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Tag: viva prep

Nathan

Over The Top!

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The viva is big, important and can feel a bit scary. You need to be prepared but that doesn’t mean you have to make heroic efforts to get ready.

  • Reading your thesis once is probably enough!
  • A mock viva and a few conversations is probably enough practice!
  • Reading a few papers and making a few summaries is all you need!

A little reading, a little thinking, a little practice… You don’t need to be over the top with your preparations to be ready for your viva.

If your viva feels big and important that’s because it is.

So are you and so is your work.

Nathan

Friends & Colleagues

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Part of being ready for your viva involves knowing your stuff: you need to read your thesis, you need to make notes and you need to rehearse for the viva.

Part of being ready involves knowing what others know: you need to talk with friends and colleagues about how they got ready, discover what their viva experience was like and explore what advice they have for you and your preparations.

Your friends and colleagues are a small part of your prep but don’t forget to ask. They’ll be happy to help, if they can.

Nathan

Preparation Pressure

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Plan your viva prep with the pressure you need to get it done.

Time and circumstances are not completely within your control. Planning ahead allows you to think about the situation you need to work well.

If you need space to think, time to make mistakes and enough freedom that you can take a day off from viva preparation then give yourself plenty of time in your plan. Pressure won’t help you. That’s your preference.

Alternatively, if you feel like you need a bit of pressure, then still plan but start closer to your viva day. Work more intensively and focus your efforts on the week and days immediately leading up to your viva. That’s your preference.

Whatever you feel you need and whatever you decide to do, don’t confuse stress with pressure. A little pressure might help you to work well, but stress will only provide pain to your preparation plans.

Nathan

Anything Else?

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When I’m asked about what a PhD candidate needs to take to their viva I typically respond by talking about their thesis, something to make notes with and something to drink.

The thesis is a valuable resource for the viva. A candidate might not make notes on a minute-by-minute basis in the viva but it is helpful to have the means to make them when they’re needed. Universities very rarely provide refreshments for a viva, so I think it’s important to remind candidates to take something to drink!

These are the typical resources needed on viva day, but your specific research and circumstances might need something else for the viva.

  • Do you have a model that shows some aspect of your research? That might be helpful to show.
  • Have you created a prototype that relates to your research success? Sharing that could be great in the viva.
  • Do you need a screen of some kind to display a video or software? Arrange to have one in your viva.

Your supervisor and department are the best people to talk to if you’re thinking of taking something else to your viva. They will be helpful at exploring the specific expectations and needs for your viva.

Thesis, notebook, water – anything else?

Nathan

1 Page, 3 Questions, 30 Minutes

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A thirty-minute thought-gathering task for viva prep!

Take a single sheet of paper, divide it into three parts and write the following questions, one in each part:

  • Why did you want to do your research?
  • How did you do it?
  • What was the result of all your work?

Then reflect and capture your thoughts for each of these questions. Why did you want to do this? How did you do it? What was the result?

Thirty minutes of thinking and writing won’t give you every single detail of years of research and the many pages in your thesis.

Thirty minutes of work will give you a good overview of what you work means, how you got it done and why it’s a valuable contribution to your discipline.

Nathan

Breathing Room

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Give yourself space to breathe before, during and after your viva.

Take time off before and after to rest; take time to think while you’re in discussion with your examiners.

Rest is an essential part of being able to work well. A pause in the viva helps you respond to questions.

At all stages give yourself the space to work well.

Nathan

Remove Obstacles

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Viva prep can be challenging. To remove friction from the process, find ways to remove obstacles that get in the way. For example:

  • Gather the resources you need before you start.
  • Plan how you will do the work.
  • Ask for help in advance.
  • Find somewhere to work that suits you.
  • Make a good, relaxed space for yourself.
  • Tell people to give you space if you live with others!

These thoughts are off the top of my head. Viva prep is personal: consider your situation and what you might need. Whatever it is, think about how you could achieve a good, quiet, relaxed environment to prepare in. Then take steps to make that a reality.

Viva prep can be challenging to do – so do what you can before you start to remove obstacles from the process.

Nathan

The Wrong Thing

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There’s a chance that you could do something wrong in relation to your viva.

  • You could say the wrong thing in response to a question.
  • You could believe the wrong thing about what to expect.
  • You could remember the wrong thing about an examiner.
  • You could do the wrong thing to prepare.
  • You could think the wrong thing about yourself and your ability.

Any of these are possible. So what can you do?

You could rehearse to get more practice at responding to questions and more generally prepare. You could learn about what to expect of the viva process and have a conversation with your supervisors about your examiners. You could take your time to prepare and be ready. You could reflect on your journey to be sure of who you are and what you can do.

All of these steps could help guard against doing the wrong thing.

Realistically though, if you did something wrong, how negative could that be for you?

For all the little things that could go wrong you’re much more likely to be doing the right thing at your viva.

Nathan

Multipliers for Viva Readiness

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There are many tasks and activities that help someone get ready for their viva. Reading the thesis, rehearsing with a mock viva and so on – the practical stuff that helps.

Alongside what you might need to do, consider how you get it done. How you do something has an impact on your effectiveness, and consequently on your readiness for the viva. All of the following help, for example:

  • Rest helps you to relax and helps you to think.
  • Time to do the work well.
  • A plan to help you feel organised.
  • A quiet, calm space to do the work.
  • Understanding the process of the viva.
  • Time to reflect and think.

It’s unlikely that every aspect of the viva prep work you do and the way you do it will be within your control. Consider how you can start with good intentions and work towards being ready for your viva.

Nathan

Not Ideal

Daily Post

There’s no such thing as a perfect viva. You can be very happy on the day of course, but at the time or afterwards you might feel like you want something else:

  • A different examiner;
  • An opening question that hits differently;
  • A shorter viva;
  • More time to talk about more stuff!
  • Another break;
  • A different date so you can prepare more.

However much time you think you need and whatever circumstances you want, at some point your viva happens. There will be some examiners, it will start and then it will go on until it’s done. You can steer some of these things but you can’t control them. Some of the details of the viva will be totally beyond your control or influence and they might even be not to your preference.

 

So what can you do? Work on and for the things you can control or influence.

  • You might want different examiners, but you can be ready for the ones you have;
  • You can prepare to respond to whatever question they start with;
  • You can find out what to reasonably expect from your viva;
  • You can rehearse to engage with the discussion however long it becomes!
  • You can always ask for whatever breaks you need;
  • And you can, if you really need to, make an honest request to change your viva date if there are extenuating circumstances.

But you probably don’t need more time to prepare – you just need to recognise what you can do to respond well to the situation, however it presents itself.

There is no perfect viva – but then you don’t need idealised circumstances in order to succeed.

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