You probably thought that now I’d passed my viva, I am done with my blog. Well, no, I am still here. I’ve still got some corrections to do before I’m awarded officially with certificate in hand. I want to make sure that the entire PhD journey is documented, and for most of us, that includes correction time (though, admittedly today is the first day I’ve seriously looked at the reports to assess what needs doing – anyway, not the point of this post.)
It’s been just over a week since I defended my thesis in my PhD viva, and I’m not going to lie..it’s been exhausting. I think partly the stress and associated adrenaline that has been fuelling me, is no longer there. The rest, I think, is that the rest of life that I’ve been neglecting has caught up on me. I guess that’s the bright side to PhDing during a pandemic…it gives you something to focus on!
This past week, I’ve had a lot to think about in relation to both my PhD corrections and also where I sit in the bigger picture of research. I noticed, even the day after my viva, that I framed my description of my work differently thanks to the outside input and reflections during the viva. Instead of focusing on the parts of my thesis I was least happy with, but they took me longest, I focus on the parts that are highest value.
Only in chatting to a couple of others who are close behind me in terms of submission and viva-ing about my experiences and what I was asked did some more details start to come back to me here and there about the prep I had done and how that impacted my viva. So, here goes..here are my viva tips based on my experiences…
- Read your thesis again, cover to cover. I went through mine with pencil in hand scrawling over it where I found typos or parts that I didn’t think were that clear. It is good to refresh your memory on what you’ve actually written rather than your memory of what happened.
- Do your prep, in a way that suits you. I know in my last post, I said that nothing I had prepared came up but it was good for confidence. I’m here to partially revoke that…I do believe that it was what gave me confidence and I didn’t use any of my sticky note reminders. BUT, the prep I did do (sticky notes with literature, being quizzed by my husband/sister etc.), whilst none of the exact questions came up, did make sure I was prepared to think around the topics and attune my knowledge to the questions I was asked. I just had a Google and found a load of useful resources with question after question.
- This is your viva. No kidding, right?! But, no hear it, read it, digest it. This isn’t school where when a teacher tells you what you’ve done is wrong you sit back and say fine and do what they say. This is the project you’ve been living and breathing for years. Obviously, don’t dismiss your examiners views they may make some good points, but it’s okay to politely disagree or reaffirm your intentions if they’ve been mistaken.
- Know your examiners. Your examiners might not be the type of people to reference you back to their work explicitly, but it’s good to know what their areas of interest are as this is the frame in which they’ll likely be viewing your thesis. It’s natural. It’s good to be clued up on this, as you may get a hint at which areas of your thesis they may focus on. Also, it can hint at areas that might not be their expertise where you need to make sure you have other contextual information handy.
- Be prepared for basic questions. It’s so easy to spend the time prepping for the complex and difficult questions about methodology or picky bits. But, the examiners are not there to try and catch you out and part of their role is to check you know what you’re on about…that includes some basic question you might think are too trivial to revise. I’m here to tell you to revise them! You don’t want to stumble on things you know you know.
- What’s your impact? This is perhaps the most important part of PhDing…the so what? What’s the context? How does your work contribute to the field? Essentially, know your research contributions as this is what you’re assessed on..not the volume of time spend on work, but what have you done to better the research your work is part of?
- Try and have some question run throughs. I found it really valuable having “mock viva” sessions with others to practice my question answering skills, but also see things from a different perspective. I did this once with a PhD buddy with their viva a week after mine, and also a few in the lab (incidentally, they have mixed backgrounds which helped!) If you have a presentation to do, practice it.
- Have a 1:1 with your supervisor(s). The week before my viva, I put in a chat with my supervisor to hear their thoughts. My supervisor has experience getting people through their vivas comfortably and is also an examiner herself…the insights about what she would ask if examining me were helpful. Also, it’s reassuring to have someone who knows you and your work tell you they have faith in you!
- Do no work the day of. I think the best thing I did on viva day was not work, and keep myself busy with bits and pieces of not much. I had a nice walk with my husband, went to the barber and picked up some groceries from the market. By the time I got back in, there was a bit of downtime, lunch and getting ready. It meant that I didn’t have all that empty time to think about my viva, but also that I wasn’t last minute cramming which stresses me out more. This probably isn’t such an issue for a morning viva, but even so…plan something so you’re not just sat waiting for a few hours.
- Plan everything (at least) the day before. Everything, I genuinely mean everything. Even if it’s routine and you do it anyway. Plan it. this is not a “normal” day, it’s viva day! I knew that my underlying (and evident) stress would make me overthink everything, so before the day I had picked what I was going to wear, how I was arranging my screen, what I was having for lunch and even which pen I was going to use. It may sound like overkill, but it helped feel in control and meant there was no risk of panicking over non-decisions on the day.
- Check if you need to make notes. As you might have gathered, I have a foggy memory around the time of my viva, even now I remember different bits and pieces here and there. So notes are important for afterwards/corrections…check if you need to make them? I had my supervisor present who offered to take notes for me. Also at the beginning when I was scribbling down things I thought were important my examiners let me know that there was no need as they would sent me marked up versions of my thesis too. Save yourself another thing to do and check!
Remember, every viva is different and everyone experiences things differently. My viva did not feel like a chat amongst peers, but to be honest, I never expected it to because that’s who I am (particularly when I know I’m being assessed). I am not going to be one of those people who sits back and tells you to “enjoy your viva”, depending on who you are you might well enjoy it. I would love to be that type of person, but I’m not and hearing/seeing it everywhere sort of made me feel like something was wrong with me. I appreciated my viva, the feedback, the highlighting of my achievements, the support and suggestions for improvement, but I didn’t enjoy it…not even in hindsight.
If you’ve made it through to viva point and you’ve really done your own work, you’re ready. Here in the UK, the viva is there to primarily check three things (in my view): that you did the work, that you know why you made the decisions and that you can talk about where it sits in the context/why you did your work. The rest, really, is in your thesis.
Shruti's PhD 