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Tag: viva prep

Nathan

Keeping Tabs

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What can you do with sticky notes and highlighter tabs as part of viva prep?

  • Plan out your tasks!
  • Mark out chapters!
  • Point to typos!
  • Highlight key references!
  • Draw attention to important paragraphs!
  • Add notes!
  • Mark out key sections!
  • Colour code information!
  • Leave encouragements for yourself!

This is scratching the surface of course. There’s a lot you can do with very basic stationery to help make your thesis much more valuable as a resource for the viva.

Think about your needs. Keep it simple but get the most from your thesis and do what you can to build yourself up.

Nathan

A Reflection

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To reflect a little ahead of your viva, take a sheet of paper and divide it into four parts. Respond to each of the following questions with a few sentences.

  1. What was the starting point for your most significant work?
  2. What were the three most useful papers you read?
  3. What words come to mind when you think of your PhD challenges?
  4. What was the most helpful skill or understanding that you developed?

You can always build on any of these thoughts by reflecting on your responses and asking why.

A reflection or a summary is a chance to think ahead. What other useful questions can you think of to explore topics and that will help you at your viva?

Nathan

Top & Bottom

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Header and footer margins are fairly big in a formatted thesis. Plenty of space for you to add useful notes.

At the top of a page you might:

  • Write a short sentence about the page contents;
  • Have a keyword;
  • Highlight a particular place on the page;
  • Leave an encouraging note;
  • Write a reminder.

At the bottom of a page you might:

  • Add a remark about a key reference;
  • Summarise any corrections you expect;
  • Note any particular points you expect questions on;
  • Leave another encouraging note;
  • Write another reminder!

There’s a lot of space at the top and bottom of every page in your thesis. Plenty of space for you to add useful notes – but you have to decide what will be most helpful for you.

Nathan

Margin Space

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In preparation for your viva you can use margin space to add to your thesis and make it as useful as possible for your viva.

You also need to balance.

Helpful but not overfull.

It doesn’t make sense to try to cram long sentences in.

Start by deciding on what you need from the space. What do you need to add to your thesis to make it useful? What does it make sense to put in the margin?

Keywords? Stickers and sticky notes? Things that draw attention to specific lines?

You have a lot of space in the borders. Your margins can be a useful space for viva prep, but don’t leave them cramped. The point is to make something useful for your viva.

A little thought and a little annotation goes a long way.

 

PS: viva coming up and an hour free tomorrow morning? Check out the details of 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva which is running at 11am tomorrow (Wednesday 24th September 2025). Find out why you can be confident, get access to a catch-up recording and my pdf guide to getting ready for the viva. Registration closes later this afternoon.

Nathan

Too Busy

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If you are too busy to prepare for your viva then you need a plan. Sketch one out at submission. Just a sketch. Can you spread the work over a month? What could you do in thirty minutes per day over three weeks and maybe an hour or so each day in the week before your viva?

If you are too busy to prepare for your viva then you need help. So ask for help! Talk to your supervisor, your friends, your family and make sure they know what you need with plenty of notice. Ask early so that anyone you live with can give you space and time to get ready.

If you are too busy to prepare for your viva then you need to make your working situation as good as you can. Get your materials together. Always know in advance what you will do with a chunk of prep time. Make yourself comfortable and perhaps find rewards for getting things done.

If you are too busy to prepare for your viva then you need to change how you feel. Reflect on and explore your progress to help you realise just how much you’ve done and just how proud you can be. Build up your confidence for the viva.

 

If you’re busy you still have to prepare. You can make a plan and make it nice but it’s still work. There are no shortcuts but equally it doesn’t have to be stressful.

If you’re busy: make a plan, ask for help, remove friction and build your confidence.

Nathan

Satisfaction

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What do you need or want from your viva for it to be a satisfying experience?

  • You might want to talk about certain topics. You might want to hear your examiners’ opinions. You might want those opinions to be good!
  • You might want your viva to be a certain length or to proceed in a certain way. You might want certain questions or the absence of specific questions.
  • What do you need to know? What might you need to do? Who might you talk to in order to feel happy about your viva before you have it?

And what, of all of these wants and needs that you perceive, is within your control?

If you pin the satisfaction of your viva on things that are out of your control then you can only hope that it will be a good experience.

Think carefully about what you need and want from your viva and don’t rely on hoping that it will all go well.

 

PS: for more than hope of viva success take a look at next week’s 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva webinar on Wednesday 24th September. An hour of viva confidence plus a catch-up recording and pdf guide to getting ready. Full details at the link!

Nathan

Check The Timings

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The length of your viva doesn’t matter for the most part.

There’s an obvious exception: if the amount of time that you are in the viva could have a negative physical, mental or emotional consequence for you then you need to explore what measures could be put in place via your Graduate School or Doctoral College to make sure the viva is fair for you.

That aside, while there are trends and patterns, vivas generally take as long as they need to. Aside from being tiring if they’re long there are no greater likelihoods of negative outcomes based on viva length. Rather than try to make it be quick it’s better to just prepare and engage as well as you can.

 

Viva length is a distraction. Better timing-related questions to ask are:

  • What paperwork do I need to submit ahead of my thesis submission and when do I need to do that?
  • When after submission will I be told the date of my viva?
  • How much notice will I be given?
  • When do I need to declare if I have reasonable adjustments that need to be addressed?
  • How much time is given for different kinds of corrections?
  • If there is any more post-viva paperwork when does that have to be completed by?

One more timing-related question: when will you celebrate your viva success?

 

PS: if you’re looking for more ideas about expectations that are worth focussing on then please check out The Expectations Issue, my latest curated collection of Viva Survivors help.

Nathan

Prep Powers

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What viva superpower would you like?

It might be nice to have Mega-Memory and have perfect recall of every piece of information. Would you prefer to have some kind of Precognition, able to hear your examiners’ questions in your mind hours ahead of time? Or perhaps you’d like Invisibility to hide from questions you don’t want to face?

 

Of course, you won’t be superhuman as a result of viva prep – but you don’t need to be.

Prep helps you to be ready. Building confidence helps you to be certain.

You don’t need to be superhuman but if you can find confidence you have a superpower: the ability to understand what nervousness is and what it means. Your viva is important and you want it to go well. That’s all.

Nathan

Choose Your Highlights

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There’s a lot you could highlight in the text of your thesis as part of viva preparation. You could highlight:

  • Key questions you have found answers to;
  • Essential references you want to make stand out;
  • Quotes that help you to explain something;
  • Key numbers that make sense of data;
  • Important pages or sections you want to be able to find.

There’s a lot you could highlight. It’s your choice to decide what matters most and where to direct your attention.

 

The same is true when it comes to the things you highlight from your PhD journey. What are the highlights of the years you have spent working on your research and thesis? What do you want to remember? Where will you choose to put your attention?

What you choose to highlight makes a difference to your preparation and your confidence for your viva.

Nathan

Know Your Whys

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Why did you want to do a PhD?

Why was your research worth pursuing?

Why do you believe your methods are sound?

Why did you keep going when you faced obstacles and setbacks?

Why does your thesis have a significant and original contribution to knowledge?

Why do you feel capable as a researcher in your field?

 

When you know your whys you have a foundation to respond to most questions at your viva.

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