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Tag: viva experiences

Nathan

Snapshots

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Remember that if you ask someone about their viva you are going to get a picture of what happened, and not the event itself. Not all of the details will be clear and perhaps some of the things you really want to know will not be present in their story.

It’s like looking at someone else’s holiday photos. Holiday snapshots show things someone else noticed or were interested in. At first, talking about it might only give surface impressions, the short version of what happened.

Every viva story is a snapshot of an experience. A viva story doesn’t reveal everything and without context could even be confusing.  Ask about what you need to know. And ask the right people! It makes more sense to ask a few people from your own department about their viva than trawl the internet for lots of stories.

Figure out what you need to know to have more certainty for your viva and your preparations.

Nathan

Average Viva Lengths

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I once took survey responses from over 300 PhD graduates about their viva experiences. There was a lot of data and a lot of clusters within the data. Without being careful it would have been easy to share wrong ideas about what was “average” or “normal”.

What might average mean? If we added up all of the viva lengths and divided them by the number of people it came to around 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Was that average though? Was that normal? What could I share that was useful?

 

In the end, thinking more on the data and on what people asked me I came to share a few key points about the average viva length:

  • Every viva is unique, so knowing an “average” doesn’t help by itself.
  • Sharing a breakdown of percentages doesn’t help either, it’s too much!
  • Expectations are useful to help in preparation: so an expected length has to be useful.

Which leads me to say: expect your viva to be at least two hours, because around 50% of vivas are two hours or longer. Yours could be less, but if you expect it to be longer then you can prepare to engage for a long period of time. You can prepare to take your time – and if it’s shorter then at least you’ll be well-prepared, rather than simply hoping it is over quickly!

And perhaps we should dismiss the notion of “average” vivas completely. There are real expectations we can explore for the viva, but they cover ranges of experiences rather than simple numbers.

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

Viva Varieties

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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.

Nathan

Ask For A Break

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The viva is not a test of endurance, a space where you have to simply work through everything until it is done.

You can take a break. You could be offered a break after an hour or two. You could need one and ask. You can ask for a comfort break, a medically-related break, a break to think or check something in your thesis. You can have a break to compose yourself.

There are many reasons to take a break in the viva and no wrong times to ask for one, if you need one.

Nathan

My Atypical Viva

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Later this year I’ll “celebrate” fifteen years since I had my viva, and remembering that makes me realise one more time just how different my viva was to everything I’ve heard since about vivas.

Before I had my viva I was quite ignorant about the process. It didn’t occur to me until a few years afterwards that my viva was a bit odd:

  • My viva was in a quiet seminar room at the end of a corridor, but it was a room big enough for thirty.
  • I had been asked to prepare a presentation, not very common but an established viva practice. However, within two minutes of starting one of my examiners asked a question, which started the discussion. This was my viva: lots of questions, weaving occasionally back to my presentation.
  • My viva was four hours with a short break, which is quite long but manageable…
  • …but I was stood at the front of the room for the duration, near the projector and blackboard. My examiners were sat as if they were in the front row of a lecture. There was no chair at their table for me and I was never invited to sit down at any point.

On that last point I have, so far, found myself to be unique in my viva experience.

And despite all of that:

  • My viva followed the flow of the information in my thesis, like most do.
  • I had two examiners, like most vivas and they were clearly very prepared, as was I.
  • They asked lots of questions and treated me and my work with respect, even when they had criticisms.
  • I received minor corrections, like the majority of PhD candidates in the UK.
  • It felt like it was all over much more quickly than it actually was, time just flew by!

Every viva is unique. Some are more different than others! But all vivas follow key expectations and regulations. Read the rules, listen to stories and build up a good general picture that you can prepare for.

Nathan

Plan For The Unexpected

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Plan your viva prep. Take a sheet of paper when you submit and spend ten minutes thinking about how you would space out the work that you need to do.

When will you start? Will a month investing an hour most days be enough to manage what you need to complete? Or is it better for you – your life, your preferences, your needs – to focus and invest more over a shorter period of time, say two weeks?

There’s no right or wrong time period to take for viva prep.

Whatever you decide, give yourself some wiggle room in your plans. Give yourself a margin of error, because something will go wrong. An unexpected emergency. Something you forgot in your diary. Or a thing you didn’t notice in your thesis that needs a little more thought.

Plan your viva prep – but expect the unexpected!

Nathan

Time And The Viva

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“How long is the viva?”

It’s the number one question I have been asked in over twelve years of doing work related to the viva.

The most appropriate response I feel that I can give is to say that two to three hours is quite common; consequently it helps a candidate to be ready to talk and focus for that length of time.

The quickest response is to say that I don’t know and the person won’t know until their viva!

Perhaps the truest response would be that it doesn’t matter in the big picture: a viva takes as long as is needed.

And one more response: it may take hours but it might not feel like that. You could be so engaged and deep in conversation that the question of how long it is taking just slips away.

Nathan

The Wild West Viva

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Stereotypes of 1800s western towns are often invoked when it seems like “anything could happen” but that’s really not the case for your viva.

  • Regulations have to be kept to, and can be known well in advance by everyone involved.
  • General expectations for the viva are created by past experiences and the stories people share.
  • You can’t know questions in advance but you can anticipate what might be discussed.
  • You don’t know the outcome until it’s over, but you can have a reasonable belief in success.

Examiners can’t do what they want. Vivas aren’t random or subject to the whims of fate. Read the regulations for your university and ask your friends and colleagues about their experiences. All of this is far more helpful than focussing on the unknown aspects of your viva – or worrying that your examiners might strike you down at high noon!

Nathan

The Chair

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It’s not good or bad to have an independent chair at your viva.

Independent chairs are not examiners. They’re often a senior member of staff from your institution who is mostly acting as an observer. In your experience of the viva, it will be like having a teeny-tiny audience making notes. They won’t ask you any questions about your work.

They might ask examiners to move on from a topic if they think enough time has been spent. They might ask if anyone wants to take a break. But really their job is to observe and ensure that your viva is a fair process.

Not every viva has an independent chair. They’re sometimes used if an examiner has less experience. They’re sometimes used as a kind of quality control, checking that vivas are held in a fair way. Some departments or universities always use independent chairs because that’s what their regulations say. An internal examiner can take on some of these responsibilities, which is why independent chairs are not a universal part of the viva experience in the UK.

The best thing any candidate can do is find out in advance what the situation might be for their viva. It’s not good or bad for you: it’s just something to be aware of and something to consider as you prepare for your viva.

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