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Nathan

Escape The Room

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We’ve become a little obsessed with puzzles and escape rooms in our house. It’s odd because we’ve not actually visited a real-life one yet!

My family has been enjoying mystery and challenge programmes that involve escape rooms, as well as video games and board games that have layers of puzzles. We can’t get enough. A visit to a real world escape room is somewhere in our plans for this year.

 

I was reflecting on this yesterday and it made me think of the viva and some questions I’ve been asked in the past:

  • How can I make my viva shorter?
  • What can I do to answer questions quickly?
  • How can I steer my examiners away from topics?
  • If I write a shorter thesis does that put a limit on the length of my viva?
  • Seriously, what can I do to make my viva only an hour?!

In all of the many themes for escape rooms I wonder if anyone has done a viva-themed one?

There are lots of verbs I would associate with the viva, but escape isn’t one of them. You can’t make your viva shorter; you can make it better. You can take your time to respond well. You don’t need to give quick answers: you need to give good responses.

Your examiners can’t be steered. They have things they need to explore with you and that’s that. Work towards giving good responses. And of course, there’s no data that suggests a shorter thesis leads to a shorter viva!

Engage with your viva rather than try to escape from it. Worries about doing well are valid, but try to invest your energy in being great instead of getting away.

Nathan

Worry & Questions

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Lots of viva worries are centred around responding to questions.

  • Viva Worry 1: I’ll freeze.
  • Viva Worry 2: My examiners will ask me something difficult.
  • Viva Worry 3: I’ll get a question I can’t answer.

A deeper worry is that some combination of these will all happen at the same time.

 

These are real and human worries, particularly for a PhD candidate. Being nervous for an exam is understandable. Being worried is understandable.

You can learn to sit with nerves – they’re a recognition that something is important – but worry is something that has to be dealt with proactively.

You can work past the three viva worries above – and others – by taking action.

If you’re worried you’ll freeze then find opportunities to rehearse. Mock vivas and conversations can help you to get a rhythm for responding to questions and comments.

If you’re worried that your examiners will ask something difficult then ask your supervisor to practise with you by asking difficult questions. Take time to think and respond.

If you’re worried about questions you can’t answer then you have to  explore what the viva is really like. You might get questions you can’t answer but not every question needs an answer. You might be asked for an opinion or a theory or just your first impressions.

 

Worry doesn’t just go away. You have to work your way past it.

Nathan

Take Five

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Five minutes is enough time to do something to help your viva prep.

  • Add bookmarks to the start of every thesis chapter.
  • Highlight important information in a section.
  • Make notes on your thesis contribution.
  • Draft one hundred words to summarise a chapter.
  • Write a list of things you need to do to prepare.
  • Send a few messages to friends asking for their support.

There are many viva prep tasks that take more than five minutes but five minutes can be enough to make a difference.

Nathan

6 Ways To Read Your Thesis

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An incomplete list of ways to read your thesis in preparation for your viva.

  1. At the last minute: waiting until the day before to cram it into your brain!
  2. Casually and without care: just reading whenever and wherever with no agenda.
  3. Late in the day: after all of the other work for the day is done and you’re tired.
  4. At a glance: just skimmed because you wrote it!
  5. Obsessively: read and re-read and re-read again to make it stick.
  6. Planned and with purpose: read carefully to help your thinking.

To avoid any doubts, I’m clearly signposting the last option!

Sketch out a plan around submission time for how you will read your thesis. Don’t leave it until the day before your viva. Take time to read your thesis in a way that suits you and your other responsibilities. Consider the best time to get the work done. Read your thesis carefully at least once. You don’t have to re-read your work: you just need to feel confident that you know what you’ve presented in your thesis.

Sketch a plan. Read your thesis well. Be prepared.

Nathan

Capturing Thoughts

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There are lots of posts on this site that encourage creating summaries or making lists. This isn’t because your examiners need to see them or expect you to quote from them in the viva.

Creating a summary is an opportunity to capture your thoughts on a topic, whether that’s the broad details of a research method or the key points of your examiners’ recent papers.

A summary or a list helps put your thoughts into words. If you have any topics, ideas, results or research that you need to make clearer as you prepare then take an hour to write a summary. You’re not crafting perfect paragraphs to quote: you’re finding words to help you think clearly.

Take a little time during your viva prep to make notes, write summaries and break down key information.

Nathan

Gasp!

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If a question or comment in your viva makes you freeze then just stop.

Breathe again.

Think again.

Try to understand the question.

Think some more.

Breathe again.

And if the question or comment still makes you freeze then reflect, “Why?”

Why is this question or comment giving you trouble?

Once you start thinking about that, even if you still don’t have an answer or an opinion you’ll have the beginning of a response that you can share with your examiners.

If a question or comment gives you pause, makes you freeze or even makes you gasp, just sit with it a moment. Take a little time to think and explore how you can still respond.

Nathan

Before You Prepare

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Viva prep is a set of tasks and activities you complete between submission and the viva which help you to feel ready for the viva. Before submission, to create a good space for your prep, do the following:

  • Read the viva regulations for your university.
  • Gather some nice stationery to help with note-making.
  • Sketch out a rough plan for how you will do your prep.
  • Ask your supervisor about their availability.
  • Ask friends and family to support your prep time.
  • Finish your research and your thesis.

Of course, the last one is pretty important!

The other points are also importatant but they’ll take up far less time to help you make a good space for getting ready for your viva.

Nathan

Umbrellas

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Viva prep is a bit like carrying an umbrella on an uncertain day.

You look out the window. There are clouds. They’re grey but not dark grey. It might rain but it might not. You could leave the umbrella and take a chance or pick it up, carry it with you, make the effort and be sure that you’re covered.

After years of work, learning, results, development and growth, it’s reasonable to assume that a PhD candidate is good. Viva prep then helps ensure that a candidate is good for the particular challenge they’ll find at the viva. They might be fine, but prep will make sure that they are.

Carrying an umbrella is not a great effort to be sure of keeping dry. Neither is viva prep so great an undertaking to be sure of doing well.

You might be fine without it, but why take the risk?

Nathan

Questions By Moonlight

Daily Post

How about a little music to prepare by?

Whenever I need a quick thinking break or need to gather my ideas I listen to Clair de lune by Debussy. I think it’s my favourite piece of music. Listening to it never fails to give me five minutes of happy thought-arranging.

Get a piece of paper and a pen, pick a question from below and press play to have five minutes of reflective viva prep.

  • What are you most proud of in your PhD journey?
  • Which chapter was the most rewarding to write?
  • What are you looking forward to talking about in the viva?
  • What steps can you take to build your confidence now?
  • What do you hope you’ll be asked in your viva?

Small pieces of prep help. Little reflections help to build up the picture of how you think and feel about your thesis. And a little music can’t hurt either.

Nathan

Getting Help

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Need help for your viva? Here are seven tips:

  1. Know what you need. It’s easier to get help if you can appreciate the gap that help helps with! If you’re not sure, reflect and try to put it into words. Is it a gap in knowledge? Is it a practical gap?
  2. Ask the right person. Supervisors can provide different support to your Graduate School.
  3. Ask early! Most people are happy to help but everyone is busy. If you know you’re going to need something, ask sooner rather than later so you can arrange a good time.
  4. Stay positive. It’s not wrong to be nervous about the viva, but horror stories and bad experiences really are rare. Don’t look for the rare negatives at the expense of the many positive experiences.
  5. Check advice. Most advice shared is done so with good intentions, but it might not feel right for you. Check with another source if you can. If advice seems unhelpful – because it is grounded in a certain research discipline or uses specific equipment – see if you can broaden it out to a deeper point.
  6. Don’t wait! I’ve seen many times over the years where people umm and ahh before they get support. If you need help, ask for help.
  7. Subscribe to Viva Survivors. There is a new post on this site every single day. You can get it sent to your inbox for free, no spam, no pop-ups: this is the blog of daily viva help 🙂

You have to respond to questions in the viva by yourself, but you don’t have to do everything alone when getting ready. Get the help you need.

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