You Know Enough
Before your viva remember:
You don’t know everything.
You can’t know everything.
You’re not expected to know everything.
But you know a lot. You know a lot more than when you started.
You know enough.
Tag: viva expectations
Off The Topic
It’s not impossible that a question or comment could seem irrelevant to you. It’s not impossible you could start responding to a question but go off topic from the discussion. However it happens, if you experience any confusion because you need to talk about something unexpected:
Stop.
Pause.
Think.
Think about what’s being asked or discussed. Then decide how you can best proceed.
In the case of off-topic questions from examiners, you might really believe a question is irrelevant. Totally off-topic, completely unimportant. You could say that…
…but will that help? It might be better to explore the topic and try to respond as well as you can, to begin with. You could still say you don’t think it’s all that important afterwards, but perhaps give it a little time first.
The Flatpack Viva
Thank you for taking the time to assemble your viva!
Be familiar with the instructions before you begin assembly: regulations, general expectations, thoughts on useful preparations, advice from friends, advice from the internet.
The viva requires a minimum of three to put together.
You will need your own tools.
Ensure all necessary components – research, thesis, candidate, examiners – are in good condition before you start.
As the volume of instructions about your viva can be great, perhaps consider summarising them on a single sheet of paper with a pen.
(paper and pen are not provided)
Note: the length of your finished viva will be different from pre-existing vivas due to natural variability of materials!
Your viva is simple to put together. Just follow the instructions.
Defending Your Work
In the viva it means supporting your thesis.
It means restating what you did, or replying to a question about a related aspect. It could be listening to another point of view and reconciling it with your work. It could be clearing up a mistaken belief that your examiner holds. It could be making your work clearer because it wasn’t clear in your thesis. It could be all of these things and other things besides.
Defending your work does not mean being defensive. Defensive is not listening. Defensive is thinking that you are right, no matter what. Defensive won’t help.
You could be angry or upset with a comment or question, you can feel what you feel – but you’ll serve your thesis and your viva better by defending your work, rather than by being defensive.
Listen to the question or comment. Check it against what you think and feel. Think about your response. Check it for emotion – you don’t need to be a robot, but be careful you’re not just reacting to a negative feeling.
Defend, not defensive.
The Memorisation Memorandum
You don’t need to memorise your thesis, you’re not expected to memorise your research, and most viva candidates couldn’t do that even if they wanted to.
Your examiners expect you to do the work, be familiar with the literature you’ve cited and be a capable researcher. That’s enough.
Citing Examiners
You might cite them, you might not. It depends on lots of factors:
- What work you’ve done;
- The shape of your field and the number of people working in it;
- Who your examiners are;
- When they were suggested as potential examiners;
- How the work they do intersects with the work you’ve done;
- And many, many more reasons…
It’s neither intrinsically good or intrinsically bad for you to cite them. It’s not a requirement to cite publications by your examiners.
But if you have: make sure you check those papers again before your viva. Be sure you’re familiar with why you used them, how you used them and what they did for your thesis.
Thick-skinned About Your Thesis?
You have to expect your examiners might have criticisms. You can also expect they will be fair in the way they communicate them to you.
You don’t need to be particularly thick-skinned to take any critical comments – but you need to expect your examiners might have comments and corrections for you.
Perfection isn’t realistic, but neither is a totally critical appraisal of your research.
The Right Way
One of the things I love about summertime is it feels right to treat yourself with a scone.
But it has to be a scone with jam and clotted cream. Scone cut open, jam first then clotted cream on top. Amazing! Best summertime treat ever. This is the right way to have a scone (even better with a very thin layer of salted butter before you put the jam on).
At least, I think it’s the right way.
Some people would say this way is heresy. You’re supposed to have clotted cream first, then jam. And it’s not proper unless the scone has fruit in. Or is warm from the oven.
Everyone has their right way of having a scone in summertime.
Every candidate will have a picture of the right way to have a viva. Every institution will have regulations which goven the right way to run a viva. Every supervisor will have experience they could share which helps them to think about the right circumstances. Every pair of examiners will have ideas about the right way to examine a candidate.
There are lots of people and ideas connected to the right way for a viva to happen. It’s worth listening to all of these ideas, including your own intuition; see how they all compare and contrast, and find a set of useful expectations.
There are lots of things we might think of as wrong for the viva, and lots of good things we could reasonably expect. There’s no single right way though.
Unlike a scone with jam and clotted cream. Then there really is only one, right way.
Perfection!
A Useful Vision Of The Viva
What’s your vision of your viva?
Lewis Carroll is misquoted as having written, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” He didn’t write that, but it’s a neat way to summarise a short exchange between Alice and the Cheshire Cat in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I think there’s a lot in there, when you reflect on it.
It’s really a warning.
If you don’t know what you want your viva to be like, it doesn’t matter what you do to prepare.
If you don’t know what vivas are like generally, you can’t know if your preparations are really useful.
If you don’t know what examiners are generally interested in, you can’t be sure you will be able to engage with them well in the viva.
Find out about the viva. Build a vision, then decide what you are going to do to make that vision a reality.
Perhaps, from another perspective – through the looking glass? – we can see Lewis Carroll’s unquote as,
“If you know where you’re going, you can find a way to get there.”
I’m convinced that’s true for the viva.
The Locus of Your Viva
Where will your viva take place? You’ll know in advance. Examiners don’t surprise candidates on the day with the examination room.
Since you’ll know before the big day, go and check it out. What is the space like? Are there any distractions you have to think about? Is there a whiteboard if you need one? Can you sit with your back to the clock? People feel comfortable in some spaces, and less so in others. What can you do to encourage the thought that the venue for your viva is good for you?
Remember that your viva really takes place in the discussion. So reflect: what can you do to make that space as comfortable as possible for you?