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Nathan

The Final Break

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Vivas often conclude with a short break. Your examiners will need to have a final discussion between themselves to confirm the outcome, maybe to confer on corrections or even check what regulations says about how they pass the decision to you.

These intermissions typically range between five and twenty minutes. This is long enough for a PhD candidate to get really, really nervous: after all, there’s nothing else you can do at this point! No more writing, no more talking, now you’re just waiting for the result!

With nothing else to do in those moments, I’d suggest deciding in advance what you will do to pass the time. You don’t know in advance how long you might have, but you can decide, I’ll go refill my water bottle or I’ll just step outside and feel the breeze.

At the end of your viva, having something to do when there’s nothing else you can do is a really good idea. It’s a lot better than simply waiting.

Nathan

Slide Deck Prep

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You might need slides for your viva if your examiners ask you to prepare a presentation. It’s not a common experience, but it does happen.

If you need a presentation then prepare carefully: think about what your examiners need to know, what they might need to see and how you can best summarise what you have to get across to them. Your supervisors and possibly your friends and colleagues can be valuable in helping you to know what you have to include and what you have to do.

If you need a presentation then you would have to practise. Don’t simply copy and paste old slides together and rely on old memories. Rehearse your presentation if you’re asked to prepare one for your viva.

And if you’re not asked then you don’t need one! Simple as that.

 

Although, if you’re not asked for a presentation for your viva, putting together a slide deck could still be a helpful way to bring your thoughts together.

A few bullet points on each topic. A few images that help you remember. A logical sequence of information to organise your thinking. Something simple to scroll through and refresh your memory on the days leading up to your viva.

If you’re not asked for a presentation then you don’t need one – but you might still get help from making a slide deck. Simple as that.

Nathan

Always Ask

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As you prepare for your viva, always ask for help if you need it. Ask your supervisor for their advice or guidance, ask your friends about their vivas and ask your family and friends to support you as you get ready.

While you’re in the viva, always ask your examiners if something is unclear. Ask them to rephrase a question, ask for more information and ask for their opinion if you really want to know.

As you get ready, always ask yourself how you’re feeling. Ask and reflect on whether or not you’re moving in the right direction, ask yourself if you need to do something more than your plans and consider whether you need to do anything else to build yourself up.

And again, while you’re in the viva, always ask for a break if you need one. Ask yourself to breathe. Ask yourself to take it one question at a time. And ask yourself to be kind to yourself in those hours, if you’re nervous or stressed or uncertain.

Nathan

Viva Responsibilities

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Supervisors have a responsibility to help their candidates understand what’s expected of them.

Universities have a responsibility to ensure candidates have access to regulations and support.

Independent chairs for the viva have a responsibility to set the tone, observe and help steer things if needed.

Examiners have a responsibility to do their homework, prepare well, ask relevant questions and facilitate the discussion appropriately.

And finally candidates have a responsibility to do what they can, after submitting a good thesis, to arrive in as good a place as they can for their viva. They have a responsibility to respond to questions, to think, to be clear, to engage.

 

It may seem like you, as a candidate, have a lot to do; given everything else you have already done, it doesn’t take much to live up to your responsibilities when you get to the viva.

Nathan

Expectations Are A Compass

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Every viva is unique, but there are enough common experiences that you can help yourself be ready.

It’s like walking through the countryside and you don’t quite know where your destination is. Your travelling companion asks where you’re going and you wave your hand vaguely and say, “Somewhere over there!”

Expectations for the viva give you a compass. Knowledge about viva lengths helps you to prepare yourself for the effort. Understanding the purpose behind questions raises confidence for responding. Expectations help give you direction even if the final destination is a little uncertain.

The more you know about what to expect from the viva generally, the more you can help yourself be ready for your viva particularly.

Nathan

Expect Success

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Expect to succeed at your viva. There’s a variety of experiences, but this one is very, very common.

Expect your viva to last hours. Expect your examiners to be prepared. Expect that you will be challenged by the process. Expect that you will be asked to complete corrections as well!

The vast majority of viva candidates pass. You can only get to thesis submission after years of work, guidance and development. Your research grows because you grow. You make something good in your thesis because you yourself are good at what you do.

Expect your viva will be difficult but expect that you will succeed.

Nathan

What’s The Connection?

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It helps to read your examiners’ recent publications before your viva.

Look for connections between your work and your examiners’ research. Look for similar terminology. Check to see if they have done work like you or something a little different.

Finding connections doesn’t make the viva easier: it gives you reference points you can connect to and ideas of how you can relate your research in the discussion.

Noticing that there aren’t many or any connections doesn’t make the viva harder: you may have to explain some ideas in more depth, but also trust your examiners to do their homework to be ready to talk with you.

It’s not good or bad to find connections, it’s not good or bad to realise there are few or none. Checking, noticing and reflecting helps you to think through what you need to do next in your prep and in the viva.

Nathan

Best of Viva Survivors 2023: Reflections

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If you read through any handful of posts on Viva Survivors you’ll come across a reflection. With the work that I do supporting postgraduate researchers – and having done this for a very long time now – I like to reflect, look for patterns, look for connections and try to find interesting ways to explore what the viva is all about.

You’ll read many more reflections on the viva, viva prep and everything related in 2024 – but tomorrow look out for my favourite short posts of 2023.

Nathan

Gingerbread Houses

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My wife and daughter love decorating gingerbread houses at this time of year.

Sometimes they’ll work on two houses at the same time, one each. Their houses will be the same structurally with walls and roof baked from the same moulds. They’ll each take their own icing, sweets and chocolates to make their house look special.

A long time ago I made a present for someone at Christmas-time, by taking a gingerbread mould and making the walls out of chocolate. It looked good, but the walls were so thick I felt sorry for their teeth afterwards…

 

All of which makes me think of vivas of course! Vivas follow patterns, the same way that gingerbread houses follow the moulds they’re baked in.

The dough in a gingerbread mix might be more or less well-combined than is typical. An ingredient might be over-represented in sometime or lacking entirely. Gingerbread houses follow patterns in the same way that vivas do. They can also vary wildly based on how people engage with them – or decorate them!

And sometimes they can follow the same pattern but be very different because the ingredients are different, like the chocolate house I made.

Patterns and common expectations still create different experiences. Your viva will be unique, but not unknown.

It’s not hard to get a good sense of what to expect – and expect that your viva will be one of a kind.

My chocolate house from long ago, plus my wife's far better house from that year! A light gingerbread house decorated with white icing and smarties roof, next to a dark chocolate house made from the same mould, decorated barely with white icing, smarties and a stacked cookie chimney
My chocolate house from long ago, plus my wife’s far better house from that year!
Nathan

Find Out More

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A lot of viva worries come from not knowing what to expect – so find out more.

Read the regulations. Ask your supervisors. Talk to friends, talk to post-docs, talk to people who have been down the path to the viva before and succeeded.

Check online. Read a blog or two. Listen to a couple of podcasts. Explore the many resources produced by your institution and others.

It’s not wrong to be worried about the viva. There’s work to do and academic culture makes the viva seem a bit daunting.

There’s a little mystery in the process and what to expect, but a wealth of information in so many places that can help take away any worries you have – or at the very least help you to figure out what you can do to beat those worries back.

If you feel worried about the viva, go find out more.

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