You Are Here

Tag: viva expectations

Nathan

Needs & Examiners

Daily Post

You need to talk about them with your supervisors.

You need to know why they’re a good choice.

You need to know why they might be interested in your work.

You need to explore their research.

You need to think about how their work is related to yours.

You need to believe they’ll be fair.

You need them to do their job.

And you need to accept that they’re just people, same as you; they’re not on a great high pedestal, they’re just humans, filling a necessary role, and doing it because they’re highly qualified to meet the needs of your viva.

Nathan

Answers To “How Long Will My Viva Be?”

Daily Post

One of the most common concerns of PhD candidates is how long their viva will be. It’s a question that I can give no definite answer to for any particular candidate, but one that generally has many relevant answers:

  1. About two to three hours in many cases.
  2. As long as is needed.
  3. Typically less time than you worry it will be.
  4. Typically more time than it actually feels like on the day.
  5. Rarely less than one hour; rarely more than four.
  6. Several orders of magnitude shorter than everything you’ve done so far for your research.
  7. It doesn’t matter.

That’s the big picture: it doesn’t matter. Maybe it feels important, but it’s more important to focus on being prepared, feeling ready and approaching the viva with as much confidence as you can, rather than spend time concerned about how long it will take.

There are lots of answers to “How long will my viva be?” – including the most honest one, “You’ll find out.”

There are far more interesting questions to spend time unpicking and answering.

Nathan

Perfectly Impossible

Daily Post

I got a note from an anonymous seminar participant:

I have written the perfect thesis. Should I worry about the viva?

If the first statement was true, I could see no reason why they should. If their thesis was perfect, really, why would they need to worry? If I had a perfect thesis, there wouldn’t be much point!

Small problem: there is no perfect thesis. Imperfection is inevitable. The perfect thesis is an impossibility.

But an imperfect thesis doesn’t automatically mean that someone should worry. They might anyway, because they have doubts, or questions, or 101 concerns. And there could be a problem in any imperfect thesis that leads to tough questions or tricky corrections: both are part of the process, neither “should” be worried about.

An imperfect thesis doesn’t mean you failed. It means that you didn’t achieve the impossible.

You have a thesis. You have you. You have everything you need to beat back your worries and succeed in the viva.

Nathan

What To Wear

Daily Post

Wear whatever helps you present the best “you” that you need in the viva.

If you feel you need to communicate you’re serious, or you know your stuff, or you recognise this is important then wear something that shows this. If you need something to act as armour to protect you, or even a superhero costume then pick something that helps in this way.

If you just want to be really cool then go for it!

In any situation, not just the viva, what you wear can send signals to others about who you are, who you want to be and what you think about the situation.

Of course, you pick up on those signals too. You can reinforce the truth you want for yourself.

Nathan

Being Afraid

Daily Post

Someone asked me last year if it was good to be afraid before the viva: “Is it a good sign?”

There isn’t a straight yes or no answer. We need to unpick what’s going on when we talk about fear and the viva. Three main things come to mind for me.

First, we need to explore: what are you afraid of? Get specific with your fear, don’t let it be a nameless dread. Figure out what you are afraid of, then ask: what can you do about it?

Second, in some cases it’s a fear of the unknown. If it’s so, then work towards finding out more about the viva. Learn about regulations, expectations and experiences. Don’t just stop at feeling afraid.

Finally, we return to the original question: is it a good sign?

In itself I don’t think it’s bad, but it’s bad for fear to dominate. It’s bad if you can’t prepare for or enjoy the viva because you’re so afraid. The fear is a symptom of something else. You’re so nervous that now you’re afraid.

Nervousness correlates with importance. You’re afraid because you’re nervous, you’re nervous because the viva is important.

It’s good to recognise the viva as important, but bad if nerves stop you being prepared for it.

Nathan

Competence

Daily Post

When I tell candidates their examiners will be checking their competence in the viva, I feel them pull back. Perhaps we’ve heard the word “incompetent” too often. Now even if we talk about the opposite it comes to mind. I ponder the viva and how to help people all the time. So I keep thinking about this word, competence, and if there’s a better way to get the point across.

I turn to the thesaurus and find:

expertise, fitness, know-how, proficiency, savvy, skill, suitability, talent, the right stuff, what it takes

As a candidate you’re not being asked to be superhuman. You need to be good. You need to have done something good.

That has to necessarily be the case by the time you submit. There’s just no other explanation.

To get this far you have what it takes.

Nathan

Snacks

Daily Post

Take snacks.

I’ve heard of relatively few instances where refreshments were provided at a candidate’s viva. Etiquette seems to suggest not eating in the viva; do at least take a bottle of water with you.

At the break or immediately after the viva you can feel drained from the effort, however pleasant your viva might be. Take food that might help. You might not want to eat in front of your examiners, but you might need to eat something in those intervals.

In short: don’t eat in the viva, but don’t go to the viva without taking food with you!

Nathan

Breaking The Ice

Daily Post

It’s natural to be a little nervous at the start of the viva. You and your examiners want it to go well, and everyone probably has a sense that as long as it starts well things will be fine. Examiners often have definite ideas of how they are going to start the viva.

They may have key questions to open proceedings. Later they may be happy to let the discussion go where it needs to, but to begin with they want a question they know will give the candidate a chance to shine. Not a question you need to have a pre-prepared answer for, but something you will surely have thought about and talked about before. It acts as a way to break the ice.

Sometimes examiners invite the candidate to give a presentation to start the viva. There’s nothing negative about this request: it’s simply one way to get things going. While there could be some nervousness around presenting, it can be a useful opportunity as it gives the candidate some control about how the viva begins. Again, once those first few minutes have passed without serious problem, the level of nerves and stress in the room can drop.

Getting going is one of the hardest parts of the viva. There are different ways that it can start, but don’t forget to do what you can to manage your own nerves and confidence at the beginning. It’s not all up to chance.

Nathan

Aiming For Minor Corrections

Daily Post

Most candidates pass with minor corrections as a result of their thesis submission and viva examination. I’ve often been asked about whether or not there is anything specific that a candidate could do to “aim” at getting only minor corrections. It’s a tricky question, because most of the things I can think of seem obvious:

  • Submit a good thesis, and make sure you’ve run spellcheck and proofread it.
  • Take time to be well prepared for the viva.
  • Engage in a good discussion with your examiners, listening to their questions and comments.

Most candidates get minor corrections. This tells me that most candidates are doing a lot of things right (regardless of whether or not they know they are or how they feel about things!). The people who ask me about aiming for minor corrections at least have taken something else onboard during their PhD: it’s impossible to write a perfect thesis.

Aim to write a good thesis, aim to be prepared, aim to engage with your examiners – and in doing all that you’re probably going to hit near the target for minor corrections too.

Nathan

11 Questions To Ask About Viva Experiences

Daily Post

Your colleagues and peers are a great source of help for your viva. They can listen to you talk about your research, ask useful questions and even help you to take your mind off things! The PhD graduates among them can also help you figure out what to expect for your viva.

Get in touch with some recent graduates from your department and ask them about their experiences, so that you can help to shape your expectations. Ask them:

  1. How long was their viva?
  2. How long did it feel like?
  3. How did their viva start?
  4. What was the structure or flow of their viva?
  5. Were there any questions that surprised them?
  6. How did they feel at the start?
  7. Did that feeling change?
  8. What were their expectations for the viva like?
  9. How did their viva meet those expectations?
  10. How do they feel about it overall?
  11. What advice do they have for you?

Each answer is a piece of the puzzle. The picture won’t be completely clear. You can have realistic expectations for your viva, but it will be different from any other viva you hear about.

Ask and listen, then reflect and see how this helps you for your own viva.

1 … 87 88 89 90 91 … 104