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Tag: viva questions

Nathan

Nasty

Daily Post

Do you think your examiners would ask a harsh question at the viva? If you think yes, why?

If you think yes, what do you think it would be about?

And if you think yes, how likely do you really think it is?

 

I don’t think it’s common for candidates to worry about particularly nasty questions, but for candidates who do the worry is particularly nasty. If it’s on your mind, don’t wait to find out if your fears will come true at the viva.

Talk to someone. Talk to your supervisor. Review anything and everything related to the topic of the question.

Questions at the viva shouldn’t be nasty but if you’re worried, don’t wait: do something to help yourself.

Nathan

Point By Point

Daily Post

Your examiners will have a lot of questions for you at your viva, along with various comments they will make.

You won’t know them in advance. You can get a sense of what to expect by consulting resources, talking with your supervisors and reflecting on your research. Anything you are asked is purely to help drive the discussion forward and create a space where your examiners can explore you and your work.

 

All of this could make someone feel intimidated but here’s the important thing to remember: you only have to respond to one question or comment at a time. Your examiners don’t serve you twenty questions to start the viva and expect you to keep track of them all. You aren’t given a sheet of comments to work through.

One at a time, point by point, you respond to what your examiners need so that they can confidently say you are good enough.

Nathan

Pause to Think, Think to Respond

Daily Post

One approach to engaging in the viva could be summarised as pause, think, respond.

  • Pause first to give yourself a moment. Consider the question or comment. Take your time.
  • Think to explore whatever ideas come to mind. Remember what you need. Put ideas together.
  • Respond to the point, clearly. Take your time to say whatever you need to say so that your examiners get what they need.

Another way to look at this is to see that all three points are linked. You pause to think, taking time to be sure of what you need to say. You think to respond well, being reflective and careful.

Pause, think, respond. Pause to think, think to respond. Whichever way resonates, the connection is that a candidate engages well at the viva when they take their time.

It doesn’t need to be a hard question for you to take a few moments to consider what you will say or how you will say it.

Nathan

Critical Thoughts

Daily Post

It’s never unreasonable for a PhD candidate to worry about receiving critical questions or comments about their work. The effort and emotion that someone might invest into doing something on the scale of a PhD fully justifies anxiety at the thought of someone else offering different views or difficult questions.

It’s not unreasonable but can be distracting to worry about. Perhaps consider:

  • A critical question about your thesis doesn’t mean that someone is criticising you.
  • A critical comment doesn’t mean that something is wrong.
  • A critical comment about your thesis might require a correction but that doesn’t necessarily mean a big change.
  • A critical question is still an opportunity for you to demonstrate something good about your thesis, the PhD process and your capability.

And in all likelihood you can imagine far more critical questions than your examiners.

 

PS: want to explore more about receiving or responding to questions at the viva? It’s a key topic at Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. I’ll talk about this and a lot more – viva prep, viva expectations and confidence – at my 3-hour live webinar, plus you’ll get a catch-up recording and follow-up materials. Do take a look and see if this session might be right for you.

Nathan

72 Hours To Go

Event, Update

In three days I’m sharing my Viva Survivor webinar live on Zoom. I do this regularly for universities and doctoral training programmes around the UK, but this is only the second time that I’m offering the session with an open registration. After the first time I got some lovely feedback in the days after:

“The session last week was so, so helpful. I really appreciated the practical guidance, which made so much sense and feels do-able and will help my confidence going into the viva. It helped that your manner in the training was calm, clear, concise, and full of empathy and understanding.”

UCLAN PhD Candidate, December 2024

 

Viva Survivor is my attempt to help PhD candidates feel like they are going to be OK at the viva. Afterwards a person will know:

  • what to expect – and what to focus on;
  • what they need to do – and know that they can do it;
  • how to engage at the viva – and know they will do it!
  • how to build confidence – and how to get started on that.

A 3-hour live webinar, a full and helpful session, plenty of time for questions, follow-up resources and a catch-up recording in case you can’t stay for the full time.

Registration for Viva Survivor is open for the next few days and the session starts at 10am, this Thursday 27th March. If you’re looking for help please do take a look – and if you know someone who might be interested do please pass this news on.

Thank you for reading 🙂

Nathan

Usually

Daily Post

It’s hard for me to offer guidance on questions that are usually asked at the viva.

You could search for “PhD viva questions UK” and explore the results. Adding your general research area as part of the search term might produce something more specific.

But every viva is unique and questions are always tailored by examiners to the research, the thesis and the candidate. Examiners need to explore the significant original contribution, unpick the research process and examine the capability of the candidate.

Consequently, it’s hard for someone like me without subject knowledge to suggest questions for someone – but if that candidate reflects on their research and the areas that drive examiners they will be able to identify topics to help their preparation.

There are no questions that are usually asked. There are areas that have to be explored in discussion.

Consider those areas, reflect on your research and see where that thinking leads you in your preparation.

Nathan

Questions For Everyone

Daily Post

A question for your supervisor: how does your thesis meet the expectations of your discipline?

A question for your graduate school: in their experience, are there any common difficult points in the viva process for candidates?

A question for friends who have PhDs: what surprised you about your viva?

A possible question for your examiners at your viva: what did you think?

A question for you: what do you need to feel ready for your viva?

 

PS, one more question: what else do you need to know about the viva? Come and ask me all your questions at my Viva Survivor webinar on March 27th 2025. Registration is open now if you’re looking to find out more about the viva, viva prep, expectations and building confidence.

Nathan

Any Questions

Daily Post

It’s possible to make well-educated guesses about the questions you’ll get at your viva. You know a lot of the material your examiners will want to talk about. Even if you can’t speculate on specific questions you can have a good understanding of themes that might come up.

Any question at the viva is being asked for a purpose: your examiners might want to know more, understand something more clearly, explore around a topic, check your thinking or generally move the discussion forward.

Any question at the viva is being asked with the expectation that you will respond. You listen, pause, breathe, maybe check your thesis, maybe make a note, think a bit and then talk. You need to add to the discussion. Give more evidence that you are a capable researcher.

And don’t forget that you can ask questions at the viva too. Any question you have for your examiners is fine. Seek their opinion, ask for clarity and explore what you need to – but keep in mind that your priority has to be making sure that you engage with what they are asking.

Nathan

Doing Better

Daily Post, Sabbatical

If an examiner asks, “How would you improve your research?” they’re not trying to trick you. There’s no trap in a question like, “What would you change?”

These are honest, simple questions to get you exploring the topic of what you’ve learned through your PhD journey. They might seem like questions that could only lead to more work, but they’re looking for evidence of your commitment to learning and developing, rather than a commitment to doing more for your PhD and your thesis.

You did a lot. Now you can do better.

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on June 7th 2021.

Nathan

A Non-Trivial Pursuit

Daily Post, Sabbatical

Viva candidates pretty much have all the answers. That’s not because the viva is easy or the questions are predictable or because candidates can somehow prepare for every possibility. The viva’s not a quiz game.

Some questions in the viva might be trivial in the sense that they are easy for you to answer. The fact that something seems easy to you doesn’t diminish it in any way.

The viva generally is non-trivial. It’s not a game. Any ease you might feel with questions is down to your hard-earned talent.

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on July 2nd 2018.

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