Daily viva help for PhDs
You might have a viva that’s finished in an hour or less, but it’s not very likely. You can hope, but that’s about all you can do.
Instead of hoping you get some rare occurrence, why not focus your energy on something that could help you more in your viva?
Read your thesis. Write summaries. Rehearse for the discussion. Do the work to be ready for what happens, rather than hoping you get a rare, short viva.
Ask your family and friends to give you a little space, time and quiet in advance of your viva. You need a good environment to prepare in. They can help provide that for you. Let them know what you need and work with them to make it a reality.
Ask someone to drive you to university on the day of your viva, if you’re having your viva in-person. You need to arrive rested. Travelling by public transport or driving yourself could take away from your focus and energy; asking for a lift could help you to arrive at your viva in a great condition.
Ask yourself to believe something: to believe that you are good enough. To believe that you have come as far as you have through hard work, personal development and making something that matters.
The last favour might be the biggest you could ask, depending on how you’re feeling – but if you can grant the request you’ll find a confidence that will help a lot on viva day.
I’m a lapsed baker.
I like making bread, but it’s a practice I’ve fallen out with of late. I must get back to it. It’s a hobby I’ve let fall by the wayside for too long.
I’m not the world’s greatest at all, but I’ve mixed enough dough enough times that I feel competent. If I read a recipe for a style of loaf or roll I’ve not tried before, I feel capable enough to give it a go. If I look in the cupboard and see we only have half the flour I need, I feel confident to tweak the recipe or make a substitution. And if I decide I want the dough to prove for a long time, or even in the refrigerator, I will happily alter the ratios of different ingredients to compensate.
I haven’t baked once this year, but if you asked me to make a loaf tomorrow I’m sure I could do it.
When you get to your viva, you have more than proved yourself. You have done the work. You have experience. You have knowledge. You can rise to challenges. Your examiners might ask you about something new, something different or something hypothetical. Why should any of that disturb you? Given everything you have done, how could that be beyond you?
Like me and my breadmaking, go with what you know. Refer to how you did something before. Build on past experiences and understanding. Adapt and engage with the discussion your examiners present, rather than simply hope it will be everything you wanted.
Prove yourself in the viva, as you have proven yourself many, many times before.
Draw confidence from your past successes as you work towards your future achievement.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to preparing for the viva. As every thesis and candidate are different, and every set of circumstances for viva prep are different too, so every person has to decide for themselves how best they are going to approach things – rather than listen to someone on the internet telling them what to do.
With all of that said, here are some general ideas from someone on the internet that might help you – or not!
And very importantly: test any advice against how you feel about something. There is a lot of good advice, a lot of well-meant advice and support for the viva, but it doesn’t apply to every situation.
A mock viva is regularly seen as the gold standard, “best way to rehearse,” but it might not be what you need (for lots of possible reasons).
Read the rules of thumb, explore ideas that have worked for others and then square all of that with your experience, your preferences and your needs. It’s helpful when others share advice, but ultimately you have to find a way to do the work.
Plan your prep. You’re busy, you’re tired and you have 101 things to do. Plan your prep so that the work doesn’t add to any stress and pressure you already feel.
Accept your mistakes. Typos and clunky sentences don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. Spot them? Make a note and move on.
Ask for help. You have people around you who care and can support you. Ask for what you need and pay it forward when you’re asked in the future.
Gather your resources. Bring together what you need as early as you can so you don’t waste time or focus later. Make a space and a place for doing the work needed to get ready.
Tell good stories. TO YOURSELF. Remind the nervous person inside you what you have achieved, what you have learned and what you can do. Tell good stories about the last few years to help your confidence.
Be kind to yourself.
There are so many pages in your thesis.
The pages contain the best of your research, told as well as you can; they hold facts and/or figures, opinions and conclusions, details and digressions and everything that you think is needed to tell the story of your PhD research.
The pages in your thesis have big clear borders and section headings, chapter titles and funny words, maybe footnotes and appendices and a bibliography pointing to even more reading!
And the pages in your thesis contain typos and hidden points, possibilities for changes and unclear expressions, lots that you remember and a fair amount you probably don’t.
There are pages and pages and pages of stuff in your thesis. The smallest thesis still contains a lot!
Get ready for your viva by reading, annotating, summarising and feeling proud of the wonderful book you wrote.
Viva advice is available in many forms. There are books, podcasts, blog posts, seminars and people you can ask for help. You could talk to people on the internet, in your department or from your own network. You could speak in person, over email or via Zoom.
Viva advice could cost you money to buy a book while reading a blog post could be free. Searching the internet to find help could cost you time but be very convenient; asking a colleague might cost you in terms of scheduling, but be a quick conversation at the appropriate time.
There’s lots of viva advice and it costs in different ways – but it’s only worth the cost if it helps you to do something (or perhaps not do something) that helps you on the way to your viva. Viva advice is useless if you don’t do something as a result.
Advice is valuable, but the real value comes when you do something.
You’ve written a thesis that captures a signifiant and original contribution to your field.
What now? What could you or someone else do to build on these ideas? How might this inspire someone else?
You’ve done several weeks of prep for your viva and there’s only a few days to go before the big day.
What now? What do you need to do to feel prepared? Who can help and what are your priorities?
Your viva is done and it’s been a great success, just like you hoped.
What now? What do you have to do finish things off? When and how will you get corrections and any other admin done?
Everything is finished. You’ve reached the end of your PhD journey.
What now?
I’m so sorry, but I sat down to write and I have nothing left to say.
Almost six years. That’s how long it took me to write everything that I could say about the viva.
It was a good run, I suppose.
Still, there are almost six years of daily posts to read on the site. You can use the random post link if you want to read something at random, or perhaps use a tag to find support on all sorts of topics like viva prep, examiners and viva confidence.
You could even take a look at the anthology I published last year if you want a really considered take on the viva, what to expect and what to do. It’s the best of five years of writing.
Who knows if I’ll ever publish anything again after today, April 1st 2023, but on the off chance that this is just a strange day where I feel a little foolish, do subscribe if you haven’t already! 😉
A famous saying, or an approximation of it: if you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right.
Our mindset shapes how we view things and how we do things. If you don’t think something will work, you might not do your best to see if it will. If you’re confident of success then you’ll find a way even if you experience setbacks.
What kinds of mindsets could help with the viva?
A mindset, a sentence, a little saying – however you frame them they can motivate action and produce results. They are not the actions, but the framing for them.
For example, done is better than perfect puts limits on drafting and redrafting. It expresses an end-point. It gives a nudge for action – but then you have to take that action. You have to set a timetable, you have to do the work and decide when you stop.
I am here to respond to my examiners’ questions (whatever they might be) reminds you of what you have to do in the viva. To be ready you’ll need to rehearse, read and feel confident in what you do and say.
A mindset leads to action, the action embeds the mindset: a positive cycle that can lead to good outcomes.