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Tag: viva prep

Nathan

One Weird Trick

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I can’t believe I’ve never shared this before!

It’s this one weird trick that helps with the viva!!

One thing that universities, examiners and PhD graduates don’t want you to know!!!

Whatever discipline you are in, however long you have to go before your viva and whatever you feel about your viva, this one weird trick will help!!!!

Are you ready?

Do the work.

That’s it, the one weird trick that helps with the viva: do the work.

Take your time, but do the work. Feel frustrated, but do the work. Procrastinate, but take the time to do the work.

Have questions? Do the work to find out the answers. Unsure about something? Do the work to ask someone who can give you certainty. Feel unprepared for your viva? Do the work to feel ready.

And sometimes it’s really hard! Sometimes it is hard to get up and do the work you need to do because you’re tired, or you’re nervous or you just don’t know what you want or where you’re going.

There are even times where you know you need to do something but you don’t what that something is!

Then you have to do the work to figure it out.

 

Ask for help. Plan your prep. Rehearse for your viva. Explore expectations. Maybe finish your thesis first!

But do the work.

Do the work because it’s the one weird trick that really will help with everything.

Nathan

Three Successes

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To build confidence for your viva, write down three successes from your PhD journey. Think back over the years of work and find three things that have been good: maybe things you did well, results that didn’t exist before or ideas that you have developed and shared.

Find three successes and write a little about each, focussing on why they are a success and what you did to make them great. You don’t need to spend long to capture something good.

In fact, you could probably take ten minutes every day to write about three successes from your PhD journey. Between submission and the viva make a habit of looking back and finding three successes from your PhD: make a habit of building your confidence for the viva.

Nathan

Playful Prep

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Plan your prep. Do the work. Focus on the goal.

But play.

  • Use fun stationery to mark up your thesis.
  • Find music that helps you feel happy while you do the work – or helps you to feel better generally.
  • Draw simple pictures to summarise your work.
  • Reward your progress to keep you engaged.
  • Rest and play and rest some more.

Playful prep has a place in getting ready for the viva. There’s work to do and milestones to meet – but you can take time to enjoy what you’re doing and play on the way to the viva.

Nathan

Part Of Something

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Remember that as you finish your PhD journey and have your viva that you are part of something.

Several somethings!

  • You are part of a community: there are many people around you who can offer support.
  • You are part of a tradition: lots of vivas happen every year and lots have happened in the past – stories and expectations are not hard to find.
  • You are part of a genealogy of researchers: whatever your path from here on, you can still share your experience and help with future generations, just as you have had help on your journey.

Also remember that your PhD journey is only a part of you: not all of you and not the best of you. As you finish that journey you have to figure out what it really means for your future and what you will do next.

Nathan

Your Work Matters

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In preparation for your viva, take some time to reflect on why your work makes a difference. Unpick the ideas that matter, reflect on why your work is valuable.

Your examiners want to talk to you about why your research is a significant, original contribution – and so you have to be ready to talk, discuss, think, reflect and respond.

Between submission and your viva:

  • Read your thesis and focus on what makes your work matter.
  • Highlight contributions that make a clear difference.
  • Use reflective questions to write summaries about key elements.
  • Rehearse responding to questions and discuss your work with your supervisors and others.

Remember that your work matters. It must – or you wouldn’t have come as far as you have on this journey.

Nathan

Pause To…

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…think in the viva.

…reflect on what you’re about to say to your examiners.

…decide how you will get ready when you’ve submitted your thesis.

…compose a response to a difficult question in practice or in your viva.

…realise that there is nothing wrong with pausing, and that a pause is necessary at many points for many reasons in the journey from submission to the viva – and from the start to the end of your discussion with your examiners.

…prepare well for the viva and engage well in the viva.

Nathan

Impatience & The Viva

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It’s not wrong to want your viva to be done. That’s a natural response to the challenge and the situation.

But don’t try to rush your viva so it’s over as soon as possible. Don’t try to get every thought out as quickly as you can.

Likewise viva prep takes time. Give yourself a break before you begin. Take your time to do it well and take your time to think.

Perhaps if you feel impatient for your prep to be done or your viva to be over, stop and – if you can – think for a moment about what the real issue is. What’s driving how you feel? And what can you do about it?

Nathan

Elevate Your Pitch

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It’s unlikely that you will have to give an elevator pitch of your research at the viva. I’ve never heard of examiners asking for a polished thirty-second or two-minute overview of 3+ years of work.

But that said, exploring a concise summary could be a useful part of viva prep. You could:

  • Highlight the most important points of your research;
  • Organise your thinking about key ideas;
  • Rehearse using technical terms and jargon;
  • Practise talking about your work.

Your examiners don’t want a pre-prepared speech as a response in your viva, but rehearsing a pitch for your research could help how you think and talk on the day.

Nathan

Measuring Up

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My wife found beautiful curtains in a local charity shop. They were a lovely pattern, they would look good alongside the colour of our living room walls and tone in with the furniture. They were clean and in great condition, and the shop was asking a very fair price for them.

She brought them home, and I leapt into action. Stepladders out, old curtains down, curtain hooks off, hooks on the new curtains and back up the stepladders to hang them.

And discover that the beautiful curtains were six inches too short for the length of our windows.

All of which is a fun little true story to say: find out as much as you can about realistic and relevant viva expectations before you take steps to get ready for your viva. Make sure that your understanding of the viva measures up to expectations – rather than have your actions fall short of what’s needed!

Nathan

Annotation & Other Things

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In case you didn’t spot it at the time, I was interviewed a few months ago for The PhD Life Raft Podcast! Dr Emma Brodzinski runs The PhD Life Raft and hosts the podcast. I was a returning guest, having appeared back in 2021 as well.

It was great fun to talk this time about all things viva prep, but in particular thesis annotation and the kinds of practical steps candidates can take to get ready for the viva – topics that regular readers of this blog will know I am very interested in.

Take a listen when you have half an hour: we talk a lot about viva prep and the viva – as well as Keep Going, the Viva Survivors anthology I published last year!

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