You Are Here

Tag: viva preparation

Nathan

Five Big Viva Mistakes

Daily Post

First, a candidate can think that vivas are random. It’s true that you won’t know what will happen exactly until you get to yours, but there are general expectations that can help you understand the process.

Second, a candidate can think of examiners as opponents. This just isn’t the case: examiners are prepared, they ask questions and some of those questions could be tough, but that doesn’t make them your enemy.

Third, a candidate could believe that they are finished at submission. The PhD journey is a good foundation for the viva, but the viva is a particular challenge; there’s lots of prep work that can make a difference.

Fourth, a candidate could believe that corrections are a failure. It just isn’t so. Corrections are more work and might not feel fair – but they’re a part of the process for most candidates and not connected with failing at all.

Fifth, a candidate could believe that they aren’t good enough to succeed. But how else could someone get to submission other than by achieving enough along the way? How else could they write a thesis if they weren’t good enough to do the work?

 

Five big mistakes. Five simple remedies.

Find out about expectations. Understand the role of examiners. Invest time in preparation. Accept corrections as part of the process. Reflect on your journey to build your confidence.

Nathan

Why Write A Summary?

Daily Post

You’ve written your thesis, read it in preparation for your viva and maybe made notes on pages.

So why would you write anything else about it? Why would you write a summary as part of your viva prep?

  • To gather your thoughts. A thesis could have tens of thousands of words, but you don’t need all of them to defend your research in the viva. Writing a summary can help gather together your best ideas.
  • To focus your thinking. Sitting and writing with a simple question or prompt can help you to dig deeper into a topic. It’s far better than just making a note.
  • To reorder your ideas. To take highlights from different sections and combine them. To give you an opportunity to arrange your ideas for talking in the viva.

You could summarise a chapter or your whole thesis. You could write paragraphs or lists. You could zero in on particular aspects like the bibliography or methodology, or write a broad overview of all your work.

Why write a summary? To help you get ready for your viva.

Nathan

Prep & Procrastination

Daily Post

If it’s hard to get started on viva prep or you’re putting it off then perhaps you need to make a plan – not to procrastinate but to give yourself some structure.

If you get distracted then maybe you need to put distracting things out of your reach.

Perhaps set a time to do some viva prep and set a time afterwards to do something that feels fun or like a reward.

And if the work feels like too much for right now then maybe you need to rest before you get ready for your viva.

Actually: remember that rest is part of what you need to get ready for your viva.

Nathan

If You Forget

Daily Post

Forgetting something in the viva could happen to any candidate. It’s a reasonable thing to worry about, even if there realistically wouldn’t be a great consequence to a minor lapse in memory.

It’s reasonable to worry about forgetting; if you do then you have to take action to help yourself get past the worry. There’s a lot you could do:

  • Mark out the start of chapters to make your thesis easier to navigate.
  • Mark key sections so you can find important details.
  • Highlight or underline parts of your thesis that you might want to quote.
  • Create summaries of important information.
  • Practise responding to questions to gain comfort for the viva.

There really is a lot you could do if you worry about forgetting something in the viva – and all of this work is part of regular viva preparation!

Nathan

Want And Won’t

Daily Post

To organise your viva prep think about what you want to do and what you won’t do.

You want to read your thesis but you won’t obsessively re-read it.

You want to make a note of typos but you won’t go looking for them.

You want to know about your examiners but you won’t read every paper they’ve ever published.

You want to feel ready for your viva but you won’t over-invest your time.

You want to respond well to questions in the viva but you won’t do that by scripting lots of responses in advance.

You want to feel confident but you probably won’t be able to eliminate nerves completely.

 

You want to do well in your viva. You won’t have to do much in preparation for that outcome.

Nathan

The Prep Sequence

Daily Post

To prepare for the viva well it helps to do the right things.

  • You don’t need to cover your thesis in notes and extra scribbles in every margin. Be targeted to make a better version of your thesis.
  • You don’t need to read and re-read anything and everything you’ve ever done. Reading your thesis and checking important papers is enough.
  • You don’t need to practise every question you can think of for your viva. A mock viva with your supervisor or a good chat with some friends could help you feel prepared for the day.

Good, focussed prep tasks add up to being ready – but it helps to do the right things in the right sequence. Don’t have a mock viva until your thesis is annotated, and don’t annotate your thesis before you’ve read it!

Work effectively to get ready instead of simply doing the right things.

Nathan

The Red Button

Daily Post

There’s a knock at your door.

A courier leaves a package in your arms. It’s not heavy, but it has a strange heft to it. You don’t remember ordering anything. You’re not expecting something. But here it is, addressed to you.

Unwrapping the package reveals a small brown paper parcel and an envelope. The stationery and packaging are both of a good stock, clearly not from a supermarket shelf or high street stationer’s. The handwriting on the envelope is familiar, but you can’t place it.

For your viva, it reads.

You open the parcel first, cutting the string when the knot proves too tricky. Beneath several layers of paper you uncover a polished wooden box. It’s old, you can tell, but you’re not sure where in the world it might come from. You hold it in your cupped palms, the sides are smooth to the touch. There seems to be no lid or opening. It is a box though, not solid wood: the contents don’t shift much as you carefully move it in your hands, but you can tell that the weight is not uniform.

Resting in the curved top surface is a small recess and a red button.

Perplexed by the box you open the envelope. The note inside has a scrawl for a signature, but the contents are clear enough.

Friend. In case this helps with your preparations. What do you not want to be asked in your viva? Think carefully and press the red button, and you won’t be asked. But think carefully. Yours [illegible]

A hoax. A weird joke from a friend who knows your viva is weeks away. And yet…

What if?

No. It couldn’t be. This is a strange sort of gift. You wrap the parcel up and put it in a cupboard.

Two weeks later you take it out and stare at the box and the red button for an hour.

You make a decision.

 

If the box was real, and you could press the red button, what would you not want to be asked in your viva?

The box is not real! But if there’s a question you don’t want to be asked in your viva then you probably need to do something to rehearse for that situation.

Not wanting to be asked a question won’t remove the possibility. Practice and preparation will help just in case you should encounter that one question you really don’t want to be asked.

Nathan

Achievable

Daily Post

Viva preparation doesn’t make you viva-perfect.

Perfection is unattainable.

Viva prep makes you viva-prepared.

Prepared is achievable.

Do the work, just as you always have, and you will be ready.

Nathan

Marking References

Daily Post

Your final thesis can be annotated in preparation for your viva. While you might naturally be drawn to underlining typos or adding a few helpful words to the margins, paying attention to the references you cite can be a simple way to improve your thesis’ usefulness as a resource in the viva.

You could highlight different kinds of reference – information, methodology support, question and so on – in different ink colours to draw distinctions between them. You could find the ten most important ones and add highlighter tabs or bookmarks to draw attention to where you use them. You could write a sentence or two at the top of the page to catch your eye.

You had to pay a lot of attention to the work of other researchers to help your research grow. You had to invest a lot if time in being certain that you understood their work and how to apply it to yours. Now, as you prepare for your viva, take a little more time to consider which of these references has been most helpful to you – and find a good way to mark this out in your thesis.

Nathan

When Do You Know?

Daily Post

Getting ready for the viva can feel hard sometimes. Reading your thesis, checking old notes and papers, finding time for a mock viva, and so on. The whole point is to get to a point where you feel ready.

But when do you know? How do you know that you’re all set and ready for the viva?

As “readiness” is based around how you feel there is always space for doubting yourself. Try some of the following if you’re uncertain or worry about feeling ready:

  • Set targets for your prep. Define what you’re going to do, make a plan and tick things off as they’re completed. Seeing that progress can help how you feel.
  • Ask friends about what they did. Your story and needs may differ in some aspects, but having an example to follow can provide reassurance that you’re doing the right thing.
  • Remember times that you have felt ready for big events and compare how you feel now. If you don’t feel ready in the same way then consider what other actions you could take.

Perhaps we can’t set a time or standard for when you will be ready for the challenge of your viva – but you can set out how you might get to that feeling.

1 … 6 7 8 9 10 … 35