I was given a handy sheet of paper when I started my PhD. Entitled Milestones – Cule, it sets out the dates by which I must complete a number of administrative steps. After agreeing on a supervisor, subsequent milestones included submitting a proposal. My examination in order to upgrade my initial registration as an MPhil student to PhD student status took place yesterday.
A milestone. On Kensington Gore.
Each milestone presents its own challenges, and there is that odd phenomenon by which each seems to loom more important than the last. Whilst preparing for my upgrade examination (which consists of a presentation followed by a mini-viva) I was anxious. I was not so worried that I would not pass, but more concerned that my examiners were going to see all too easily the gaps in my knowledge and that I would look a fool.
I sought advice from the blogosphere, which you can read here. My peers in First Life were supportive too, empathising
Oh, I think I made a big drama out of [the upgrade] at the time, but with hindsight it was fine.
On seeing how nervous I was at the first rehersal of my presentation, it was suggested that I
have a shot of vodka before you give the presentation,
an idea which I filed alongside the suggestion that I wear a bowtie. Instead of vodka I went for practise, practise, practise and received helpful feedback on the structure of my talk and the slides. My upgrade was the first presentation I have written consisting, for the most part, of mathematical and statistical concepts. I discovered that equations are much more difficult than figures to make visually interesting,
After giving the presentation, the student has a mini-viva conducted by two examiners. Once I had the presentation down pat, I was most nervous about this. In the event, the mini-viva was more useful than terrifying. One of my examiners pointed out some notational errors in my expression of mathematics, but remarked that he was not surprised to find these given that I do not have a mathematics background. There were some points in my written report that require clarification and others that could be expanded. The examiners did find some gaps in my knowledge, but instead of listing these as failures they suggested references I should read and concepts I should look into.
I passed (phew!) but, as Bob tweeted, this could be something of a mixed blessing. I am not so worried about slaving away for a couple more years, but it dawned on me during the weeks before my upgrade that this is the last exam I have before, well, before the viva after I have submitted my thesis.
Before I started the PhD, an experienced supervisor advised me that one of the challenges of a doctoral thesis is knowing when to finish. A PhD student might struggle to know whether what they have done will be “enough” in the eyes of their examiners. Imperial College does keep an eye on its students’ progress during the years of PhD study, but I am not due any further formal assessment until Submission and The Viva two or more years from now. The prospect of being left to my own devices seems almost more daunting than the treadmill of examinations that featured heavily in my first years at University. Now, it seems all the more important to look for other places my work can be assessed, at a conference or in publication. That way, alongside the rest of the scientific community, I can expect to receive the feedback that, as I learnt from my upgrade mini-viva, can be so useful in suggesting improvements to work completed and further ideas to explore.
The image of a milestone came from amandabnslater on Flickr.
Congrats, nonetheless!
Congrats again!
I always found vivas (and questions after presentations) to be much more terrifying than presenting itself. YOU control the presentation, after all, but have no control over what other people might ask you about it!
At a viva, not being able to answer a given question is not necessarily the end of the world – they’re usually more interested in how you work through the problem, how you think. Questions after a presentation have really thrown me for a loop before though 🙂
Well done you!
I had to do something very similar here, many moons ago (the “reclassification exam”). It was slightly hampered by one of the committee clearly not having read my proposal, and instead asking very general (and difficult-to-answer) questions.
So – now that you’ve validated the title of your blog – BACK TO WORK! 😉
The advice of having a drink before the presentation reminds me of a master’s viva I did (as external examiner) some years ago. I knew the student a bit, and that she was of a very nervous disposition, so when I bumped into her in the corridor when I was being taken off for lunch beforehand I said ‘have a drink’ to her. By this I meant ‘relax, there won’t be serious problems this afternoon’. Unfortunately she translated my comment as meaning ‘you’ll need a stiff drink to survive the viva’ – making her even more nervous. So much for tryiing to be helpful.
I’m not sure if it’s helpful to say that I entirely agree with Cath, the viva questions are hard to predict. This means I find it hard to advise my own students how to prepare. It also means that I can’t judge which of my students are going to be put through the mill because it depends so much on how the interactions between the examiners work out and how interested they are in the work presented. It is certainly the case that the depth of questioning doesn’t necessarily tell the candidate anything about how the viva is going. Questioning can get thorough and hard simply because the examiners are really interested and want a good debate, not because they are grilling the candidate because they’re seen as being marginal. However, these comments may not help you look forward to your final viva, so the best advice now would be to forget about that exam and just have fun with the research between now and then.
” Now, it seems all the more important to look for other places my work can be assessed, at a conference or in publication. That way, alongside the rest of the scientific community, I can expect to receive the feedback that, as I learnt from my upgrade mini-viva, can be so useful in suggesting improvements to work completed and further ideas to explore.”
Perfect. Well done 🙂
You shouldn’t have to worry about knowing when to finish – it should be your supervisor’s job to tell you that. Of course, a supervisor’s view is that you’re ready to submit when they’re sick of seeing you at their door, so it’s a mixed blessing too.
Erika – congrats again. Re. publishing and conferences, see this recent Richard Williams post at NN.
I like your milestone photo, but are you on your way to London or to Hounslow? I think we should be told.
Congrats! Great feeling though, isn’t it? And don’t worry about not knowing when to finish… you’ll find a place when you want to write it up and be done and still do more _after_ the defense/viva/dissortation.
🙂
Many thanks for the comments – and for the congratulations – everybody.
@Cath and @athene- When I was at summer school with other PhD students, a number of students gave presentations and afterwards received quite a grilling. In the evening, I was marvelling at how few of them got flustered. They confessed to having memorised a library of responses, to be delivered with a thoughtful air, if thrown by a question.
was one such example. Not sure it would work in a viva situation though.
@richardpus – Fortunatly that didn’t happen to me, not this time. Funnily enough, I found typos in my report after I had submitted it, but these were not the ones the examiners remarked on.
@Bob – why do I get the feeling you are going to be the one making the decidedly down-to-earth comments on my PhD progress?
@Frank – Hyde Park Corner I suppose, I confess I have never been to Hownslow. I didn’t take that photo (although I have walked past that milestone, which is why I looked for a photo of it). I couldn’t get the link for the photo credit into the caption so I put it at the bottom of the blog post.
@chall – Before the viva I wondered if I would want to look at my work again, having read the report so many times! But as I said in the post, I had useful feedback from my examiners, and now that the exam is over I am looking forward to the next bit of my project.
Thanks again everybody.
Someone has to do it.
In Finland the final viva is public. Before it starts, the student, opponent (examiner) and kustos (chairman) get together to make sure they all know what’s going to happen, and by tradition they have a glass of cognac. So having a drink before an exam (but not too much!) has a precedent.
You guys have the whole formal suit and high hat at the viva right?
Other than that, Sweden’s the same. Public viva, although – as far as I understand it, the likelyhood of you failing the viva is very small since they let you up there in front of people…. UK viva might be different then?
In any event, must feel so good to get it done with before the holidays! (Cause you are taking a holiday, right Erica?)
Yes chall, I am taking time off!
CONGRATULATIONS!
Regarding ongoing reviews, the School of Informatics, where I work, has a system of formal yearly progress reviews. If there’s no such system in place at your institution, I think you should be able to ask your supervisor for a somewhat bigger meeting once a year (perhaps with a co-supervisor?) where they assess your progress. Depending on how much you value plans, you could also draw up a couple of milestones, associate them with time scales, and notice how much you’re slipping (and slip you will. That’s why it’s called research)
@Maria – yes, we have six-monthly reviews, so I am not left completely out on a limb. In the meantime, I am fortunate to get on well with my supervisor. And yes, I have been warned about the slippage.
Well done Erika – i tried to comment earlier on the train but it disappeared. Knowing when to stop can be a problem. there is always one more experiment you can do, one more thing to find out, and the thought of writing up is so horrible that one is inclined to procrastinate. The point at which you stop is always somewhat arbitrary. Bob’s point about it being a supervisor’s job was news to me, but then i had a lousy supervisor.
Your train disappeared?
Trains, eh? Whatcha gonna do?
Sorry Erika, you got the wrong sheet of paper. Please call into my office tomorrow morning to collect your millstones.
P.S. Well done for getting this far without drowning.
Congrats Erika! Hope you had a shot of vodka or at least a few beers after the exam.
Enjoy being left to your own devices. Think me and another grad were talking about this while we were procrastinating in the tea room. We don’t really get any milestones or exams down here, so after a while you do get a bit lazy..(cue supervisor cracking the whip when he finds students in the tea room after lunch hour).
@Henry – I am lucky in that I get on well with my supervisor. There are pros and cons of my project, but I do feel lucky to have such a good relationship with my sup because I know that often the relationship with the supervisor is a problem for PhD students.
@Stephen – heh.
@Bob – In our department we have a number of Finnish students and staff (working on NFBC) so yes, I had heard about the Finnish PhD process. (And witnessed the Finnish party spirit 😉 )
@Linda – Yup, I managed a celebratory evening. I imagine that in the absence of prescribed checkpoints you have to make your own, to avoid spending too much time in the tea room!