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Tag: viva expectations

Nathan

Viva Surprises

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I can’t imagine that many people reading this would want to encounter surprises at their viva.

  • A question that you’ve never considered.
  • A piece of feedback that makes you freeze.
  • A suggestion that you really don’t want.
  • A realisation that you’ve been discussing your work for two hours and not noticed the time pass.
  • A change to the viva process that’s different from what you expected.

Maybe that’s the key. There are so many fairly well-known expectations for the viva – not to mention regulations – that when something different does happen it can feel like it must be “wrong”. A viva surprise doesn’t have to mean a problem for you though; it’s not automatically beyond your ability or outside of your comfort zone. A surprise is just an event that you weren’t expecting, but is here all the same.

For any viva a candidate has to be ready to meet the expectations they learn about – and be ready to respond when something outside of those patterns happens.

(Because what else can you do?)

Nathan

Slowly

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There doesn’t need to be rush in viva prep.

Before you get to submission, sketch out a plan. Think about your life, commitments and responsibilities. Plan your prep so the work gets done. Bit by bit. Day by day. Slow prep is much better than racing to pack it all in at the last moment.

No-one has to sprint through their viva.

Listen to each question. Take your time to consider what you will add to the discussion. Ask questions. Check your thesis. There’s no race to get it over and done with. Some vivas are short but no viva has been made better by trying to get through it quickly.

Take your time with prep, take your time with your viva. Slow and steady will take you to success.

Nathan

Five Big Viva Mistakes

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First, a candidate can think that vivas are random. It’s true that you won’t know what will happen exactly until you get to yours, but there are general expectations that can help you understand the process.

Second, a candidate can think of examiners as opponents. This just isn’t the case: examiners are prepared, they ask questions and some of those questions could be tough, but that doesn’t make them your enemy.

Third, a candidate could believe that they are finished at submission. The PhD journey is a good foundation for the viva, but the viva is a particular challenge; there’s lots of prep work that can make a difference.

Fourth, a candidate could believe that corrections are a failure. It just isn’t so. Corrections are more work and might not feel fair – but they’re a part of the process for most candidates and not connected with failing at all.

Fifth, a candidate could believe that they aren’t good enough to succeed. But how else could someone get to submission other than by achieving enough along the way? How else could they write a thesis if they weren’t good enough to do the work?

 

Five big mistakes. Five simple remedies.

Find out about expectations. Understand the role of examiners. Invest time in preparation. Accept corrections as part of the process. Reflect on your journey to build your confidence.

Nathan

The Viva Needs More Understanding

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Candidates need to know more about examiners: how they prepare, what’s involved, what they’re asking, what they might ask and do and why.

Examiners need to know more about candidates and the PhD journey in the 2020s: they need to understand the particular thesis they’re looking at, the general experience of PGRs, the impact of COVID and more.

Supervisors need to understand the viva situation: they need to have a good handle on expectations, what helps in preparation, they have to grasp their candidates’ situations and advise them well.

And then there are researcher-developers, policy-makers, regulation-writers, awesome administrators and sensational support staff.

The viva needs more understanding. Or perhaps it is better to say that if everyone involved knew more about it then the viva, how it happens, how it’s prepared for and how it’s talked about could be better for everyone involved.

 

What can you do to improve your understanding about the viva before you have yours? Who could you ask? What do you need to know? And when you’ve been through the process, who could you share your experience with to help others with their understanding?

Nathan

Morning or Afternoon

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A morning viva starts sooner, but an afternoon viva might finish more quickly.

An afternoon viva could be more nervous for a candidate because they have more hours to think before it starts.

But are there distinct advantages or disadvantages to the start time? Not really.

Your situation or your examiners’ circumstances might favour a particular time; anyone involved might have a preference. But the start time doesn’t make a great deal of difference.

When you know the date and time of your viva, figure out what you need to do well in the hours leading up to the start. Morning or afternoon, you have to manage yourself as you make your final preparations.

Nathan

Drivers, Worries, Actions

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In the viva, examiners drive the discussion by asking questions that:

  1. Explore your contribution;
  2. Investigate your authorship;
  3. Assess your capability as a researcher.

In turn, a candidate typically worries that:

  1. They haven’t done enough;
  2. They won’t remember enough about the process;
  3. They aren’t good enough to get a PhD.

To combat these a candidate could:

  1. Review their thesis and work to build confidence in the contribution;
  2. Rehearse explaining how they did the PhD to build confidence in describing the work;
  3. Reflect and remember how they have developed to build confidence in themselves.

Preparation helps with the discussion and lessening worries!

Nathan

Describing Examiners

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Your examiners are interested in your work. They have to be, or they just wouldn’t be there.

Your examiners are prepared for the viva. Like you, they have to get ready to do this particular event.

Your examiners are experienced. They are academics – even examiners at the start of their academic career have training, guidance and support to do the job well.

Your examiners are human. They’re just people, like you. They know the viva could make you nervous and they know you want it to go well.

They want it to go well too – and given the work that you’ve done and the work your examiners do, your viva most likely will go well.

Nathan

Always Something

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No matter how much work you put into your research and thesis, or how much time you spend on viva prep, there’s always something that your examiners could say or ask that you haven’t anticipated.

And no matter what they ask, because of all of the work you’ve committed to your research and thesis, and all the time you’ve invested into getting ready, there’s always something you can do to respond to their questions and be part of the discussion.

You can ask a question. You can pause. You can think. You can check your thesis. You can remember something. You can take a situation and analyse it. You can work through a question or a problem. You can, in the end, always find a way to respond.

Whatever situation you find in the viva, there’s always something you can do.

Nathan

Opinions

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The viva is a discussion. It’s not a Q&A. It’s not an interview. It’s not supposed to be combative or about proving who is right or wrong.

Remember that your examiners are allowed to have different opinions to you. They may not agree with a conclusion. They may think that X needs more Y to account for Z.

And that means that you may have different opinions to your examiners. Different opinions don’t mean that someone is wrong. It might mean that – or it could mean that someone needs to think more, explain more, share something else or do something else.

If your examiners ask for a change or strongly suggest something then ask why. Explore more and dig deeper. And do your best, not to prove them wrong, but to engage as best as you can with what they are offering to the discussion.

Nathan

Viva Varieties

Daily Post

When you hear lots of different stories about the viva it’s natural to group them together.

Short vivas. Long vivas.

Tough vivas. Easy vivas.

A presentation to start or an opening question to get things going.

Lots of questions. Hardly any.

Lots of corrections. No corrections.

Two examiners, a chair, a supervisor, a third examiner.

Expected questions and unexpected remarks.

Previously found typos and unknown errors.

And there’s more. There’s a huge range of viva experiences. Some are much more common than others. Many aspects of what “variety” your viva will be won’t be clear until you have yours.

You can’t prepare for everything, but you can be prepared. You can know the goals and expectations of your examiners, you can know what you need to demonstrate in your viva and then rise to meet that.

Long or short, easy or tough, whoever is in attendance, you can succeed.

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