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Tag: viva feelings

Nathan

Icebreakers

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How might your viva begin?

  • Why did you want to do a PhD?
  • How would you summarise your research?
  • Can you briefly describe your main conclusions?
  • How are you doing today?

These example questions might break the ice at your viva. They might seem easy, challenging or unexpected – yes, some examiners really will see how you’re feeling!

Your examiners are asking a simple question and giving you something familiar to talk about:

  • Why did you want to do a PhD? – because you’ve likely thought about this many times before and told others why.
  • How would you summarise your research? – because you’ve had to think about, talk about and write about this many times before.
  • Can you briefly describe your main conclusions? – as this is something you’ve had to consider in writing your thesis.
  • How are you doing today? – because you and they are humans and they’re checking that you’re good to get started.

Whatever the question, that’s ultimately why they’re asking. Everyone in the room is human. Nerves play a part in the viva and everyone can engage better by starting well.

A simple icebreaker helps the viva to begin.

Nathan

Little Things

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Here’s what I do to prompt my confidence ahead of giving a webinar:

  • I remind myself of how many sessions I’ve done before;
  • I wear shoes even though I’m going to be sitting (it reminds me I’m working);
  • I listen to a playlist of five songs as I look through my notes in the hour before;
  • I pre-draft follow-up emails with positive language that the session went well, leaving space for details of what will happen;
  • I make sure I have my water bottle and other practical things I’ll need;
  • I get my notes together and put my paperweight on top within easy reach;
  • And I make a cup of tea twenty minutes before the session so it’s a drinkable temperature as I start.

There are placebos, practical elements and a lot of personal steps there. Most of them I do almost on autopilot.

They all make a difference.

What little things will you do before your viva? What do you need to make a difference for you?

And what little things could you be doing regularly to help yourself as you work up to your viva?

Nathan

Bad Vivas

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I’ve heard many things from candidates that would make a viva “bad”:

  • It would be bad to forget something;
  • It would be bad to get an unexpected question;
  • Having the wrong examiner would make the viva bad;
  • Feeling nervous would be bad.

I’ve even heard that getting corrections would be bad – which is tricky because the majority of vivas result in a pass with some form of corrections!

There’s a difference though between something feeling bad and something being bad.

It’s rare for something to be bad at the viva but there’s a strong chance that something about the situation might feel bad, whether that’s anticipating worry, feeling nervous or being unsure about the circumstances or process.

If something feels bad or something feels like it would be bad (going blank, getting an unexpected question) then you can consider what you can do. Many worry points or “bad” aspects of the viva can be addressed in advance. You can learn more, do something practical or in some cases change your perspective with a little reflection.

If something feels bad about your viva what are you going to do about it?

Nathan

Cramming Isn’t An Option

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There are lots of ways to prepare for your viva:

  • You could spread the work out over a month or schedule it within two weeks.
  • You could read your thesis in an afternoon or review a chapter per day for a week.
  • There’s a range of options for annotation, writing summaries and learning what to expect.
  • And you could, depending on mutual availability, have a mock viva anywhere from a few days to a few weeks before your viva.

Cramming, however, isn’t an option for viva prep. If you don’t plan your prep and leave it to the last minute – or try to overload your days – you will only add stress to your situation.

Stress won’t help.

Instead, plan your viva prep. Consider how you’re feeling, what you’re doing and how you like to work.

Make an honest plan not a hurried one. Ask for help when you need it and take your time to do the work – give yourself time to gently think, consider and reflect.

Cramming isn’t an option for viva preparation.

Nathan

That One Question

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It’s my belief that every candidate has one question that they know they don’t want to be asked.

  • “Why did you use the method you outlined in Chapter 4?”
  • “How would you summarise the limitations of the data you collected?
  • “How else could you approach the project you detail in Chapter 5?”

There may be other things candidates generally don’t want at the viva – unexpected questions they’ve never considered or going blank – but fairly high up the list is that one question that they are dreading being asked.

It’s entirely rational to not want the question. There’s no guarantee that someone will get the question they dread. As it’s probably going to be a distraction either way, if you know that one question you don’t want then it makes sense to find a way to prepare for it.

Unpack and unpick what it means. Make notes. Talk it over with someone. Find some helpful points that you could draw on if you are asked the question at your viva.

Give far more time to general preparations and rehearsal though: there’s a lot more to your viva than that one question you hope you’re not asked.

Nathan

Confidence Beats Comfort

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There is something to be said for getting comfortable with the viva. You can find out what to expect, learn what happens and rehearse to feel alright being there.

Finding confidence for the viva helps even more. When you really reflect on what you did to get to this point you can appreciate that the challenge of the viva is well within your capability.

Knowing that 99.9% of people succeed at the viva might give you some comfort.

Knowing what you did to get this far will give you confidence.

Comfort will only take you so far – and confidence will help raise how comfortable you feel.

 

PS: There’s more ideas about building viva confidence and a lot more in The Submission Issue, the latest Viva Survivors Select collection – see last week’s news about the contents here!

Nathan

Opportunities At The Viva

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In my experience PhD candidates worry a lot about general questions, specific questions, attitudes and the atmosphere of the viva:

  • What if my examiners don’t agree?
  • What if they disagree with me?
  • What if I forget something?
  • What if something goes wrong?

With even a little thought and exploration there are many small and helpful steps that any candidate can take to overcome viva-related obstacles – but I wonder sometimes if a simple change of focus could help more with a lot of problems.

What if, instead of looking at the obstacles that might occur, we looked first at the many opportunities that can be found at the viva?

  • You have the opportunity to share your work.
  • You have the opportunity to show that you’re a capable researcher.
  • You have the opportunity to ask for expert opinions.
  • You have the opportunity to have a thorough and interesting conversation.

And you have the opportunity to succeed!

 

PS: Want some ideas on how to make the most of all of these opportunities? Then take a look at The Submission Issue, the latest Viva Survivors Select collection – twenty posts from the archive and two original pages of help for £3.

Nathan

7 Weeks

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That’s roughly how long I had to prepare for my viva. Here are seven thoughts from those seven weeks in the dim and distant past of 2008:

  1. I took a break when I submitted. Not a big one, just a week to rest from the final busy days leading to submission. Starting viva prep rested helps.
  2. I made a lot of notes. I annotated my thesis. I wrote summaries. I did a lot of things to help my memory because I didn’t really know what to expect from my viva.
  3. My examiners asked me to prepare a presentation to start my viva when the date was set. It was helpful to have something concrete to do. Preparing a presentation also helped with other parts of prep.
  4. I didn’t have a mock viva with my supervisor. We continued to meet once per week and talked over each chapter. I wish I’d thought to ask him more about what vivas were like.
  5. My supervisor also told me to look at my external examiner’s research area. It was very different to my own. He thought it would be good to get an understanding of it and he was right!
  6. I wasn’t nervous until ten minutes before my viva. That happened because I didn’t sleep well the night before. I felt very tired as I was unpacking my bag; nervousness hit me hard but at least I had my presentation to focus on.
  7. Looking back I can see that I was confident that I had a good thesis. I can also see that I wasn’t feeling confident in my own ability at the viva. With hindsight I wonder if I had been pushing away nerves and worry for weeks leading up to my viva.

Of course, hindsight is wonderful! I was on the right track for a lot of my prep. I could have done better if I had paid attention rather than ignored how I was feeling.

How are you getting ready for your viva? What are you feeling? And what are you doing as a result of those feelings?

Nathan

Prep Parallels

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You’ll do very similar work to your examiners as you all get ready for your viva.

Both preparations involve reading your thesis. Your examiners will be considering it for the first time while you refresh your memory. All of you will be reading it carefully.

All of you will be making notes and writing summaries in some form. You’ll all probably mark up copies of your thesis and while you might summarise various aspects of your research your examiners will write reports ahead of the viva.

You’ll all be thinking about questions although you’ll do it in different ways. Your examiners will plan for questions or topics that they think need to come up. You could do similar but more likely you’ll find rehearsal opportunities.

You approach your viva with a different purpose to your examiners. You’re doing similar work for different reasons but you have a lot in common – including the fact that all of you could be feeling quite nervous!

Nathan

Doctor Time

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The moment will come when you’re really, really done with your PhD but there are lots of steps along the way that might feel like endings.

  • How will you celebrate when you pass your viva?
  • How will you celebrate when you graduate?
  • What will being Doctor Someone mean to you?

Finishing your PhD is a big deal. It’s much bigger than the viva.

Thinking about the end can help you plan ahead, figure out how you feel and potentially motivate you for the work you still have to do.

You celebrate, you change and then what?

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