lock them away and avoid them at all. Don’t engage. I’ve seen viva success follow from this approach, but at a cost to candidates’ state of mind. I wouldn’t advise following Option One.

Option Two is to work to boost your confidence. Recognise your ability, work to prepare for the viva, notice your talent and where it comes from. Doing this will far outweigh any nervousness you feel.

Nervousness and confidence are not polar opposites – they’re different things all together. You can be nervous about the viva, because you recognise that it matters, yet confident in your success. You only have so much energy and effort available. Rather than focus on squashing away nerves, work to boost your confidence. Confidence will put your anxieties into perspective.

Option One: squash nerves.

Option Two: boost confidence.

Go with Option Two.

Nathan

By The Numbers

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How many papers have you read?

How many days did you show up to work?

How many times did you learn something?

How many hours did you put into your preparation?

How many opportunities did you take to present your work?

How many times have you had a good conversation about research?

How many times have you responded to tricky questions?

How often have you solved tricky problems?

How many times did you fail, but then later succeed?

How many times did you persevere when thing were tough?

How many hours have you invested into your PhD, into becoming good at what you do?

There’s no neat formula that takes all these numbers together to give you a confidence score or a grade. But taken together they must help you see you’re moving towards success.

What numbers help you feel confident for your viva?

Nathan

Signposting

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What can you do to keep reinforcing and reminding yourself about your talent? While viva preparation has to build on what you know, what you can do and how well you can respond in the viva, one key aspect of this preparation is reminding yourself that you are good.

Because you must be. You must be talented to have got as far as you have with your research.

I’m a fan of putting up signs. Signs are useful for the newcomer – giving directions, setting out expectations – but they’re also really useful for the experienced to reinforce culture or knowledge, or simply to remind and inspire.

I have a Post-it Note on my office wall that was given to me anonymously after a workshop years ago that makes me smile every time I see it:

It helps to have that reminder. I have a page full of prompts for blog posts on the wall, despite having a lot of experience now at writing regularly. An index card next to my desk asks me, “What’s the most important thing I can do today that would make tomorrow better?”

What signs could you put up around your workspace as you get closer to your viva?

Key points to remember about your research? Details about examiners you don’t want to forget? Or maybe simple things to help you feel better and remember that you’re good at what you do?

At the end of 2019 my wife put this lovely piece of art up on the landing in our house:

It’s been very useful, particularly in the last six months, to be walking past this every day 🙂

What signs do you need? Where will you put them? What are they for?

Nathan

Beginner and Expert

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You’ve been a beginner with your research. How well do you remember that?

  • What was it like to know a lot less than now?
  • What did you struggle with?
  • What were the breakthrough moments for you?

It’s important to think back to being a beginner – by contrast you will see the progress you have made since then.

Now you’re an expert. You’ll know that means you don’t know everything – perhaps at times you’re awkwardly, painfully aware of that.

That’s fine for your viva: expert as you are, you’re not expected to know everything.

You’ve been a beginner, you are an expert. You don’t know everything, but you know enough.

And you’re good enough.

Nathan

The Viva Is…?

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…just one day, after lots of days.

…important, for now.

…stressful for some, for many reasons.

…survivable for many more reasons!

…unique, but not unknowable.

…something you can prepare for.

…something you could be challenged by.

…ultimately, a life event you might find difficult, or tricky, or simple, or an anticlimax.

 

The viva is personal. Deeply personal. There’s lots to explore, lots to say about it, lots of help to find for it, lots you can do to be ready for it.

The starting point – one you might have to return to several times – is simply to ask yourself, “What is the viva to me?”

Nathan

Find Three

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Find three things that can help you feel ready on viva day.

Maybe your thesis, a notebook and a bottle of water.

Or a prompt card with keywords, your choice of clothes and a cup of coffee.

Perhaps your good day socks, a picture of your family and the most recent paper by your external.

Or your three things could be a mock viva, a lucky charm and a phone call to a friend.

More generally, find things to help you feel ready by considering work to help you prepare, things that help you feel confident and things that remind you of who are you (and what you can do).

Nathan

Nurture, Cultivate

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A plant won’t grow well if you simply throw water on it and hope the sun shines.

You have to take care of the soil. You have to keep a proactive eye out for pests. You have to know the right time of day to water it. If you want to really help, you might even consider the circumstances of the soil and time of year when you’re planting it.

If survive is a good verb for the viva, maybe nurture is a good verb for viva prep – or cultivate.

You can’t just cram your thesis into your brain the day before your viva. It makes a difference when you read, when you make notes, what questions you reflect on, what the situation is like around you.

So what can you do to make the most of your preparations? How can you cultivate a good set of circumstances?

Nathan

Accumulated Awesomeness

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This is what you take to the viva: a treasure chest you can open to respond to questions, think about your field and share what you know about your research. A hoard you have stored up day by day over the life of your PhD. You didn’t simply find it. You didn’t follow a map and it was waiting for you.

You earned what you’ve got: countless gold coins of accumulated awesomeness. Super-valuable and yours to use in the viva as you need to.

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