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Nathan

Rest Days

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Rest days are important features of a viva prep plan. There’s not so much to do for viva preparation that you have to be working non-stop. It helps to take a break. Allow your mind to consider things from afar and mull over ideas.

Also: just rest.

Take time off from looking at your thesis, thinking about your examiners and wondering what will happen at your viva. It could help to look ahead and plan your rest; tidy up your responsibilities so that you can really take a break.

More than anything, take time for yourself: the knowledgeable, capable and hard-working researcher with their viva in the near future.

Sounds like someone who could use a day off.

Nathan

Invest In Prep

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Viva prep doesn’t cost you twenty or thirty hours. You don’t simply spend all those hours on a task. You invest your time to be ready.

You invest your time in preparation to create a better situation in your viva and a better you for that situation.

Verbs matter. Invest rather than spend your time to be ready for your viva.

Nathan

Boss Music

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Video game music has come a long way from my childhood in the 1980s. Beeps and boops have been replaced by orchestral compositions that rival classical composers and the biggest movies. The scale, variety and sheer power of some video game scores is astonishing.

I really like it when music for boss battles is different to the general music and soundscape for the rest of the game. Some games use different music for different bosses, usually with great significance – and some even distinguish different phases of the same fight!

(this piece of music from the sublime Hades springs to mind)

Examiners are not the final bosses of your PhD journey and you’re certainly not there to fight them! But one connecting element between them and video game boss music is that there is a change of pace. A different challenge. More focus. More urgency. A greater need to do well and a limited circumstance to do it.

You already know everything you need to know. You’ve completed many challenges to get to the viva. As you prepare, breathe and think, “What else? What am I bringing to this? What else do I need?”

And as music is a fantastic catalyst for action and emotion, consider what music could help you as you prepare. What could you listen to in order to feel calm? To feel happy? To give you focus? What could you listen to and feel more confident?

(this piece of music from the sublime Hades springs to mind!)

Nathan

Look For Connections

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A small part of viva prep is to make sure you have a little familiarity with your examiners’ work.

You might read that and think, “Of course I know about my examiners! I cited them ten times!” That’s not always the case. It may be that your examiners have been chosen for other reasons. Perhaps they are in the same field but you didn’t need to know about their work to do your research.

As you prepare, make sure you know about their work. Just a little. Look at their last two or three papers. Get a sense of what they do, what they know and what they have focused on recently as researchers.

In particular, look for connections between their work and yours. What are the common methods? What are the common themes or interests? When you reflect more on this, what is it likely that they would be familiar with as they come to read your thesis? Is there anything you need to know more about them and their work to feel ready for your viva?

You don’t need to be an expert in your examiners and their research. A little work to explore the connections between you and them will be enough to help you be ready for your viva.

Nathan

What Do You Need?

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Not want, need.

What do you need for your viva?

  • Do you need certain people or kinds of people to be your examiners?
  • Do you need particular support from your supervisors or others?
  • Do you need confidence or a better memory?
  • Do you need to feel a certain way for your viva?

What do you need?

When you figure out a list of your needs you can start to figure out how you can meet those needs – or meet them as much as possible.

What do you need? Then what can you do?

Nathan

On Viva Wisdom

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How many of the following bits of viva wisdom have you heard before?

  • The first question will be easy, the last one won’t be.
  • No-one fails.
  • Your examiners will just be your supervisor’s friends, so there’s nothing to worry about.
  • You just need to read your thesis.
  • Your supervisors wouldn’t let you submit if your thesis wasn’t good enough.

I’ve heard them many times – although, to be fair, I have worked in this area for over a decade and spoken to a lot of people about vivas! None of the points above are strictly true – the first and last, while veering closest to reality, lack a lot of context.

Viva wisdom is often shared as a means to defuse worries and anxiety. It’s an attempt to cover everyone or every situation. Viva wisdom often falls short because it doesn’t address specific concerns.

I’m not a fan of typical viva wisdom.

Advice? Tips? Practical approaches? Yes!

Wisdom? No.

Look for help, not simple statements. If a piece of advice or wisdom about the viva seems too simple or too good to be true, look deeper.

Look for the actions you need to take, because getting ready for the viva involves taking steps and doing things!

Nathan

Getting Started

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Again and again this year I am reminded of a lesson I’ve heard many times.

“Getting started changes everything.”

When I was wondering what to do exactly for 101 Steps To A Great Viva or how to run a Kickstarter, getting started gave me a sense of how much work to do and what the possibilities were.

When I was turning over ideas for a bespoke webinar but not making progress, getting started made me see what ideas I could incorporate from other sessions and helped me find cool things to do with the cohort.

And when I was feeling overwhelmed by a big writing project, getting started allowed me to get a feel for the topic, the points and the humour I wanted to bring to it.

Planning is essential. Information is necessary. A little forethought can really help.

But sometimes these things leads to procrastination. Delay. Avoidance.

Starting viva prep changes everything: you’re on the path to being ready.

Starting to reflect on your PhD journey changes everything: you build your confidence rather than wonder if you’re good enough.

Starting your viva changes everything: no more nerves, no more wondering what will happen.

Nathan

Your Significant Original Contribution

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It’s right to reflect on the significant original contribution that your research makes to your field as part of your viva preparation. It helps to consider how you can share that. If your examiners asked you to dig deeper, what would you say? What would you focus on?

Making notes, writing summaries and talking can all help to make that easier in the viva.

While it’s right to focus on the contribution in your research and thesis, it’s also important to invest time reflecting on yourself: what is the significant and original contribution you have made to your own development while working for your PhD?

What have you learned? What do you know now? What can you do now that you couldn’t before?

You need a good thesis to pass your viva. You also need to be sure that you are a good candidate. Reflect on the contributions you have made to both over the course of your PhD.

Nathan

Getting Ready & Being Ready

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The process and the goal.

Getting ready means reading your thesis, asking questions, checking things, making notes and building confidence. Being ready means feeling certain that your viva will be successful.

Before you sit down to get ready, think ahead to what you want to feel when you are ready. What does being ready mean for you? What would you have done? What would convince you that you’re ready for your viva?

When you have a sense of what it would mean for you to be ready for your viva, you can plan and do your preparations much more easily.

Nathan

Burst Your Bubble

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You’re in a bubble.

How could you not be? You’ve read lots of papers and done lots of relevant work and now you’ve written a book! You’re in a bubble, thinking what you think and knowing what you know and life is fine.

Now here come your examiners. They want to talk to you. They need to talk to you. They’ve been reading what you wrote and they have questions. They have comments. They have opinions and until you speak to them you won’t know what they want to discuss.

You can make some educated guesses, but those will be from inside your bubble. They’ll be based on what you did, what you know and what you wrote. Good guesses, but limited.

Unless…

Unless you burst your bubble by reading your examiners’ recent publications. You can take a little time before your viva to get a sense of who they are, what they do and what they think. You can find out a little more information, become more well-informed and see if there’s anything else you need to know to be prepared for your viva.

Being in your bubble has served you well, but you need more to be ready for your examiners.

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