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Tag: viva prep

Nathan

Viva Care Package

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Imagine that you were to receive a care package in the month before your viva. What would you hope to find inside?

  • Would you like some cool stationery to make your prep a little more fun?
  • Would a selection of calming teabags or focussing coffees be helpful?
  • How about a lovely notebook to help your thesis reflections and summaries?
  • Or would you like a book all about how to prepare well?
  • Would you want a happy pin badge to wear to your viva?

Maybe you’d even like some vouchers you could trade with your friends: an hour of viva rehearsal over coffee perhaps?

 

Now, much as I would like to, I am not setting up a viva care package side hustle!

(not yet anyway!)

Before your viva think about what you need to help you get ready. What could you provide for yourself to help boost your preparations? What could you ask other people to help you with?

And, if you’re in a position to do so, what could you offer to others to help with their viva preparations?

 

PS: What else do you need to help you be ready for your viva? Maybe you need to check out Viva Survivors Select 13, The Personal Issue. The latest issue of my viva help zine explores all the ways in which the viva is a really personal thing for a candidate. Please take a look and pass on the news if you know someone who might need some help.

Nathan

Top Of The Page

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Annotating your thesis is a useful way to make a more valuable resource for your viva and spend some productive time thinking about your work in preparation.

There are lots of things you could do – add bookmarks, underline words, highlight sections – but here are five possibilities for the top of a page:

  • Write a ten-word-or-less summary of the page’s contents.
  • Use keywords to give a quick overview of the page’s highlights.
  • List one key reference for the page.
  • Add a possible question that could be asked about the contents.
  • Write “You can do it” as a reminder that you’re going to succeed.

What else could you add to the top of each page in your thesis to help you out? And what other annotations are you considering for your thesis?

 

PS: if you are looking for more viva help then you have to check out Viva Survivors Select 13, The Personal Issue. The latest issue of my viva help zine came out yesterday and is packed with advice and help on all the ways the viva is personal to the candidate – just like making your annotation right for you!

Nathan

EDQs

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Or Extremely Difficult Questions.

You could make some educated guesses at what these might be for your viva:

  • A question on a topic you struggle to talk about.
  • A question about the bit of your PhD you didn’t like.
  • Something which is all about an examiner’s work.
  • Something completely unexpected.

It might be a surprise in the moment or something you’ve been dreading but an EDQ isn’t the end of the world – or, worse, the end of your viva.

If you’re faced with an EDQ then:

  • Pause and think before you respond – which is good advice for a REQ* as well.
  • Remember you can ask for clarity. Ask your examiners to say more.
  • Remember to take your time. More than simply pausing, remember it’s not a race or a rush.
  • Explore your thesis to help you support what you’re saying.

Remember that every question is an opportunity for you to demonstrate something but you are not expected to know everything. EDQs don’t have to dominate how you engage with your viva or be on your mind as you prepare.

 

* Really Easy Question!

Nathan

Curated Confidence

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Confidence follows from honestly reflecting on your work and achievements. You have to explore and remind yourself that you have done well. To build confidence for your viva you can look back over your PhD and see the effort you’ve invested and the progress you’ve made and hopefully feel good.

It won’t help to hold on to everything though.

You learn from your mistakes and setbacks, but don’t bring those in to the gallery of recollections. Like a curator, pick and choose which things to focus on. You can find confidence by focussing on what has helped you the most or the work where you notice the most growth.

You don’t need to try to remember everything to find confidence for your viva. Explore your PhD journey, then arrange a gallery of the best bits. Curate your confidence for your viva.

Nathan

Non-PhD Vivas

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A PhD isn’t the only research degree that has a viva.

The vast majority of PGRs I meet at webinars are PhD candidates but in the last six months I’ve also shared viva help with MPhil candidates, MScR candidates – and a couple of MRes researchers too.

Over the years I’ve also had professional doctorate candidates reach out to me, EngD researchers and more. There are many flavours of PGR that have a viva!

 

A natural question for non-PhD PGRs is “how will my viva be different?”

Let’s start with how they’re the same:

  • Vivas for research degrees have the same purpose. Your examiners are exploring the contribution you’ve made and how capable you are as a researcher.
  • Vivas for research degrees require the same kind of preparation. You need to take time to read, to think and to rehearse – and you need a plan that works well for you.
  • Vivas for research degrees follow regulations. There are ways of doing things and you can learn all about it in advance.
  • Vivas for research degrees always have a little of the unknown about them. There are expectations but you can’t know everything until you’re in your viva.

To explore the differences it’s good to start with regulations for your university. See what they say about your institutional expectations and requirements. Then talk with other people who have been in your situation to get a sense of what that was like.

Viva prep is the same kind of work whether you have done a PhD or, say, an MPhil. You’ll probably do less prep work for an MPhil viva because there is typically less material to read and prepare for. The kind of work is the same and the importance is the same but it might not take as long. The same could be true for your viva too.

 

Whatever your research degree, know that your examiners are prepared. Know that the purpose is the same. Know that you can be prepared and remember that you did the work.

It helps to explore expectations for your viva, whatever your degree, but it helps more to know that you are ready for it whatever happens.

Nathan

Begin Again

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If you could start your PhD over would you?

  • If you could start over, what would you keep the same?
  • What would you change?
  • What other options would you consider?
  • What kind of an impact would changes make?
  • And how much of what you would change – or keep the same – are you only able to see with hindsight?

You can’t begin again – but considering this kind of thought exercise can be helpful to unpack your experience, your growth and the development of your research before your viva.

Nathan

In The Mix

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I often ask webinar participants how they’re feeling about their viva. I use a poll which allows people to pick one option or write in how they’re feeling.

  • Some say they’re excited. They’re quite rare!
  • A lot of people say they feel uncertain or unprepared.
  • The majority of people say they feel nervous, anxious or worried about their viva – and most of those people say nervous.
  • Also: nervous is really common whether someone is days, weeks or months away from their viva.

I’ve been thinking lately that I need to update the poll to allow people to give more than one response. Candidates can feel a mix of things all at once: they feel excited and nervous. They might feel like they’re unprepared right now but confident they’ll be OK in the end.

What’s your mix of emotions like? If you feel a little negative then maybe you have to consider how to change that state. If you feel something positive then think about how to hold on to it and maybe build on it. And if you are feeling a mix then think about how the positive can offset the negative.

What steps could help you to feel better about your mix of viva feelings?

Nathan

If You Must Know

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There are lots of tools and processes you can use to help your memory at the viva:

  • You can add bookmarks or sticky notes to your thesis;
  • You can annotate the margins;
  • You can create summaries to help you think ahead of time;
  • You can read your thesis beforehand to refresh your memory;
  • You can read your thesis in the viva to check details;
  • You can rehearse for your viva to give you more confidence.

There are many practical things you can do to help your memory – but don’t forget that you don’t need to remember everything. The viva is not a test of photographic recall of thousands of hours of work, hundreds of papers and the many, many pages of your thesis.

You need to know your stuff but you don’t need to know everything. You can take care of small worries with simple viva prep.

Nathan

Range of Responses

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At the viva you’re expected to engage with the discussion that your examiners facilitate. This means giving responses to their questions and comments, where responses are:

  • Answers, which have a degree of certainty;
  • Opinions, which have a degree of uncertainty;
  • Ideas that you might only be unpicking for the first time;
  • Feelings and hunches which can be expressed as such;
  • Questions that ask for more information;
  • Qualified “I don’t know” statements where you explain why you don’t know.

You don’t need to have an answer for everything. You don’t need to know everything. You do need to be prepared to engage with the discussion.

Make sure you take time to rehearse for your viva and be ready for the range of responses you might give.

Nathan

Make Some Notes

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Make some notes when you submit your thesis: think about what you need to do to prepare for your viva. Sketch out a plan of what you might do.

Make some notes as you prepare: short lists can be tiny summaries and marginalia can make your thesis more helpful for your viva.

Make some notes while you’re in your viva: capture thoughts if it helps, note down your examiners’ questions and do whatever will help. (making note-taking part of any viva rehearsal can make this easier)

Make some notes when your viva is done: this will help you to remember what it was like in the years that follow, both for your own recollection and to help others.

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