How to prep for a PhD viva...

A picture wot I made on a very special occasion

My viva is on the 4th February - just over a week from now.

In my preparation it's been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster: enthusiasm, terror, apathy, anxiety, self-doubt. But I'd be disingenuous if I played down the apathy element. Re-reading my thesis has to be one of the low points of my PhD experience.

Some major thoughts going through my head were "oh my goodness this is the most boring thing I've ever read in my life", "good grief this is badly written", "how on earth did I miss THAT error" and "argh, what was I thinking doing that experiment?!?".

Thankfully, having read lots of 'professional' advice on how to prepare, which sent me into convulsions of fear (as there was NO WAY I could summon the enthusiasm to do the prep work they recommended) I stumbled across a couple of blog posts which calmed me down amazingly well.

I thought I'd share them.

Firstly a post from university of lies on viva prep - lots of swearing and general anger which I felt rather summed up my own experiences (I have tried to be generally positive about the whole experience on here, but find me a PhD student who has not considered packing it all in at some point and I will, well, laugh). This was cathartic and made me feel better, much better.

Next I found two articles written by academics: one about 'the viva experience' and one amusingly entitled 'are PhD examiners really ogres?'. The latter of these was really helpful (go, read it now) as it put me in my examiner's shoes, and made me remember that, like my driving test, they do actually want me to perform at my best. They are not trying to trick me or trip me up. There are things they actually do want to find out.

[slips seamlessly into third person narrative]

The first of these is did you do the work yourself? They need to ascertain if you understood what was being attempted and make sure you didn't just do stuff because you were told to. So you need to understand the subject area and be able to explain why you did certain things.

The second is did you write your thesis yourself? i.e. you didn't just plagiarize the whole thing and put in made up papers you haven't read. Why are you making the arguments you made? Has anyone done other, more recent work? How does your research fit into the bigger picture?

And of course, the clincher: have you contributed to the scientific literature? Did you find out anything new? If you have papers published you can breathe a bit easier on this one, as science says 'yes'. If you don't, be prepared to explain why your research shows something new. Make sure you're at least trying to get it published.

I think everything else fits in around this. Know the background, know why your research is relevant, be prepared to defend your conclusions. Sounds easy, huh?

*laughs nervously*

The main bit of advice I've been given by my supervisors and other academics is: try to enjoy it. Your examiners have actually read your thesis and are trapped in a room with you for 2-3 hours and HAVE to talk to you about your research, which you have been nursing for the past 3-4 (or more...) years. So make the most of it! No one is EVER going to do this for you again. I keep telling myself this.

The last post I read was from the Guardian entitled 'How to survive a PhD viva: 17 top tips' which sums up everything from before: know your stuff, try to relax, and enjoy it.

I recommend it, it all seems pretty sane stuff, and made me feel a whole lot better.

We'll see if they're right. Wish me luck!

Bee x