Fail Your Viva: Twelve Steps To Failing Your PhD And Fifty-Eight Tips For Passing

Completing a PhD is a significant accomplishment, but it is not without its challenges. One of the most crucial aspects of obtaining a doctoral degree is passing the viva voce, also known as the PhD defense. However, in this article, we are going to take a slightly different approach. We will explore twelve steps to failing your viva, offering valuable insights into what you should avoid at all costs. Additionally, we will also provide fifty-eight tips for passing your viva with flying colors, ensuring that you can confidently defend your research and successfully earn your PhD.

Step 1: Lack of Preparation

The first step to failing your viva is to lack proper preparation. This involves neglecting to thoroughly review your research, failing to anticipate potential questions, and not seeking feedback from your thesis advisor or peers.

Step 2: Ignoring Your Weaknesses

Failing to identify your weaknesses and address them in your research is another surefire way to fail your viva. Your thesis will be scrutinized, and any weaknesses or inconsistencies will be exposed.

Fail Your Viva - Twelve Steps To Failing Your PhD (And Fifty-Eight Tips For Passing)

by Nathan Ryder(Kindle Edition)

4 out of 5

Language	:	English
File size	:	187 KB
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Print length	:	46 pages
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Tips for Passing Your Viva: Fifty-Eight Crucial Pointers

Now that we have examined twelve steps to failing your viva, let's delve into fifty-eight essential tips for passing your PhD defense:

Passing your viva and obtaining your PhD is a significant milestone in your academic journey. It requires dedication, hard work, and thorough preparation. By avoiding the twelve steps to failure and following the fifty-eight tips for success, you will position yourself for success in defending your research. Remember, the viva is not designed to make you fail; it is an opportunity to showcase your knowledge, expertise, and contributions to your field of study.

Fail Your Viva - Twelve Steps To Failing Your PhD (And Fifty-Eight Tips For Passing)

by Nathan Ryder(Kindle Edition)

4 out of 5

Language	:	English
File size	:	187 KB
Text-to-Speech	:	Enabled
Enhanced typesetting	:	Enabled
Word Wise	:	Enabled
Print length	:	46 pages
Lending	:	Enabled
Screen Reader	:	Supported

FREE

#1 Kindle Bestseller in "Education: College & University" - Amazon.co.uk - January 2013, May 2013, June 2013
#1 Kindle Bestseller in "Education: Study Skills" - Amazon.co.uk - May 2013, June 2013

"This witty guide is filled to bursting point with nugget after golden nugget of important viva survival material." - Ben Libberton, reviewing for The Thesis Whisperer.

"How could I fail my viva?" In this helpful short guide, Dr Nathan Ryder shows twelve steps that can lead to failing the PhD - but more importantly, each chapter also contains clear advice for people who want to pass their viva.

Nathan loves interesting challenges - which is why he works as a freelance skills trainer in Higher Education with postgraduate research students and research staff. Since 2010 the number one course that he has been asked to deliver is a viva preparation workshop for final year PhD students. "Fail Your Viva" contains some of the workshop's key tips, as well as other great ideas for preparing for the viva voce.

Past participants on this workshop at the University of Liverpool have said:
"Thank you very much, this is the most useful course that I've taken since I started my PhD."
"Helped me feel a lot more organised and prepared for my viva."
"A useful course that brought up ideas and questions which I hadn't thought about."

In 2012 he started the Viva Survivors podcast, which features interviews with PhD graduates talking about their research, viva experience and what they have done since finishing the PhD.