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Nathan

A Kind Process

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Whatever your situation and circumstances you can make viva prep a kind process for you.

  • Find out what helps viva prep before you get to submission and read your university’s thesis examination regulations.
  • Sketch out a rough plan of what you need to do and how you might need to do it when you submit your thesis.
  • Be generous with your planning and don’t assume that life will allow your plans to remain fixed; work out good milestones for your progress.
  • Ask for help well in advance of when you need it so that you are sure that your helpers’ schedules will allow the support you need.
  • Find time to remind yourself every day that you have got as far as you have by being good at what you do and by making a contribution to your field of research.

Step by step and bit by bit you can prepare for your viva without stress and without unwelcome pressure. You have the opportunity to make viva prep a kind process for you.

 

PS: I’ll be digging into this kind process in much more detail at my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025. This is my comprehensive live session on getting ready. There’s full details at the link of what to expect from the webinar but please get in touch if you have any questions!

Nathan

Viva Survivor Webinar, December 3rd 2025

Update

Let’s keep this announcement short and simple:

  • I’m running my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025.
  • Registration is open now for this three-hour live webinar and participants will have access to a four-week catch-up recording and other follow-up materials.
  • Viva Survivor has been delivered for the last 15 years to more than 8000 PhD candidates at universities and programmes all over the UK.
  • In that time and in over 400 sessions I’ve been continuously developing Viva Survivor to be as helpful as possible to PGRs.
  • You can register now and use code VIVASURVIVORS until midnight on Sunday 5th October 2025 to save £10 on registration.

There’s a lot more information at the link about the webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025 and if you have any questions please get in touch. Viva Survivor is one of my favourite things to do and I’m really looking forward to this session, my only remaining independent Viva Survivor of 2025.

Please take a look if you’re interested and don’t forget that the code VIVASURVIVORS will save £10 on your ticket if you register before midnight on Sunday 5th October 2025.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Nathan

The Default

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Two examiners and a candidate in a fairly anonymous university room. A facilitated discussion that takes place over two or three hours with one or two breaks. It begins with a big opening question and concludes with a short intermission while examiners check they’ve covered everything.

The above is one way to describe the default viva experience and yet every week I’d bet there is a viva taking place somewhere in the UK where:

  • The candidate needs to have three examiners;
  • The viva is finished in an hour;
  • Examiners ask in advance for a presentation to kick things off;
  • The candidate needs to bring resources with them like a screen, a prototype or something to demonstrate;
  • The viva happens over Zoom.

Of course, video vivas are much more common now than six years ago, but they aren’t thought of as part of the default option.

The default might give a sense of what your viva will be like – or what vivas are supposed to be like – but your viva will be unique.

Your research is unique. Your thesis is unique. You and your circumstances are unique.

There are regulations and expectations and a sense of what your viva will be like. There’s an idea of a default viva, but the reality of your viva. Any differences you perceive or need for your viva do not make for a situation to automatically worry about.

Nathan

Other Vivas

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Every viva is unique. All vivas follow patterns.

Some vivas follow patterns more closely than others.

A friend’s viva experience can give you a hint of what to expect but not the whole story.

Reading about someone’s feelings might help you to process your own, but only in part.

Listening to a podcast can give you some great tips but you still won’t know what you’ll be asked until you’re there with your examiners.

 

Knowing about other vivas is helpful.

Stories, experiences and regulations can feed into the pattern of expectations to help you prepare.

As ready as you can be, you won’t know the whole story until you have your viva.

 

PS: for more thoughts on how to resolve the tension between viva expectations and the fact that every viva is unique please take a look at The Expectations Issue of Viva Survivors Select, my latest curated collection of Viva Survivors posts and new viva help.

Nathan

Your Expectations

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What do you expect of yourself at your viva?

Viva expectations are often discussed in terms of length and first questions, format and examiner tone – but what do you expect from yourself? What should others expect of you?

  • A good thesis?
  • A capable candidate?
  • Lots of knowledge?
  • A little nervousness?
  • An understanding of the process?
  • At least a little confidence?

Together, you and your examiners can all reasonably expect that you’ll succeed at your viva.

Nathan

Making Vs Having

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I feel that many PhD candidates expect they will have to argue a lot in the viva.

Arguing can feel like a loaded term. There are lots of negative associations with the word argument so we need to be clear for viva expectations.

The viva is supposed to be a discussion. Maybe you need to make an argument – presenting ideas and evidence and reasoning – but there should never be a situation where you have an argument.

The idea of having an argument is persistent. Some candidates expect that they will be countering points and questions that their examiners put forward. They feel they will defend their thesis by protecting what they have done and what they have written.

At times you might need to make an argument in the viva: make a case, lay out your thoughts and reasons. Put your view across and listen for your examiners’ thoughts.

Don’t expect that you’ll have to have an argument to be heard.

Nathan

Satisfaction

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What do you need or want from your viva for it to be a satisfying experience?

  • You might want to talk about certain topics. You might want to hear your examiners’ opinions. You might want those opinions to be good!
  • You might want your viva to be a certain length or to proceed in a certain way. You might want certain questions or the absence of specific questions.
  • What do you need to know? What might you need to do? Who might you talk to in order to feel happy about your viva before you have it?

And what, of all of these wants and needs that you perceive, is within your control?

If you pin the satisfaction of your viva on things that are out of your control then you can only hope that it will be a good experience.

Think carefully about what you need and want from your viva and don’t rely on hoping that it will all go well.

 

PS: for more than hope of viva success take a look at next week’s 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva webinar on Wednesday 24th September. An hour of viva confidence plus a catch-up recording and pdf guide to getting ready. Full details at the link!

Nathan

Check The Timings

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The length of your viva doesn’t matter for the most part.

There’s an obvious exception: if the amount of time that you are in the viva could have a negative physical, mental or emotional consequence for you then you need to explore what measures could be put in place via your Graduate School or Doctoral College to make sure the viva is fair for you.

That aside, while there are trends and patterns, vivas generally take as long as they need to. Aside from being tiring if they’re long there are no greater likelihoods of negative outcomes based on viva length. Rather than try to make it be quick it’s better to just prepare and engage as well as you can.

 

Viva length is a distraction. Better timing-related questions to ask are:

  • What paperwork do I need to submit ahead of my thesis submission and when do I need to do that?
  • When after submission will I be told the date of my viva?
  • How much notice will I be given?
  • When do I need to declare if I have reasonable adjustments that need to be addressed?
  • How much time is given for different kinds of corrections?
  • If there is any more post-viva paperwork when does that have to be completed by?

One more timing-related question: when will you celebrate your viva success?

 

PS: if you’re looking for more ideas about expectations that are worth focussing on then please check out The Expectations Issue, my latest curated collection of Viva Survivors help.

Nathan

Steps To Finishing

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There have been many times in the last six months I’ve thought “I’ve finished!” when I’ve been working on an issue of Viva Survivors Select. I’ll be sure I’m done and then remember, oh wait:

  • …I have to create jpegs of all the pages for promoting it.
  • …I have to create a new page in my Payhip store for it.
  • …I have to remember to promote it!
  • …oh, and I’m not even close to any of those because I just remembered that I didn’t do a final proofread…
  • …and I still need a nice public domain image for the bottom of page 13…

 

I’m getting better at mapping out all the stages so I don’t get ahead of myself. While doing so I’m reminded that this is not so different from the closing stages of a PhD journey. There’s a lot of steps you need to check off so that you can finish your PhD.

  • Write your thesis.
  • Definitely finish your thesis!
  • Submit your thesis – having checked the regulations as well.
  • Prepare for your viva.
  • Have your viva.
  • Do your corrections.
  • Have your corrections checked.
  • Submit your final version of your thesis – having checked the regulations for this again as well.
  • Wait for graduation.
  • And probably go to graduation too!

The viva is set up as the end of the PhD, but there are lots of steps to finishing before you’re really, truly done. Don’t lost sight of the end. Don’t forget that you will get there one day.

 

PS: and one more step might be to check out The Expectations Issue, the latest issue of Viva Survivors Select, newly out this last week!

Nathan

The Tempo

Daily Post

Pause when your examiners ask a question or make a comment.

Use the time to think and get your thoughts in order.

Remember that you might not have an answer but you can always respond.

 

And also remember that pause, think and respond has a tempo that you can use for every question, not just the tough ones.

 

PS: want to find out more of what to expect at the viva? Then check out the latest issue of Viva Survivors Select, The Expectations Issue. Twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive plus two new pages of viva help exploring what the viva is like.

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