Daily viva help for PhDs
The viva is not a test of endurance, a space where you have to simply work through everything until it is done.
You can take a break. You could be offered a break after an hour or two. You could need one and ask. You can ask for a comfort break, a medically-related break, a break to think or check something in your thesis. You can have a break to compose yourself.
There are many reasons to take a break in the viva and no wrong times to ask for one, if you need one.
To get ready for your viva you, in part, have to recognise and accept that you’ve done good work over a long period of time. You have to look at your research and be able to say, “This is good – and this is why it’s good.” Many parts of viva preparation can help you get ready for this:
In preparation for your viva, invest time in recognising your research for what it is: a significant, original contribution to knowledge. Take some time to prepare and be confident that you can say what you’ve done – and why it matters.
If you find a problem during your viva prep, big or small, do you need to solve it immediately?
A typo might just need a note making for later correction.
A clunky sentence could need underlining to revise, so long as it is clear enough.
An old idea could be left alone.
Not everything needs to be addressed when you find it. Maybe some things never need resolving. If you find a problem on the way to getting ready for your viva, ask yourself if you can park it: can you put it to one side and leave it for another time?
It may be that you can’t! But perhaps you can focus first on the bigger work of getting ready rather than every little (or big) issue that you find as you prepare for your viva.
Viva preparation doesn’t have to take a long time. It isn’t a huge amount of work, not compared to the scope and scale of a PhD.
It doesn’t take long, generally, to read a thesis, make some notes, capture thoughts and rehearse for the viva. A few weeks can be enough to space the work out. A few weeks of reflection and preparation.
A few weeks to remind yourself of what you’ve done, how you did it and why you’re capable of succeeding in the viva.
Read your examiners’ recent publications to check that you know how or if their work connects to yours. Find out what they are interested in and what you know about those topics.
Read your thesis and be certain of what you’ve presented: the details, the numbers, the quotes and how it all fits together.
Reflect on your journey and know what that means for you: who you are, what you know and what you can do.
Knowing all of this well help for the viva – and doing all of this is not a hard set of tasks to complete.
A poem, seeing as it’s February 14th!
Most candidates won’t love their viva,
‘Though most PhDs won’t hate it either;
If you prepare and give it a chance,
Examiners won’t lead you a merry dance.
Believe it will be tough
You’ll make your day rough,
But trust what you know
And a good day will show.
Three verses suffice,
I’ll stop this device!
Reflect, prepare – give your confidence a shove!
Thus a greater chance your viva to like, if not love.
Take several years of difficult and demanding work.
Sieve together with months of writing.
Stir in vague half-truths and uncertain expectations.
Add two experienced academics to the mix.
Fold together with nervousness, worry, future plans and, depending on circumstances, pandemic-related uncertainty.
Bring to a slow boil over weeks of preparation and serve at the appropriate time.
A candidate might not feel stressed, but it’s not hard to appreciate why someone could be stressed by the thought of their viva. They would most probably still pass but the experience might be uncomfortable.
There’s no silver bullet to defeat viva stress, but there are remedies for each of the ingredients above.
Review your work and highlight what really matters. Re-read your thesis to be sure of how information flows. Find out more about what happens at vivas. Check recent publications by your examiners. And instead of bottling up stress as you prepare, use that time to build your confidence.
There’s a clear recipe for viva stress – but you don’t have to follow it.
I love starting something with a list. There are lots of lists that can help with getting ready for the viva:
You start something with a list. A list can focus or highlight, but it’s not the real work.
Any of the lists above and any others you might write could lead you to action or summarise information. So once you have a list related to your viva or prep, ask yourself what you need to do next.
Then do it.
I forget where I first heard that “slow is fast and fast is slow” – the point being that taking one’s time to do something helps it to get done more quickly than charging ahead and risking problems.
This idea holds a lot of relevance to viva prep and the viva.
In viva prep, taking your time gives space for the work to be done. You can build up your confidence and the feeling of being ready. It’s something to savour, maybe even something to enjoy! Not something to be crammed in at the last minute or got out of the way. Going fast won’t help someone to get ready for their viva.
And nobody wants a six-hour viva, but pausing to think when asked a question helps more than blurting out the first idea. Pausing to think helps a candidate consider what a question means and what they know. Pausing helps them to find the best words for their response. Far better than trying to get the viva over and done with. Far better than rushing and then needing to clarify – far quicker too.
Take your time. Slow is fast.
Pick a method or process that you have used many times through your PhD. It might involve special equipment or software, precious resources or simply be related to how you get something from journal articles.
Now write the procedure out step by step. Start at the beginning and work through how you would use it to whatever the goal is. Unpick the stages and what triggers them, whether it’s simply moving on to the next piece of work or reaching a certain condition.
“How do you do it?” is a less common question at the viva maybe, but it’s in the background of many candidate concerns about being good enough, knowing enough and feeling confident. If you’re sure that you know how to do something then you have one less thing to worry about.
Find something you have used a lot and take it apart. Be certain of all the steps. Then use this as one more example of something you’re good at; it can help you to show others what you know, but also demonstrate to yourself that you are good.