You Are Here

Tag: viva feelings

Nathan

The Happy Candidate

Daily Post

You could feel happy at your viva because of the opportunity to talk with two experienced academics about your work. You could feel happy that your PhD journey is almost finished. You could feel happy that your hard work has paid off!

You could feel happy for many reasons at your viva – and I hope you do. If that’s not the first feeling that comes to you then do what you can to navigate your way to finding some positive thoughts. Find a little ray of happiness, anything you can, for meeting your examiners and heading towards the conclusion of your doctoral journey.

Whatever you feel, work towards feeling ready. Work towards feeling as good as you can for the work still to do.

Nathan

Red, Yellow, Green

Daily Post

A viva prep exercise to sort out worries and concerns.

Take two sheets of paper. On one of them, write down all the things you can think of that make you worried or concerned for your viva.

  • Think about gaps in knowledge. What else do you need to know and what are you uncertain about?
  • Reflect on your thesis. What do you need to do to feel confident about talking about your work?
  • Think about yourself. What do you need to do to feel good about presenting yourself as a capable researcher in the viva?

When you feel you’ve emptied your head, make three columns on the second sheet of paper. Title them Red, Yellow and Green. You’re going to make three lists, but these aren’t static records so you might want to write in pencil or use sticky notes to capture thoughts.

Red, Yellow and Green are going to be your way of solving your worries. You can’t just leave them. You have to work past worries to help get ready for your viva. Use the columns in the following way:

  • Red: this column captures worries that you don’t know what to do with. You’re aware of the situation, but you haven’t figured out what will resolve it. Items in this column need solutions. Ask yourself what you could do or who you could get help from.
  • Yellow: move items from Red to Yellow when you have an idea of what to do. Maybe you need to perform a particular task (like annotate your thesis or have a mock viva). Maybe you need to ask someone for help. Items in the Yellow column are in-progress; you’re on your way to resolving the problem.
  • Green: move items from Yellow to Green when you have sorted out the worry. It’s no longer a problem. Now, it serves as a record: you’re making progress, getting closer to feeling ready for your viva.

It’s natural to have worries or problems related to the viva. Succeeding at the viva matters.

If something is bothering you it probably won’t go away by itself. Get the worries out of your brain so that you can focus on doing something about them.

Nathan

Hold On To Confidence

Daily Post

It’s not wrong to feel nervous before your viva. It’s really important! It comes at the end of years of work and you want to succeed. It’s almost certain that anyone would feel a bit nervous, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be confident too.

Confidence follows your actions. It grows as a result of the things we do. Once you realise it for yourself, in and amongst all of the things you do and the success you achieve, you need to hold on tight. Don’t let it get away.

Remind yourself why you feel confident of your ability. What do you do? What have you achieved? What stats or highlights help you remember?

Keep doing the things that help you to be confident, and keep reminding yourself of how far you’ve come and why you’ve made it this far.

Keep going.

 

PS: At the time of publication there is a little under eight hours to back 101 Steps To A Great Viva on Kickstarter! This really is your last chance to be one of the first people to get my new helpful little guide. Take a look and back it now if you want to be sure to get a copy.

Nathan

Risky

Daily Post

Are there risks of danger, problems or disappointment in the viva?

In general when we consider risk it’s worth assessing three elements:

  • The Bad Thing: the problem or outcome you’re concerned about.
  • The Likelihood Of The Bad Thing: an honest assessment of how certain The Bad Thing is to happen.
  • The Potential Impact Of The Bad Thing: an honest assessment of what might follow if The Bad Thing happens.

So, for example: your examiners find a typo. That’s very likely in a book with tens of thousands of words, but it wouldn’t have a great impact on your success or the work needed to correct it.

Or: your examiners could find a section in your thesis that they don’t agree with. There’s a fair chance of that happening when considering new and interesting research. The impact could be an in-depth discussion of the points in the viva or perhaps a request for certain amendments to your thesis.

An extreme example: it’s possible to fail your viva. That would have an enormous negative impact in many ways – but it isn’t very likely at all. It’s a very rare situation.

If you think or feel something about a potential Bad Thing, ask yourself how likely it is. Ask yourself what might happen. Then consider what you really need to do in response, either to reduce the chance of it happening or lessen the impact if it does.

Nathan

The Question No-one Asks

Daily Post

Almost thirteen years of workshops, seminars and webinars and no-one has ever asked me, “What do I do if I feel fine about my viva?”

  • I’ve met candidates who feel excited, but they also admit to needing to know more about the process.
  • I’ve met candidates who feel capable, but want to know how to prepare well.
  • I’ve met candidates who are reasonably confident and yet they don’t know what to do about a particular problem or issue they’ve realised.

And I’ve met a lot of candidates who are nervous, uncertain of the process or unsure of what to do to prepare.

People feel lots of things about their viva. I’ve never met a candidate who told me they just felt fine about theirs.

 

Of course, if you do then continue to do whatever has helped you to feel that way! Tell me (and everyone!) what your secret is. Relax, read your thesis and continue to build on how you feel.

If you don’t feel fine, which seems far more likely, then reflect on what’s holding you back.

What do you need to know? What do you need to do? Who do you need to ask for help?

Then take the steps you have to take to lead yourself to being ready for the viva. Maybe you won’t arrive at fine, but you can certainly feel capable and confident for meeting your examiners.

Nathan

Have Fun

Daily Post

Smile! Enjoy yourself. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Things we don’t often say to someone when they have a viva soon…

But isn’t that a shame?

Yes, there’s work to do and an exam to pass, questions to respond to and a thesis to defend. Of course you have to share your research, discuss your thesis and demonstrate your excellence.

But who says that can’t be fun, enjoyable, a positive experience? Why don’t we encourage that more?

I’ll start: I hope you have a great time at your viva.

Nathan

Generating Confidence

Daily Post

What could you do to boost or maintain your confidence for your viva?

  • Think about your research and focus on the good stuff?
  • Read about your examiners and get a sense of who they are?
  • Select an outfit that helps you feel good for your viva?
  • Reflect on the successes from your PhD journey?
  • Create and listen to a playlist of awesome music?
  • Have a mock viva to convince yourself that you know your stuff?
  • Highlight your strengths as a researcher?

Confidence helps put nervousness in perspective, and it’s to be expected that you might feel nervous for your viva. It matters. It’s important. Confidence won’t remove nervous thoughts, but it will help you to remember why you’re there.

There’s no magic pill for confidence, no simple button press. Thankfully, there are many things you could try. What else could you do to build your confidence?

Nathan

Impatience & The Viva

Daily Post

It’s not wrong to want your viva to be done. That’s a natural response to the challenge and the situation.

But don’t try to rush your viva so it’s over as soon as possible. Don’t try to get every thought out as quickly as you can.

Likewise viva prep takes time. Give yourself a break before you begin. Take your time to do it well and take your time to think.

Perhaps if you feel impatient for your prep to be done or your viva to be over, stop and – if you can – think for a moment about what the real issue is. What’s driving how you feel? And what can you do about it?

Nathan

Drivers, Worries, Actions

Daily Post

In the viva, examiners drive the discussion by asking questions that:

  1. Explore your contribution;
  2. Investigate your authorship;
  3. Assess your capability as a researcher.

In turn, a candidate typically worries that:

  1. They haven’t done enough;
  2. They won’t remember enough about the process;
  3. They aren’t good enough to get a PhD.

To combat these a candidate could:

  1. Review their thesis and work to build confidence in the contribution;
  2. Rehearse explaining how they did the PhD to build confidence in describing the work;
  3. Reflect and remember how they have developed to build confidence in themselves.

Preparation helps with the discussion and lessening worries!

1 … 7 8 9 10 11 … 13