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Tag: viva expectations

Nathan

Only

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I’ll be fine in the viva so long as I’m not asked about Chapter 4…

I can only talk about what I did, I don’t want to talk about hypotheticals…

I’m happy to talk to my examiners but don’t want them to challenge my conclusions…

PhD candidates have told me these things and similar for years. They’re reasonable things to think. They come from a place of concern about whether or not they can manage the task that’s ahead of them. There’s nothing irrational about wanting to do well.

But these thoughts don’t help.

A candidate has no control over what examiners will ask. You might have ideas or hopes of what they will want to talk about in the viva, but you won’t know until you get there.

Focus on being ready to talk whatever the question. Your only job in the viva is to engage with each comment and question as needed.

That’s it.

Hold on to that idea, prepare to be a full participant in the discussion, and you’ll find a far more useful position than holding on to worries and concerns.

Nathan

Good Practice

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Academics have a sense of what is right when they come to examine a thesis. This is underpinned by regulations but also informed by what they believe is the right way to do things. These beliefs are a mix of their previous experiences and those of friends and colleagues. This then leads to common situations like:

  • Vivas beginning with simple opening questions;
  • Vivas structured around the flow of information in the thesis;
  • The length of a viva being typically in the two to three hour range.

Good practice builds in communities. Colleagues in a department talk now and then about the vivas they have been part of and this also produces “ways of doing things”. This leads to departments that regularly ask for prepared presentations to begin a viva or let a candidate know to expect a certain length.

Good practice isn’t good as opposed to bad! It helps to know that there is a history, a process and a way of doing things that helps the viva – and helps the candidate.

The viva is not a great unknown and so can be prepared for.

Nathan

Not Exclusive

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Your thesis is not written only to pass the viva, or only to live up to your examiners’ expectations. That’s worth keeping in mind as you write it, but also as you prepare for your viva.

To share your contribution you have to write it for whatever audience you imagine will be interested and receptive to your research. To share that with your examiners in the viva, you might have to know a little about them and what they do. You might need to prepare and think about the language you would use to explain something in a discussion – as compared to how you might express it on a page.

Remember that most candidates are asked to complete corrections of some kind: while that request will come from your examiners it is never simply to satisfy them. They are asking either because they have found simple mistakes that can be amended simply, or because they think a change is needed to help your thesis be the best it can be now that it is going to be finished.

Your thesis will be studied, examined, questioned and probably changed by your examiners. But it’s not for them – at least, not exclusively.

Nathan

An Absence Of Publications

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An infrequent-but-troubling question at viva help seminars is “What will my examiners think if I don’t have any publications by the time I have my viva?”

Or worse, “Can my examiners fail me if I don’t have any publications?”

Examiners might ask or might know if you don’t have any publications. They could ask you why not, and there could be many reasons you could offer:

  • I’ve been focussed first on finishing my thesis, but have plans to publish…
  • I’m exploring publishing a monograph after I’ve completed my PhD…
  • I don’t want to publish papers based on my PhD because…

An examiner can have opinions and expectations on what is the right way to do things. Everyone’s allowed an opinion, but in the viva an absence of publications cannot count against a candidate. The thesis and the work done to produce that is being evaluated.

Other publications could be seen as a good thing, but the absence of them can’t be taken as a negative.

More than anything, prior publications are a confidence boost for a candidate. If you have some then you have a little more support for feeling that things will go well because others have accepted your work.

But if you don’t have publications, it’s likely that you’ve invested your time in other ways – not bad, just different – and have taken other steps to show yourself (and your examiners) that you are a capable researcher.

You don’t need publication to pass your viva.

Nathan

A Simple Introduction To The Viva

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The viva is an oral exam at the end of your PhD. Typically two examiners study your thesis and prepare for a discussion with you centred on your work and ability as a researcher.

You’ll have plenty of time to prepare. Vivas happen to others all the time, so there’s lots you can learn about the process. This helps you prepare too.

Through all of this you can be ready for the time you’ll spend talking with your examiners. Viva candidates most commonly pass their viva.

You will too.

Nathan

Expectations, Not Guarantees

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Vivas aren’t a great big unknown. There are patterns of experience: for example, they tend to be two to three hours in duration, often begin with similar opening questions and typically result in minor corrections.

Yours will be unique though. It will probably fall within a range of expectations. It won’t be totally unknown or unanticipated, but you won’t know what will differ or how it will differ until you experience it.

Your viva will be unique, not unknown. You have to balance what you learn about viva experiences with the knowledge that yours won’t be quite the same. You can have reasonable expectations, but no guarantees of what yours will be like exactly.

Listen to stories, read the regulations and build up an idea of what a viva is like. Prepare for the general event. You don’t have to be prepared to hit a single target: you can be ready for whatever presents itself when you meet your examiners.

Nathan

The Last Time

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Maybe your viva is the full stop on your research. Maybe it’s the final occasion where you will really have a conversation about what you’ve done.

That’s OK: a PhD is a big, important thing but it can be seen as a stepping stone. Maybe a stepping stone to a career in academia or perhaps a stepping stone to cross the river out of research and into something else.

Even if you have plans to continue the viva really is the last big challenge of your PhD journey. Corrections take time, but they’re not generally a big deal. This is it. This is the last time before you move on to whatever you’ll do next.

So make it count.

This last hurrah, the last time to share your work, defend your ideas, expand on the contribution you’ve made and what it really means to you. Don’t rush it, don’t put pressure on yourself. Go and make it great.

Nathan

Five Questions About Your Examiners

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When you’re certain of who your examiners will be for your viva, ask five questions about them.

  1. Have you cited either of them in your thesis?
  2. What do you know of your internal’s recent publications?
  3. What do you know of your external’s recent publications?
  4. How well do you know them by reputation?
  5. Given their interests and research, what do you think they might want to explore from your thesis in the viva?

Of course, these questions invite other questions. If you’ve cited them, how have you cited them? What connections exist between your work and theirs? If you read their recent papers, what is familiar to you? What might you need to know more of?

And so on, and so on – but you don’t need to exhaustively check your examiners. Knowing a little about them helps you to engage with them in the viva.

Ask yourself a few questions about who they are, what they do and what all that means. That’s enough.

Nathan

That’s Just What Happens

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If you open a cafe then you can expect occasional customers who want to make changes to what’s on the menu. They’ll ask for toast instead of bread, or wonder if you can take the tomatoes out of the salad.

That’s just what happens.

If you live near a primary school then you’ll come to expect that twice a day a lot of children and their adults will be moving through the area. Twice a day there will be more street noise and the roads will be more difficult to cross.

That’s just what happens.

And if you pursue a PhD, stay determined through years of work and produce a thesis, then you can expect that a couple of academics are going to want to talk about.

You could reasonably expect that, at your viva, you will get questions about what you did. Questions on anything and everything because your work is important. Your research makes a difference and that – among many other things – is interesting to the two people who will take on the role of your examiners.

More than anything, questions and discussion are what you can expect from your viva. That’s just what happens.

Nathan

Doing More

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At the viva you’re doing more to tell your examiners about what you’ve done, how you did it and who you are. You’ve set that out in your thesis but now they need more from you.

They need you to do more to clarify what you did.

They need you to do more to explain what it means.

They might need you to do more to convince them of an opinion you hold.

They can ask you to do more to tell the story of why your research makes a contribution.

Whatever they need you to do, however, it’s more of what you’ve already done. Doing more is showing your knowledge, your ability, your thinking and all-round capability as a researcher.

It’s only a little more though. That’s all you need and all your examiners need for this final challenge.

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