You Are Here

Tag: viva feelings

Nathan

Confidence Beats Comfort

Daily Post

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

Daily Post

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

Daily Post

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

Daily Post

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

Daily Post

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?

Nathan

Prep Feelings

Daily Post

Work past worry.

This is one of my most commonly shared pieces of advice about the viva. If something worries you, do something. If you have a problem that’s troubling you then work past it.

What do you do if you feel happy? Or tired? Or uncertain? Or nervous? Or confident?

You work.

If you’re happy then work to hold on to that feeling.

If you’re tired then work to find suitable rest.

If you’re uncertain then work to remove that uncertainty (ask questions or read regulations).

If you’re nervous then work to build confidence and if you feel confident then find a way to maintain it.

Work past worry might be a special case of more general viva advice: work to help your feelings.

Nathan

Failing Conditions

Daily Post

Failing the viva isn’t something that happens when…

  • …you get a question “wrong”.
  • …you say “I don’t know” in response to a question.
  • …you go blank for a moment or two.
  • …you have typos or corrections to complete.
  • …you are nervous or stressed.

Failing isn’t a little thing so the reasons for failing aren’t little either.

Failing isn’t the result of missing one thing or of one thing going wrong. It’s not random but specific.

If you’re certain of your efforts you can be certain of the outcome for your viva. If you’ve done the work, developed your research, developed yourself and prepared well then you can be certain that you are on track to succeed.

Nathan

Creative Rehearsal

Daily Post

A mock viva is one approach that you can take to rehearsing for your viva. It’s typically a good approach. Sitting down with your supervisor and responding to questions that are representative of what you’d find at the viva is a great practice.

It’s not the only way though:

  • Have a mini-viva: ask friends to use a resource to have a chat!
  • Go for coffee: if your friends know a little they can ask relevant questions!
  • Give a seminar: invite a group to ask questions after a short presentation!
  • Ask me anything: sit down in your department with a sign saying that you’re accepting all questions about your research for a few hours!

You can get creative with rehearsing for your viva. The closer your practice to the expected viva experience the better – but don’t undervalue the emotional help that doing something fun could have.

How else could you get creative with your viva prep?

Nathan

It’s Not The End

Daily Post

It’s really, really helpful to have the proper perspective for your viva.

The viva is a challenge. It’s not the biggest challenge, the nastiest challenge or the hardest challenge of your PhD.

Your viva is not the end of the world – it’s not even the end of your PhD journey.

You’ve come a long way to get to this point. You’ve overcome many challenges and many of them are bigger challenges! The viva is one more challenge.

It’s not trivial. It’s only one more challenge for someone who is experienced at dealing with challenges.

You’ve come a long way. Remember how you got this far as you approach the end of your PhD journey.

Nathan

A Nice Viva?

Daily Post

Nice doesn’t feel like the right word to describe a viva.

Engaging? Yes.

Fun? Maybe.

Difficult? Certainly!

Nice suggests easy and there are a range of expectations for the viva which seem to exclude an easy time. The viva necessarily involves being asked questions and engaging in a discussion about substantive and original work you have been pursuing for a long period of time. You don’t know the questions until they’re asked. You don’t know what your examiners think until they share it. You probably feel nervous because of how important it is.

Expect a difficult challenge rather than an easy time. Understand that your viva could be enjoyable but don’t expect that it will be nice.

 

PS: if you want to know more of what to expect from your viva then take a look at Viva Survivors Select Volume 1, which I released a week ago. This is my complete collection of helpful viva zines from last year: eight issues, 165 posts from the archives and lots of new resources – and with an introductory offer price until 31st January 2026!

1 2 3 4 5 … 17