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Nathan

Highs & Lows

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No project, period or PhD is super-excellent all the time, or super-terrible for that matter.

There’s ups and downs, highs and lows. I can remember some of mine from my PhD days…

Highs from my PhD:

  • Realising the fundamental structure of the first algorithm I created.
  • Winning a poster prize from my department.
  • Realising a key step of a proof before my supervisor – and being able to explain it to him.
  • Being asked to help with two residential skills workshops…
  • …and being invited back to help again after I did a good job the first time!

Lows from my PhD:

  • Postponing two months of supervisory meetings because I was ashamed I hadn’t solved something.
  • Comparing myself to office-mates who seemed so much more capable than me.
  • Not finding an answer to the problem in my seventh chapter.
  • Being super-anxious before every presentation I did.
  • Not admitting when I didn’t understand things.

What have yours been during your PhD? As you get closer to the viva, perhaps make a list of highs and a list of lows. File the lows list away – don’t throw it away, just don’t give it your attention. It doesn’t define you.

Keep the highs list to hand. Give it your attention from time to time through your preparation. You can find confidence from considering the highs of your PhD.

Postscript: this is another variation on the Make Two Lists approach of the wonderful Seth Godin! Credit where credit is due 🙂

Post-postscript: my viva doesn’t feature on either of my lists. I don’t think I know anyone who would put their viva on a list of PhD-highs or PhD-lows. Something to keep in mind maybe…

Nathan

What’s It Worth?

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Your PhD could be worth all the hours and money you have invested.

It could be worth a particular job that you’re aiming for.

It could be several papers you can publish when you’re done.

Or it could just be something you did for a while, not that important in the future – something fun to tell the grandkids about one day.

(“No, no, I’m not that kind of doctor…”)

Whatever it’s worth personally now, or whatever it could be worth in the future, it’s worth finishing it well. Take a step back as you near submission to know what you need to do to pass the viva. It doesn’t take much to prepare and there are lots of people who could help you.

Whatever your PhD is worth to you, it won’t cost a lot to be ready for your viva and secure your success.

Nathan

Fractions

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A PhD typically takes at least three years. A viva typically takes three hours at most.

Writing a thesis could take months of effort. Preparation for the viva takes maybe a few dozen hours.

The viva takes a fraction of the time you spend preparing for it. Preparation takes a fraction of the time spent writing your thesis – which in turn is only a fraction of the time you spend working towards your doctorate.

The fractions matter, but not as much as the whole they are part of: the viva is important, prep is important, but the real difference that helps you pass your PhD comes from the work you do over a long period of time.

Nathan

Viva Expectations: Facts & Feelings

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There are two kinds of expectations you might have for your viva, facts and feelings. In the swirl of thoughts about the end of the PhD, and anticipation for what might happen, it can be difficult to determine whether an expectation is one or the other.

Is it a fact that vivas are long, or is that a feeling?

Are you certain your examiners will be looking for problems or do you just believe it?

Reflect on whatever expectations you have. What do you think you know about the viva?

Which are facts? What do they then mean for your viva?

Which are feelings? What do they tell you about what you might need to do?

What can you do to fine-tune your expectations, to know more facts and to have better feelings for the viva?

Nathan

Stretch Now

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I’m a big fan of the Comfort, Stretch, Panic way of framing challenges. If something is well within your capabilities, it belongs to the first category; if it requires more effort but you can approach it with some confidence then it’s a Stretch. And if it fills you with Panic, then perhaps it’s not something to try for just now.

I think a lot of PhD candidates worry that their viva will be firmly in the Panic Zone. They’re concerned that questions will be beyond them, that pressure will break them, that perhaps the relationships in the room (or over video) will make them feel awful.

It doesn’t matter that most vivas go well – hindsight is great – but what about now? What about when someone is headed for the viva?

Candidates anticipating panic need to stretch themselves. Hoping that questions won’t be too tough won’t help defeat panic. Avoiding more difficult challenges is a way to store up pressure for later. Viva preparation should involve stretching.

For the pre-panic candidate, find new ways to reflect on your work; take time to rehearse for the viva; be open to developing yourself just that little bit more – it might only take a little stretch. Stretching now might help a candidate see that the viva doesn’t have to be a cause for panic.

In fact, it might even be a comfortable experience.

Nathan

Little Reminders

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On Thursday March 19th 2020 I was nervous. The next day I was going to deliver my first Viva Survivor webinar. Lockdown hadn’t started but you could tell it was coming. I knew I would need to move my work to Zoom, so decided to go early. Thankfully, my clients were happy to accept my proposal.

Still, the webinar had been rushed together in three days. I knew the material but had lots of worries about the tech, the pacing and so on. Would it all work? Were my slides OK? I didn’t do slides when I presented!

My daughter, who had just started home schooling, asked me what was wrong, and so I tried to explain. She listened and gave me a hug and wandered off.

The next morning, a few hours before I was to begin, I was nervous but practising my introduction when there was a knock at my office door. My daughter was stood there, with a smile and a gift:

My little friend!

“This is for you Daddy – this is you! You’re going to be fine today. He’s smiling and you can too.”

“Little Nathan,” as I’ve come to call him, has joined me on every webinar since. He makes me smile, and tends to make participants smile too, but more importantly he is a reminder of what I can do and how I want to be when working.

You can’t have Little Nathan, but you can make your own reminders. What will help you remember your talent? What could remind you of your confidence?

What could help you to smile on the day of your viva?

Nathan

Ten 1-Minute Viva Prep Tasks

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Viva Prep!!!

Maybe you’re busy and overwhelmed, or don’t know where to start. Perhaps you only have a few moments in which you could get something done. Or simply you’re looking to be ready.

Here are ten tasks that will all help your viva prep, and each of which can be completed in a minute or less. Some are the first steps of bigger tasks, but can be compartmentalised and done to lay the foundations for future work:

  1. Google and bookmark your internal examiner’s staff page.
  2. Google and bookmark your external examiner’s staff page.
  3. Send a message to a group of researcher-friends to see who would be willing to help with asking you questions for practice.
  4. Stick a Post-it Note at the start of each chapter of your thesis.
  5. Find the regulations for thesis examination for your institution (this page might make that task even quicker).
  6. Find contact details for someone in your graduate school or doctoral college who could answer questions about the viva process.
  7. Gather up a pile of Post-it Notes, pens and stationery to help with viva prep.
  8. Sketch a basic calendar of the days between now and your viva.
  9. Check out the Resources page of this site!
  10. Write I DID THIS clearly on the abstract page of your thesis.

Simple searches and minor tasks all need doing – and only need doing once.

Viva prep takes more than ten minutes, but could begin idea number 10 – with clearly remembering and reinforcing to yourself that YOU have written your thesis. YOU did the work.

YOU are going to pass your viva.

Nathan

What’s Left?

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Do you have ideas that you didn’t have time to develop during your PhD?

Questions you maybe asked at the start that now at the end don’t have answers?

Or perhaps a section or chapter you were going to write but weren’t able to?

Review loose threads, unfinished projects and half-formed ideas as you prepare for the viva. The work at the edges could be of interest to your examiners, and you’ll be able to share it with them if you’ve spent a little time in preparation for that possibility.

More importantly, by contrast, you’ll see why the work that is finished got done. Ask yourself why unfinished projects didn’t make it, and you’ll get a sharper sense of why the work in your thesis got to completion – what was different about what made it in and what didn’t?

Nathan

Ladders, No Snakes

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I’ve been thinking about my mini-vivas resource recently, exploring how to do more with it, or make it more accessible. Naturally, this gets me thinking about other possibilities for game-like resources. I hope to have more to share with you over the summer.

I don’t think I’ll make a viva prep board game. If I did it would be like snakes and ladders – but without the snakes. Every action you take doing viva prep, big or small, moves you closer to the final square, Ready.

You may make an action that shoots you up a ladder to some higher place because it just makes a big difference. Or you may simply move a couple of spaces forward, on track, making progress.

But there are no snakes. There’s no traps or pitfalls to derail your progress and move you away from the finish. You’re only moving onwards and upwards, closer with each action to being ready for the viva.

With that in mind, what small steps are you taking? What big steps could you attempt? And what are the ladders that send you closer to being Ready?

Nathan

Demo Discs

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I’m old enough to remember demo discs: CDs or DVDs that came with gaming magazines and which allowed people to try new games or software before the full release.

(I’m actually old enough to remember demo cassettes, but let’s put that to one side as I start my six-month countdown to my forties…)

Demo discs gave fans the chance to try things. Here’s the first thirty minutes of the new game you’re excited for! Here’s something interesting to whet your appetite! Here’s a little something to get you used to this new thing!

Demo discs were useful to set expectations and raise interest. Demo discs are less common now due to digital downloads, but it’s possible to demo or trial all sorts of things in a useful way.

Like the viva!

A mock viva is a demo for the real thing: it can never be the same, it might be time-limited and you might only be able to trial it once, but it will help set your expectations.

A mini-viva is a demo for your viva: it focusses on specific parts of your work, it’s feature-limited as well as time-limited, but it’s also simple to get started. (user-friendly!)

A seminar is a demo for your viva: it’s not the same format, but showcases a lot of the elements that will go into your viva.

Explore your options for rehearsing for your viva. There are lots of demo options available to help you prepare.

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