You Are Here

Tag: viva feelings

Nathan

If Your Viva Is Tomorrow…

Daily Post

…then you still have time to help yourself feel more ready for your viva.

You could do something small like read a favourite section, check a reference one last time or write a few notes to clear your head.

You could select your clothes or listen to some good music or message a friend to confirm that you’re OK.

You could write down what you’ll do in the morning or plan what you’ll do after the viva is finished.

 

If your viva is tomorrow then there are lots of things you could do and probably no need to do any of them. If your viva is tomorrow it’s because there are over one thousand yesterdays when you showed up and did the work.

If your viva is tomorrow then you’re ready. And if your viva isn’t tomorrow then you have time to get ready!

 

PS: If your viva is some time after this week then you might have time to get help at my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025! I’ve shared Viva Survivor more than 420 times and it is my comprehensive live session on getting ready for the viva. Attendees also receive access to a catch-up recording and other follow-up materials. Check the link for full details of what to expect from the webinar.

Nathan

Uniform, Armour, Costume

Daily Post

What are you wearing for your viva?

  • Is your clothing choice a uniform? Are you wearing something that you think will help you look like you belong in the viva or academia?
  • Do you hope your clothes will be armour? Are you choosing something to help you feel like you can defend yourself against your examiners’ questions?
  • Or are your clothes a costume? Are you wearing something to help you feel your best?

What resonates with you?

I think that a costume could be the most helpful choice for a candidate. Try to wear something that will help you feel good and at your best. You don’t need to be someone else and you don’t need to protect yourself from the viva process.

Choose something to wear that will help you feel like the best version of yourself.

 

PS: I’ll explore how candidates can feel viva ready in greater depth at my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025. I’ve shared this session more than 400 times and it is my comprehensive live session on getting ready for the viva. Check the link for full details!

Nathan

Know Your Goal

Daily Post

As you prepare for your viva have you thought about the goal you’re aiming for?

How do you define what you want from your viva?

  • No corrections?
  • Easy questions – or at least not too hard whatever that might be?
  • A short viva?
  • Not to feel nervous?

If any of these resonate you have to consider what you can do to work towards them.

Is any of your work at this stage going to help you to receive no corrections? How can you work towards having easy questions or a short viva? Perhaps your prep efforts will help you feel less nervous – although it’s better to work towards feeling more confident through your prep than less nervous.

What’s your goal with viva prep and your viva? What are you hoping for or working towards? And are your efforts actually getting you closer to that goal?

 

PS: I’ll be exploring the viva from more perspectives at my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025. I’ve shared this session more than 400 times and it is my comprehensive live session on getting ready for the viva. Check the link for full details of what to expect from the webinar!

Nathan

You Can Take Action

Daily Post

I feel like I’ve written this a lot in recent posts – and over the years of writing Viva Survivors! – but it’s worth repeating: when you encounter a worry or a problem as you get ready for your viva there is no situation where you can’t take action to improve things.

Your action might be:

  • To stop and think;
  • To come up with a plan;
  • To ask a friend for help;
  • To read the regulations for thesis examination at your institution;
  • To talk to your supervisor;
  • To read something and think.

Or more generally to just do something. You could feel worried, stressed or unsure – but you can still do something.

Remember that you always have the option to try something to make your viva prep situation better. If you’re worried or stressed a good first step might be to ask for help, particularly if you’re feeling unsure what to do.

Work past worry.

 

PS: for more encouragement take a look at the eighth issue of Viva Survivors Select. I released The Survival Issue yesterday which contains twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive plus new writing to help with making it to the end and through the PhD journey. Take a look!

Nathan

Assumptions

Daily Post

Whatever you assume about your viva will have an impact on how you prepare for it, how you feel as you get ready and what you do as you start talking to your examiners.

Before you get to that point it makes sense to check regulations, viva stories and general expectations: do your assumptions line up with what the rules and other people say about the viva?

 

If you assume that your viva is going to be hard questions and unfair criticism then you’re going to make a tough time for yourself.

If you assume that your examiners are there to talk and listen and prompt a discussion then you might still be nervous but you’ll be able to prepare yourself.

And if, after all the work you’ve invested, you assume that you’re ready then you will approach the viva with a more positive outlook than if you assume you are somehow lucky or just getting by.

 

PS:  very quick announcement that The Survival Issue of Viva Survivors Select is out tomorrow! This is the final issue of this volume and joins seven other collections I’ve curated and released over the last seven months or so. Do look out for an announcement email tomorrow 🙂

Nathan

Watching Out

Daily Post

You can’t eliminate every potential stressor or difficult question ahead of your viva but through preparation you can be aware of them.

Read your thesis and reflect on your research. What was stressful? What was difficult in a negative way? Was there anything over the course of those years that made doing the work difficult?

Ahead of your viva you can prepare for engaging with those topics if they come up at the viva. You don’t have to say everything but you might have to say something that you’re uncomfortable talking about.

Writing some notes beforehand, talking with your supervisor or a trusted friend or even using the mock viva as a way to prepare can all be useful steps to getting ready if there’s a sensitive topic.

You can’t remove difficult topics from the viva conversation. You can be aware, you can watch out and prepare to engage well.

Nathan

Unusual Expectations

Daily Post

Some PhD candidates have unusual expectations for their vivas.

I’m not a mind-reader, but I know this must be true because of the questions that some candidates ask. I have met candidates who have expected the following:

  • Every question will be hard and every comment will be critical;
  • The external will ask most of the questions and the internal won’t care;
  • Success at the viva is 50/50, a coin toss between passing and failing;
  • The examiners will play good cop/bad cop!
  • The viva is just random so there’s no way to prepare.

These are all quite extreme! More benign and unusual expectations include candidates believing that they can’t take a break or that they can’t consult their thesis.

 

It’s not just that these expectations are wrong and don’t match reality: they are really negative. To hold them can only harm someone’s confidence as they get ready.

It’s not wrong to feel nervous ahead of your viva, but if you find yourself worried by an expectation or belief about the viva then find a way to check if your expectation is reasonable. If it’s unusual then you can maybe stop worrying.

And if you find that it isn’t unusual then there will still be something you can do towards feeling more prepared and more ready.

 

PS: I released the latest edition of Viva Survivors Select yesterday! The Confidence Issue contains twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive exploring confidence for the viva including how to respond well to questions in the viva – something which definitely helps with having good expectations.

Nathan

Removing Obstacles To Being Ready

Daily Post

What’s getting in the way of you being prepared for your viva?

  • Not being sure what to do;
  • Not knowing something;
  • Not having support from people;
  • Feeling like there’s not enough time;
  • Feeling like there’s not the right time;
  • Feeling like there’s too much to do;
  • Feeling nervous, worried, scared or unsure;
  • Not feeling as confident as you want to.

 

What can you do about these sources of friction and irritation?

  • Read viva regulations;
  • Talk to your supervisor and your friends;
  • Make a plan;
  • Reflect on your PhD experience;
  • Read a blog post or two;
  • Explore what help is available from your university;
  • Explore what help is available elsewhere (like daily blogs that also offer webinars sometimes!)
  • Reflect to find the root cause of what’s in the way.

 

That last point is really helpful actually: if you know you feel something that’s getting in the way of being prepared and you know WHY you’re feeling it then there’s typically a lot you can do to help yourself.

Figure out why and you can remove any obstacles in your way.

Nathan

Nice Ideas

Daily Post

“…I’m sorry but that won’t work for me…”

I’m always slightly sad when I hear that or see it in response to a piece of advice or help for the viva.

Please don’t mistake me: I don’t think that someone is wrong for not agreeing to what I suggest! I want to help people get ready for their viva and if options I offer don’t work I’m sad that I couldn’t help.

I’ve come to accept that there is no universally helpful idea for getting ready for the viva. Ideas for making plans might run counter to someone’s preferences or situation; the good idea of having a mock viva might not be practical given a candidate’s supervisory relationship; a particular annotation idea could be a non-starter given the nature of someone’s thesis.

Still: if a nice idea, a tip, approach or piece of advice you receive for your viva really won’t work for you, then use that as a provocation. What could work for you? If a particular annotation won’t help, what might? If you’re not going to have a mock viva, how will you rehearse?

If someone’s nice ideas for getting ready for your viva won’t work for you, then you have to come up with some nice ideas of your own.

 

PS: one nice idea for getting ready for your viva is my Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 3rd December 2025. This is my comprehensive live session on getting ready and there’s full details at the link. Also, if you use code VIVASURVIVORS before midnight tonight you can save £10 on registration!

Nathan

Be Helpful

Daily Post

What can you offer your friends and colleagues when they are getting ready for their vivas?

When you’ve had your viva, who will you share your experience with and how will you try to help them?

If you’ve not already had your viva then keep a little record as you get ready of what you do and how it helps. This will help you to figure out positive actions that you might recommend.

A good starting point for helping others could be to think of the help that you got. An even better starting point might be to consider the help that you feel you really needed.

 

PS: and another good starting point might be to tell someone to subscribe to the Viva Survivors daily blog if they don’t already do that!

1 2 3 … 14