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Nathan

Viva Survivors Select 02

Update

It’s really lovely to announce the second issue of Viva Survivors Select!

The Uncertainty Issue is the second curated collection taken from the Viva Survivors daily blog archives. I’m really happy to be working on this new ongoing project. I hope that it might be a great resource for candidates who need some really considered viva support.

Background: a wooden tabletop has a series of dominoes in the shape of a question mark. The dominoes are captured mid-fall. Foreground, two text-boxes, middle and bottom. Middle: "Viva Survivors Select 02, The Uncertainty Issue, May 2025" Bottom: "Nathan Ryder"

In this second issue I wanted to explore where the most frequently asked questions about the viva come from. As someone who has been supporting PhD candidates with their viva for fifteen years now, it’s my belief that a lot of questions and worries stem from the uncertainty about the viva – whether that’s real or only perceived by the candidate.

So The Uncertainty Issue collects twenty posts to help with common concerns: practical advice, encouragement and reflections to support getting ready despite uncertainty.

I like the post on the page below, which was originally published on the blog in January 2019. People often ask about what to wear out of a desire to fit in I think, but really it’s an opportunity to boost one’s confidence.

Page 7 of Viva Survivors Select 02; top half of the page has the text of a blog post entitled "What To Wear". Lower half has a black and white line drawing of a figure in armour.

Plus I really like that piece of art I found on the public domain image site Pixabay! You’ll find nineteen more posts, more fun public domain art and two new pages of original writing in Viva Survivors Select 02.

If you like the blog, want more help and want to support what I do then please take a look and consider buying The Uncertainty Issue – you might also want to take a look at last month’s issue too!

Thank you for reading, do pass this on to anyone who you think will find Viva Survivors Select 02 helpful – and look out for news about Viva Survivors Select 03, coming in mid-June! I’m already hard at work and there’s a sneak peek on the back cover of this month’s issue.

Nathan

What Will You Do?

Daily Post

Hypothetical situations can be inherently stressful. We don’t like to think about them because we know that they’re not real right now – but know that they could be.

For example:

  • What will you do if you don’t get all of the results you are hoping for?
  • What will you do if you find a problem in your thesis after submission?
  • What will you do if you feel short on time and your viva is very soon?
  • What will you do if you’re in the viva and your examiner asks a question that feels instantly tough?

Whenever you’re faced with a situation like one of these you might feel overwhelmed or worried or confused. That’s a typical human response to a potentially stressful situation.

Whatever you feel you then have to decide: what will you do?

In some ways, the real point is that you can decide. You feel whatever you feel and then you can do something. You can choose in a moment of stress and uncertainty just as you have through all of the other moments of your PhD journey.

You can do something. There is always something you can do.

Nathan

Viva Survivor, June 25th 2025

Event, Update

Every day I share helpful thoughts through the Viva Survivors blog.

There’s a lot of help in the archives but it could take a long time to put together a full picture of what to expect and what to do by reading the last 2900 posts!

If you want a good idea of what to expect, what to do, how to get ready and how to build confidence then take a look at my upcoming Viva Survivor session on Wednesday 25th June 2025. For three hours I’ll be sharing what vivas are really like, what effective viva preparation can look like and how someone can engage well with their examiners.

For three hours on Zoom you’ll get direct help from me through a live session that I have shared with over 8000 PhD candidates. I have a full plan, plenty of time to take questions from attendees, great follow-up resources and a catch-up recording in case anyone can’t stay for the whole time. I love sharing this session – so much so that I’ve delivered it over 400 times for universities and doctoral training groups all over the UK!

“The session last week was so, so helpful. I really appreciated the practical guidance, which made so much sense and feels do-able and will help my confidence going into the viva. It helped that your manner in the training was calm, clear, concise, and full of empathy and understanding.” – UCLAN PhD Candidate, December 2024

I hope that you’ll take a look at the registration page if you are looking for viva help. There are more details there of what to expect from the session. If you have any questions please get in touch – and do please pass on information of the session to anyone who might be looking for viva help.

One last time: Viva Survivor session on Wednesday 25th June 2025!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Nathan

Lots Of Reasons

Daily Post

There are lots of reasons why a PhD candidate might not get to submission.

When I did my PhD I knew someone who didn’t get on with their supervisor and he left, thankfully to do his PhD elsewhere. Sometimes a person’s funding isn’t secure and they aren’t able to continue. Sometimes people start a PhD and it’s only through doing the work that they realise it’s not what they want to do, so they stop.

For these and many more reasons, some people who start a PhD journey don’t work through to submission and the viva.

 

There are also lots of reasons why PhD candidates who get to submission go on to succeed at the viva.

They did the work. They have made a contribution to knowledge. They are knowledgeable. They are a capable researcher in their discipline. They learn what to expect from the viva process. They do the necessary work to get ready for their viva.

For these and many, many more reasons, PhD candidates who work to submission then go on to pass their viva.

Nathan

The Little Lights

Daily Post

I recently bought a desk lamp to illuminate my work space. It’s sleek and energy efficient and rather curiously doesn’t use a single bulb.

Instead it has a thin strip of LEDs. One of these little LEDs alone wouldn’t be very much light to see by, but together they make everything bright. Each light plays a part. Together they work to create the desired effect.

This is helpful to remember for viva prep and the viva.

Every page in your thesis needs to do something good, but you can’t pass your viva based on a single page. It’s what they are together that matters. You might have a big result in your thesis but that result wasn’t achieved in isolation.

Look for the little lights in your research, your thesis and your preparations. Together they create a bright way forward for your viva.

Nathan

Add It Up

Daily Post

All the papers and books you read.

All the hours on all the days you showed up and worked.

All the words on all the pages that you wrote, rewrote, proof-read and wrote again.

All the meetings with your supervisor.

All the new things you found and created.

All the ideas that weren’t there before.

You bring all of that together and it means a lot. There’s always more or different things to do. There are always questions to be asked at the viva. But if you add up everything you did you can be sure that you have a contribution.

And you can be reminded that that contribution exists because of you.

Nathan

The Closed Door

Daily Post

The viva typically takes place in a small room with a small team of examiners, one person and their thesis and their history – and a closed door that screens it all off from the outside world.

There are lots of negative perceptions about what happens at vivas. The perceived attitudes of examiners, the nature of questions, the unlikely-but-possible negative outcomes – these all combine and make many candidates feel down on the whole experience.

All of this is perception though: if you ask PhD graduates typically they’ll describe a challenge but one that’s positive. Maybe tiring, but fair. Difficult but doable.

It’s hard to change the overall perception of the viva in academic culture, but you can steer yourself if it seems intimidating to you. Focus on regulations and expectations. Yes there’s a closed door and two examiners and a challenge but what can you focus on?

You’ll be asked a lot of questions but remember: you did the work.

The door is closed here and now perhaps, but you have years of work, weeks of prep and a few hours to show what you know. The closed door doesn’t mean that you’re closed off.

Nathan

Compromises, Choices, Reasons

Daily Post

I’ve very rarely met PhD candidates who describe their research journey as completely smooth.

I’ve also, thankfully, very rarely met candidates who say that it was a total nightmare!

Most PhD candidates made plans, worked hard and did enough.

Sometimes plans worked out well. Sometimes their plans had to change for reasons that were not obvious beforehand or circumstances that changed suddenly. Perhaps a candidate couldn’t do all of the research they wanted. Perhaps the questions or processes had to change. Perhaps they had to do something else entirely.

 

I’ve seen candidates approaching their viva worry because they frame changes or shifts as compromises. “I wanted X but I had to do Y.” “This could have been great but that wasn’t all it could have been.”

But compromises are still chosen and choices are made for reasons. Examiners might want to unpick circumstances and choices at the viva, so it helps to review those reasons as you get ready.

A better reason for reviewing your choices though is that they help you to remember that you did the work. You were not always in control of the situation but being a clever and capable researcher you made a reasoned choice.

Unpick the whys to help explain your PhD journey to your examiners.

Unpick the whys to help you explore your capability and build your confidence.

Nathan

What Did You Improve?

Daily Post

There’s no one-size-fits-all way to define the value of a contribution to research. Expectations vary a lot between disciplines but perhaps one universal question could simply be “what did you improve?”

Do we know something new now? Do we know something more? What is clearer? What new questions do we know to explore?

A starting point to a response might be to reflect on the improvements in you: now more learned, more capable and more thoughtful.

 

PS: I share another helpful tool to help explore thesis contributions in the first issue of Viva Survivors Select – my curated zine drawing from the daily blog archive. As well as twenty posts from the past I share original writing, including a reflective summary process for breaking down thesis chapters. Check out the issue here.

Nathan

Why It Matters

Daily Post

Why does your research matter? If you can find a good way to explain that to others then you’ll start to feel ready for your viva.

Why does your PhD matter to you? If you can find a good way to explain that to yourself then you’ll start to feel motivated for your viva.

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