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Tag: viva rehearsal

Nathan

If You Must Know

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There are lots of tools and processes you can use to help your memory at the viva:

  • You can add bookmarks or sticky notes to your thesis;
  • You can annotate the margins;
  • You can create summaries to help you think ahead of time;
  • You can read your thesis beforehand to refresh your memory;
  • You can read your thesis in the viva to check details;
  • You can rehearse for your viva to give you more confidence.

There are many practical things you can do to help your memory – but don’t forget that you don’t need to remember everything. The viva is not a test of photographic recall of thousands of hours of work, hundreds of papers and the many, many pages of your thesis.

You need to know your stuff but you don’t need to know everything. You can take care of small worries with simple viva prep.

Nathan

Range of Responses

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At the viva you’re expected to engage with the discussion that your examiners facilitate. This means giving responses to their questions and comments, where responses are:

  • Answers, which have a degree of certainty;
  • Opinions, which have a degree of uncertainty;
  • Ideas that you might only be unpicking for the first time;
  • Feelings and hunches which can be expressed as such;
  • Questions that ask for more information;
  • Qualified “I don’t know” statements where you explain why you don’t know.

You don’t need to have an answer for everything. You don’t need to know everything. You do need to be prepared to engage with the discussion.

Make sure you take time to rehearse for your viva and be ready for the range of responses you might give.

Nathan

Clarify & Respond

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Could you repeat that please?

Can I just check…?

Before I respond, can I confirm that you…?

At the viva you need to make sure you’re comfortable with the question you’re trying to respond to.

Clarifying isn’t evasion: you’re not trying to dodge a question but be sure.

You’re not using up time as there’s no time limit: you have as long as you need to respond as well as you can.

Clarify the questions you need to so that you can give the best responses to your examiners.

Nathan

Proto-Questions

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Some PhD candidates think that the way to be ready for the viva is to consider as many questions as possible: list them, think about them, maybe make some notes. But there are just so many questions that someone could be asked. Too many to consider all of the reasonable questions that might occur!

  • Why…? How…? What…?
  • When…? Where…? Who…?
  • And let’s throw in “Which…?” for good measure.
  • And “Why did you…?” and “How did you…?”

These nine little phrases are the beginnings of many questions. Each one could connect with your general research area and your particular PhD research topics in countless ways.

 

Rather than make notes for 1001 specific questions – or even keywords to help with the proto-questions above – simply make the time to find opportunities to rehearse for your viva.

Don’t focus on the mass of possibilities you could face at the viva. Face up to any concerns by practising responding to relevant questions and build your confidence at doing well in the discussion your examiners will prompt.

 

PS: Find more viva help in the latest collection of Viva Survivors Select, The Contribution Issue, newly released this week. Don’t make notes for 1001 questions but do consider how you would explain what your contribution means to your examiners.

Nathan

Listening Back

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“Is it a good idea to record my mock viva?”

I’ve been asked this a lot. I’m not sure it is a good idea.

Rather than simply say no, I always ask a question in response: “What would a recording give you that you really need?”

The experience of a mock viva and maybe a chat with your supervisor afterwards will probably be enough. A mock isn’t about perfecting answers but building confidence in how you respond.

Would listening back to a recording help with that?

I’m not sure it would, but if it sounds good to you then go for it.

Like a lot of viva prep, ask for advice and think for yourself. Make sure you meet your needs.

Nathan

Known & Unknown Questions

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It’s likely that you’re very aware of many questions you’ve been asked in the past:

  • Questions about why you’ve done the research you’ve done;
  • Questions about how you’ve done your research;
  • Questions asked because people don’t know what you know;
  • Questions asked for greater clarity from you;
  • Questions that help unpick what you’ve done;
  • Questions that show the limits or problems of your research.

And, I’m sure, a lot more besides.

It’ll help you to think about these past questions as you prepare for your viva. If any of these questions have been asked several times during your PhD it’s worth thinking about why that is. Perhaps you’ve addressed the question now in your thesis but it’s still worth thinking through. Perhaps some questions are natural consequences of what you’ve done before.

You can be aware of the many questions you’ve been asked in the past. You don’t have to have an answer for all of them though – and you don’t need to worry about the many possible unknown questions you could be asked at your viva.

Or rather, you might worry but you can do more than that.

For example, you can:

  • Read your thesis in preparation;
  • Consider your past questions and think again about how you’ve responded before;
  • Create summaries that help you to focus on what matters in your research;
  • Rehearse for the viva to give you opportunities to think and respond in the moment;
  • Make opportunities to tell others about what you’ve done;
  • Find out more to know the general expectations for viva questions.

You can’t prepare to answer every possible question at the viva by having a big list and thinking about them all – but you can be ready to respond to any possible question that comes up even if it is an unknown.

Nathan

120 Words

Daily Post

I was going through my files in the last few months and found the speech I gave at my sister’s wedding. When I gave the speech I was nervous but I also had a fair amount of experience with speaking in public so it wasn’t too bad. I got some laughs, I encouraged a few heartfelt tears and I didn’t take too long.

To help with the latter I researched a typical speaking speed: the low end estimate is 120 words per minute. If I didn’t want to speak for more than five minutes, I had to say everything I needed in 600 words, give or take. That was my guideline as I drafted and redrafted.

Now, at the viva you’re not required to give a response within a time or word limit, but thinking a little about them in preparation can help you shape your responses:

  • If you write a short 120 word summary over a handful of sentences then you know that’s about a minute of speech.
  • If you write ten keywords then that can help jog some thoughts.
  • If you write a full page you know that’s a lot to say.

You don’t want to take notes and prompts to the viva – although you might want to consider annotating your thesis to mark things out usefully – but you can make a variety of summaries and prompts in advance to help you think through how you talk about things generally.

Adding this to rehearsal can give you a lot of practice at shaping and sharing your thoughts. You’re not limited to 120 words – but maybe considering a range of options can help you find what feels right for you.

Nathan

Rehearsing For Examiners

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A mock viva might be the best thing you could do to be ready for meeting your examiners. Taking time to practise being in the viva environment will help you rehearse listening to questions, taking your time and responding. This should help you feel comfortable and confident for your viva.

It’s not all you can do though. Make sure you’ve had a good conversation with your supervisors about your examiners. Get a sense of who they are and what they do if you don’t know already – and dig deeper by exploring their most recent publications. This can help you appreciate any particular areas of crossover or connection with your research.

Your examiners will be preparing to do their job well at your viva. You need to do the same. They have a responsibility and a role to play: you can be ready for them through rehearsal and preparation.

Nathan

Try Something

Daily Post

Viva prep shouldn’t be a terrible, all-consuming task. It shouldn’t require great changes to how you do things.

It might require that you try something different though.

You might need to try a different approach to your planning to make sure you have time to get things done. You might need to try annotation-making or summary-creating to help you focus differently. Or you might need to try something as you rehearse to give you a good process for responding to questions at the viva.

If you need to try something different during viva prep then there is time to do it. Don’t wait until your viva.

Nathan

What’s The Point?

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Find ways to explore and explain what your work is all about.

  • Summarise your work by writing a page or a paragraph or a sentence about each chapter. The differing scales give you different ways to think it through.
  • Take opportunities to rehearse how you describe your research. You’ll say something different to a casual friend compared with a departmental colleague.
  • Read recent and relevant publications to give more context to how your work matters and relates to your discipline.

There’s a limit to how much you can do for viva prep. The more ways you find to consider the point of your work the better you will become at responding to questions about what it means and what it does.

You don’t need to know everything or have it all worked out but you can build up experience for explaining why your work matters.

 

PS: I’ll dig into these topics a lot more at my live 3-hour Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026. You’ll get four-week access to a recording of the session and follow-up materials too. There’s more information at the link but please get in touch if you have any questions or want to know more. Thanks for reading!

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