Daily viva help for PhDs
When you know who your examiners will be, start your preparations for meeting them by reflecting on three questions:
Reflect and make notes on who your examiners are and what they do, then think about what you need to do to get ready for them.
It’s true that binary questions – yes or no, true or false, A or B – could feature in a viva as a means of simply qualifying details.
It’s a false expectation to think binary questions are the dominant format of the viva though.
The viva is a discussion, not a quiz. Engaging well at yours means sharing responses to questions, not merely providing short answers.
Whatever you feel about your viva, reflect and think about what that means you have to do.
And what if you feel confident? Well, what can you do to build on that and continue to feel confident for your viva?
How you feel about your viva matters – but then you have to do something.
How do you feel? What do you need to do?
Your viva is a lot of work, both in prep and on the day.
Your viva is one day at the end of a thousand or so.
Your viva is likely to be a difficult but not insurmountable challenge.
Your viva is an event that you can feel nervous and confident for.
Your viva is yours and yours alone, unique compared to every other that’s gone before.
Your viva is similar to many other vivas that have happened (and will happen in the future).
Your viva is not the end of the PhD, but you’re getting close.
For over a decade Viva Survivors has been geared towards the PhD viva and helping people get ready, but PhD candidates aren’t the only postgraduate researchers who have a viva.
What if you’re doing an EngD or an EdD? Or an MPhil? Or an MScR? Or you’re researching towards another collection of letters?
How do the hundreds of thousands of words on Viva Survivors (and the resources, and the podcast archive) apply when you’re not doing a PhD viva? What changes? What stays the same?
I don’t know – or at least, I don’t know everything.
The basic principles of viva prep hold. The ideas of getting ready and building confidence based on your success and development hold.
But the regulations will differ, at least a little. Viva expectations might differ because the general experience of an MScR viva, for example, might not be quite the same as a PhD viva.
But still there is help out there and on Viva Survivors.
Whatever your research degree, read the regulations for your institution. Whatever you’re working towards, talk to people who have gone on the journey before you and ask them questions about what their viva was like. Take time to think about what you need to do to prepare, plan your prep and then get it done.
Whatever you do, ask for help. Whatever you do, take time to get ready. Whatever you do, share what’s helped with others when you’re done.
Then go on and do something even better, because your research degree is only one step in the journey.
If you believe your examiners will be fair with their questions then you’ll be more likely to try to engage with them, rather than suspect a trap or harsh comment.
If you believe you can get prepared during the submission period then you’ll be more likely to feel ready when the time comes.
If you believe the mostly positive stories about viva experiences that you hear and read then you’re going to act as though your viva will be a mostly positive occasion too.
What have you heard about the viva? What do you believe about it? And how does that help you (or not)?
Every building has multiple blueprints or plans. On one plan are the walls, but another diagram shows where pipes and cables go.
If you compare building plans for different buildings you’ll notice similarities and differences, but look closer and you’ll see common structures.
Certainties for what you would find.
Vivas are based on regulations, expectations and norms.
All three give the viva structure. Every viva is unique because every thesis and candidate are unique but vivas tend towards patterns of experience.
You can make predictions and have expectations of what your viva will be like. You’ll have to wait until viva day to know exactly what it’s like.
Every viva is unique – but that doesn’t make yours a big unknown.
Two words that really summarise what you need to do in the viva.
Respond: you don’t have to have an answer for every question. You may or may not have an idea or opinion that’s fully formed. The viva is a discussion, not an interview, not a quiz. You respond to questions, offering what you can…
Well: …and it has to be your best thinking in that moment. Whatever you remember, know or can piece together needs to be shared clearly. You need to pause and think about what your examiners are really asking, so that you can meet the expectations of their question or comment.
Respond well. Pause, think, speak.
I have to turn off the captions for myself when I deliver a webinar.
It might help some participants to see an AI-generated track of my words, but I can’t see them on my screen. For the most part they’re a reasonable transcript of what I’m saying; whenever I see the wrong thing transcribed in the moment it trips me up, it breaks my flow and I feel I have to do something to set it right.
But I can’t, not in that moment. Because I have something more important to do. If someone else doesn’t understand and needs to, they can ask, but I have to keep my focus on presenting.
And all of this is not all that different from the situations faced by PhD candidates in the viva and during their preparation.
If you find typos, just make a note of them. Where are they? What’s the correction?
If you find something unclear, make a note. What’s the problem? How could you make it clear?
Once you’ve made your notes, move on. Read some more, make some more notes. On to the next prep.
In the viva, acknowledge the mistake, correct it simply if you need to and then move on to the next question or next part of the discussion. There’s more important things to do than dwell on mistakes in the viva.
What are the best parts of your work?
What are you most proud of?
What was a challenge that you overcame?
And what do you like to share with others about your research?
The viva is not a platform for you to simply proclaim the greatness of your research and writing, but it helps to go there with ideas of what really matters. Reflecting on your research before the viva helps to boost your confidence for talking about it with your examiners.
Your examiners don’t expect you to have all the answers. They don’t want you to read from a script or parrot sentences you’ve learned. They want to hear your most considered thoughts.
Take a little time in your viva preparations to consider what your work means and what you can share about it. What do you want to emphasise to your examiners? What matters?