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Tag: viva preparation

Nathan

Halfway To Ready

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Viva prep is needed to help a candidate be ready for the viva. We could say that if you start your prep three weeks before your viva, then after ten days or so you’re halfway to being ready.

But when you think about it, you might do more work in the week immediately preceding your viva. So then being half-ready skews more to the days just before your viva, when you’re working more intently.

Or maybe it’s most useful to consider: viva prep is spread over several weeks at most, whereas the real work of the PhD takes several years.

Viva prep is a focussed period with one goal, making sure that you are ready for the viva – but by the time you start that prep, you are definitely more than halfway to your goal.

Nathan

Preparing A 3-Minute Summary

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Three minutes is not long to share something of your work, whether on stage for a competition or as part of your viva. Depending on how quickly you talk and the emphasis you give to things, you have between 300 and 400 words at most. Exploring what you would say with that much time and that many words could be a nice way to play with your viva prep.

Start your planning by reflecting with a set of Why-How-What questions:

  • Why does your work matter?
  • How did you do your research?
  • What is the result of your research?

You can focus this more by thinking about your audience: what would they need to hear to help them understand what you’ve done or to help them see the most important aspects?

If it was your examiners, for example, in your viva, you would know that they had read your thesis. You would know that they had studied it and prepared to meet with you. You don’t need to overthink your summary, you simply have to share with them again what you think matters, why it matters – what really stands out from what you’ve done?

Three minutes isn’t long, but it can be enough to highlight something valuable, to emphasise what matters or to introduce a longer period of discussion. Take your time, use it well.

Nathan

Supporting Your Supervisor

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Your supervisor needs to support you after submission. Your supervisor is also probably really busy. The best way to get what you need from them is to be as specific and clear as possible.

Before submission, think about what you might need. A mock viva? General support or questions around particular parts of your research? Insight into examiners or the viva process? Explore what you might need before approaching your supervisor.

Before submission, ask about their schedule. When are they busy? Do they have times where they will be unavailable or less able to help? Find out what could get in the way of you accessing their support.

After submission, ask for help as clearly as you can and with as much notice as you can manage. Be specific in your requests, so your supervisor can respond and match your expectations as closely as possible. There may not be time to get everything you need, so consider what your priorities are and communicate them.

You need help from your supervisor to help you get ready for your viva. Support them and they can support you.

Nathan

At The Last Minute

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Don’t save your viva prep for the day before your viva.

Save that day for reminding yourself of your successes.

Save that day for reinforcing that you’ve come as far as you have by becoming more talented, more knowledgeable, more capable.

Save that day for remembering that you couldn’t have produced your thesis by being lucky – you must be good.

Save that day for relaxing.

Last minute viva prep can be stressful. Save those last minutes for looking back and simply reflecting. Remember that you’re good.

Nathan

The Hours

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Viva prep can take between twenty and thirty hours of work when you consider all of the tasks that could be involved. In the time leading up to your viva, thirty minutes to an hour per day of viva prep could be enough to help you get ready.

It all depends on when you start and how much you need to do.

Start your prep with three weeks to go and spend thirty minutes or an hour each day doing something to help yourself and you’ll have no problem in making things right for the viva. You can take days off or find time to invest an extra hour maybe and the necessary work will seem to be done in no time.

By choice or inactivity you might start your prep with a few days to go. In this case you might have to spend six or seven hours per day on viva prep. It’s not ideal, but it might just be what you have to do.

I think it’s far better to plan for the situation, just a little. Prep for your prep. Take some time to figure out how to make getting ready as unhurried and as stress-free as possible.

You have to put in the hours to be ready for the viva – but you can decide how and when you invest those hours.

Nathan

Disrupted

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There have always been candidates whose plans have been disrupted during their PhD journey. A project finds itself without the resources it needs. A plan loses support. Something just doesn’t work out the way it was expected. Every PhD candidate has faced little bumps and hiccups. In the thesis and at the viva, if they need to, the candidate can explain this usually very simply: why something was disrupted, how it had an impact, what the outcome was or what changes needed to be made.

But in the last year, every PhD candidate has faced disruption. It’s not a matter of if, but how much? Perhaps even how often? And so as submission or the viva approaches for Pandemic-PhDs, it’s not unexpected or unreasonable for candidates to be concerned about discussion around disruption. Perhaps in video vivas for the next few years it’s not a case of if examiners will ask about pandemic disruption, but when that line of questioning will start.

The response is still the same, more or less, even though it might be describing a much bigger disruption than candidates in years past. You can explore how you might make this response by reflecting in advance of the viva:

  • Why was your research disrupted?
  • How did it have an impact?
  • What was the outcome, or what changes did you make?

As with typical starter questions like “Can you summarise your research?” or “How did you get interested?” being asked about disruption due to the pandemic is a simple question to ask. It’s a natural, human question to ask. Your examiners aren’t testing you, they’re not trying to find ways that you should have done more. It’s a chance to reflect – and possibly an opportunity to show how your determination has helped you to get through.

“How was your research disrupted?” is a simple question, but for some it could also be a really difficult question to respond to. It’s sometimes too easy to sit at a distance and think about “disruption” in the abstract. For some candidates the last year may have been devastation rather than disruption. Reflect, prepare as best you can, be ready to share what you can in the viva.

Remember that whatever has happened in the last year you have managed to keep going. That counts for a lot.

Nathan

Answers and Responses

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An answer is a kind of response. An answer is grounded in truth or a compelling argument. An answer could be what you offer after a question…

…if the question is part of a quiz. But the viva isn’t a quiz. It’s not an interview. It’s not even a question-and-answer session.

The viva is a discussion, steered by the questions of your examiners and the responses you offer. A response could be an answer depending on the question – but it could also be an opinion you offer, an idea that you share, a question to clarify a point or a hunch that you feel. There’s a place for answers in the viva, but you might not have an answer for every question.

However, given your knowledge, your skills, your work and your experience, it’s reasonable to expect that you could respond to every question.

Nathan

Keep It Simple

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Thinking about how to prepare for the viva stresses some candidates. There can be lots of factors at play.

I have work, I have kids, I have so little time, I’m tired, I’m stressed, what to do, when to start, where to focus and so on.

I can’t answer every possible concern, but my advice generally comes down to four short thoughts:

  1. Keep it simple.
  2. Set regular prep times.
  3. Complete small tasks.
  4. Ask for support.

Engaging with prep doesn’t need to be much harder than that.

To date, there’s probably over 101 posts on this blog about viva prep. I’ve explored this topic a lot, but you don’t need to do 101 things to be ready for your viva.

Keep it simple. Cut through stress and worry with something as simple as a to-do list. Keep taking small steps to get to where you need to be.

Nathan

The 200 Reference Problem

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“I have 200 references in my bibliography! How can I remember all those details?! What do I do if my examiners ask me about one of them??”

The 200 reference problem is not actually a problem. It’s a not-irrational worry linked to being perfect, the desire to know everything and be ultra-competent, but isn’t something to invest attention in.

How can I remember all those details? You can’t. Don’t try. Look for the most important references and do your best with those. It’s likely you’ve highlighted them in your thesis, but creating an edited bibliography could help you too.

What if my examiners ask me about one of these references? If your examiners ask you about one you can’t remember off-hand, you can check your thesis. It’s there with you in the viva to support your discussion. So check it. But it’s far more likely that your examiners will ask you about something important, something you know, than a random paper buried deep in the seventeenth page of your bibliography.

The 200 reference problem isn’t a problem. It’s a nudge to look again at your references and figure out how to use them as part of getting ready.

Nathan

X-Ray Your Thesis

Daily Post

You need to read your thesis to get ready for the viva. Then look deeply. Really look. What do you see?

  • What are the structures of your chapters like?
  • How do your chapters connect?
  • What are the key points in your work? (and why?)
  • Where are the safe parts you are absolutely sure of?
  • Where are the tricky parts you need to read again?

Scanning your work isn’t sufficient to be ready for your viva, but it helps you get there. Looking at and analysing the larger “bones” of your thesis is better than trying to commit hundreds of pages of words to memory.

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