The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - How to nail your psychology viva

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi there, it's Marianne here. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to quickly let you know about something exciting that's happening right now. If you've ever wondered how to create income that works for you, rather than constantly trading your time for money, then you'll love the Race to Recurring Revenue Challenge with my business mentor, Lisa Johnson. This challenge is designed to help you build sustainable income streams. And whether you're an aspiring psychologist, a mental health professional, or in a completely different field,

Starting point is 00:00:32 the principles can work for you. There are also wonderful prizes to be won directly by Lisa herself. And if you join the challenge by my link, you can be in with a chance of winning a one-to-one hours coaching with me, Dr. Marianne Trent. Do you want to know more? Of course you do. Head to my link tree, Dr. Marianne Trent, or check out my social media channels, or send me a quick DM and I'll get you all the details. Right, let's get on with today's episode. Today we are thinking about what a viva is when it comes to psychology and how you can prepare optimally for yours or support somebody who might need to do the same for theirs. Stay

Starting point is 00:01:14 right to the end because we've got so many tips to get through. Hope you find it so useful. If you're looking to become a psychologist Then let this be your guide With this podcast at your side You'll be on your way to being qualified It's the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast With Dr. Marianne Trent and I'm a qualified clinical psychologist. I'm able to say that to you because I am a doctor and because I got that doctorate by doing the thesis part of my training. If I hadn't passed my viva and my research components, I would not be a doctor. And so that is why it's super important to make sure that we're

Starting point is 00:02:21 supporting you optimally to know what vas are and how to blast yours out of the park with any luck. So first and foremost, what is a viva? And you might be like, a what now? Let me tell you how you spell that in case it's not a term that you've heard before. It's V-I-V-A. If you can think back to any French or German or Spanish exams that you might have done, perhaps for your GCSEs, there might well have been an oral component to that. I certainly had a French GCSE oral, which didn't go hugely well, but that is in essence a bit of a viva. It's a spoken examination where you talk about your knowledge of a subject. The knowledge in question for this viva that we're talking about will either be

Starting point is 00:03:11 your undergraduate dissertation, your master's thesis, or your doctoral or PhD thesis. And this viva will give you the opportunity to defend your work and to explain it it assists the examiners who will be on your panel to understand and to truly recognize that you are competent and proficient and that your research is going to be sound and robust it also allows them to check that you are meeting the requirements for the qualification being awarded. So it does feel like kind of a big deal because it is. It's really the final hurdle for any of your qualifications. Not all undergraduate courses offer vivas. Certainly I didn't have a viva for my dissertation but I know that some undergraduate universities do ask their students to sit vivas.

Starting point is 00:04:06 So firstly we're going to talk a bit more about what a viva is, what it might look like and then I'm going to guide you through pretty much about 12 top tips for areas to consider. So a viva is usually conducted at your university or remotely perhaps if you have been doing an online program of study it will usually consist of somebody from your course who hasn't been involved in your research it wouldn't be appropriate or ethical for your own research supervisor to do your viva but there will also be an external person on the panel at least one more than one, but certainly in my viva, it was one person from the course and one person externally who comes in and holds you to account and holds the standards. And that was in a two to one meeting. And it was scary, you know, it felt like

Starting point is 00:05:03 kind of a big deal, but I don't really think I realized what a big deal it might be because I thought it was all going to be breezy I thought it was all going to be fine and I might guide you through that as I talk about my top tips so let's plow on with top tip number one so tip number one is understanding the format. So this can be really useful for you to know how long it's expected to last. And it might be how long is a piece of string? Because if it goes really well, you might be in and out, you know, or if you get a little bit hauled over the coals, it might well be longer than expected. But is there in your university or place of study is there a maximum length or a minimum length that you're kept for asking those questions can be really useful who

Starting point is 00:05:51 is going to be doing your viva that's part of understanding the format so i knew in advance who was going to be doing my viva and this was then my opportunity to google those people and the research that they had done to get a feel for what their own particular preference for methodology might be and for how rigorous and robust they might be too. I didn't want any surprises, it also gave me the chance to work out what they're going to look like because I googled them so at least it just brings down those levels of anxiety a little bit. As part of understanding the format it can be really useful for you to know what the assessment criteria are. So what are those benchmarks that you're trying to measure up against?

Starting point is 00:06:33 So knowing where you will and perhaps won't score points can be really useful to make sure that you're covering those points if and when required. So top tip number two is reviewing your research. I know it can feel a bit boring and it can feel like you are totally up to the hilt with where you're at with your research but you're going to need to make time to read it in its entirety and to almost treat it as if it's not your baby and to treat it with a critical inquiring mind if you can. If this was the first time you'd seen this piece of work what would you be thinking about it? If you've used any particular approaches and you've used any kind of manuals or particular models for the approaches that you've used then it might well be helpful to revisit those books or that

Starting point is 00:07:25 guidance so that you are up to speed with what the gold standard would be and how yours might deviate outside of that. That was a little bit of a learning point for me, I have to say. So I was doing grounded theory and was using a particular type of grounded theory from a particular book, but hadn't ever quite got around to reading the book in its entirety, don't do that. Don't do that. Learn from me. Read all of the books that you say that you've read. Don't just skim read, because it might well come back and bite you in the bum. So you need to be in a position where you know your own work, where you know what you've said, and where you are able to defend your own methodology. You might need to

Starting point is 00:08:13 explain in more detail why you did certain things, why you didn't do certain things, what happened in case it's not clear. And we don't want any apprentice style interview blips or Dragon's Den brain farts where you're like, oh, I don't know. I can't remember. So going through your own research timeline, how it's been, what you did, what the stumbling blocks were and reading the stuff that you've submitted can be so important. You should know this inside and out. You are the expert on this and you need to demonstrate that. So top tip number three, when you're doing your prep, you need to perhaps be thinking about anticipating any questions that you might be asked. Might be useful to think about the strengths and weaknesses for your work and maybe to think about trying to record yourself talking out loud about some of those as if answering those questions. This can really help in easing your comfortability curve with hearing your own voice

Starting point is 00:09:20 and hearing yourself talk about you and your work and treating yourself as credible and important and worthwhile of course. If you're working in a placement or you've got some other form of paid work it might be a really nice opportunity to ask if you can present at a work meeting so that you can about your research so that you can get used to talking about it and then answering any questions that they might field to you. Encourage them to do so because that's really, really useful experience and stuff that you just might not see coming. It's better to have that among your colleagues rather than have it in the viva. Nobody likes to be blindsided. Okay, top tip number four. You're going to need to go back to the literature. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You're going to need to have

Starting point is 00:10:15 a look at the literature that you've included in your literature review and in your introduction. You're going to need to see if there's any new research that might have come up since you last did that. You're going to have to have a look at how your research fits into the broader picture of what's out there or what's come out there since. How have you helped to advance this knowledge base? Top tip number five is thinking about concise summaries. And for this, you might find it useful to listen to or watch episode 65 of the podcast, how to learn and revise better for exams or interviews. So in terms of the summaries for what you're going to need to think about, It can be really useful to summarise your key areas. So for example, methodology, findings, conclusions into concise bullet points that you are then able to talk about freely and that are free for you to be able to draw upon when you need to.

Starting point is 00:11:19 This is why I refer you to the episode 65 because there are some limitations to summarising. So do check out that at the end and I'll put a link for that at the end of this episode. So let's take a quick break here and I'll be back along with loads more tips that you're not going to want to miss out on. If you do find this content helpful, please do rate it and review it if you are listening on Spotify or Apple. And if you're watching on YouTube, please do like, subscribe and comment. Donations or tip for the content that I create for you is so gratefully received and there is information in the show notes or in the description below if you want to check that out. I'll be back along very soon. See you soon. I'll be back along very soon. I'll see you on the other side. Become a psychologist and let this be your guide. Filled with lessons and experience that will help you get qualified.

Starting point is 00:12:31 So come and take a look. It's right here in this book. It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective. It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective. It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective. Welcome back along. Thank you for listening this far. I hope you'll find the rest of this really useful too. So top tip number six is practicing your presentation skills. This is where you're going to have to get your webcam out, sit, look at yourself, practice eye contact with people, practice, you know, talking to people, hearing your voice out loud loud looking at your body language when you talk about your research you know we want nice open um you know perhaps some gestures we don't want not to and like if

Starting point is 00:13:34 you're hating the research area we don't want that to flow out of you as you're talking about it practice perhaps sitting with your hands in a loose, unclenched position to really encourage all the good hormones to flow, not the stress ones as much as possible. You might want to talk at yourself in a mirror as well. As you're about to brush your teeth or maybe even as you're brushing your teeth, talk to yourself. Talk yourself through your research at regular opportunities. Practice, practice, practice, hopefully makes perfect. And speaking of practice, number seven is thinking about whether you can arrange a mock viva. This might be with your actual research supervisor, either clinical or academic, or maybe both.

Starting point is 00:14:30 This will help familiarise you with the process of Aviva and maybe, you know, strengthen some of those Achilles heels if you feel there are some. This is a chance for people who might already be familiar with your research and your work to grill you and to compassionately support you in this process, which can feel quite anxiety provoking at times. Top tip number eight is to really think about the weaknesses for your research. None of us are perfect people. And as a result, we don't create and produce perfect research. And that has to be okay. We do the best that we can. But there's always things that could be improved or, you know, might be better in an ideal world. So if we think about what the gold standard might have been, in terms of your recruitment size, in terms of the methodology,

Starting point is 00:15:17 in terms of the quality of the stuff you were able to get out of your research, think about those as weaknesses, but things that, you know, you might well be asked. Think about how you'd respond constructively to any criticism or weaknesses that are identified that you may or may not have considered. Being wounded and hurt and gutted and devastated and hostile in your defence of this, as if it is actually one of your children who's been criticized is probably not going to be super helpful. So just allowing people to go through this process with you because it's their job to do it and because in order to get your qualification it's part of the process you need to be prepared for the fact that they might not love what you've done. They may feel that it could have been done

Starting point is 00:16:05 better. Top tip number nine is staying up to date. So could you read some new books or publications? Could you broaden your understanding of this area to make sure that you've got things to be able to draw upon and reference if the time comes for it at your viva. What are the hot themes and debates in this area at the moment? Who are the movers and the shakers? You know, what research are they doing that might not be exactly similar, but might have some overlap with yours? So now we are on to the top tips about the day. It's happening. It's here. You know, you've lost all the sleep you're going to lose over this, hopefully. Today is the day of your viva. We're going to be looking at top tip number 10, being aiming to stay calm and confident.

Starting point is 00:16:58 Deep breaths, you know, positive mindset, imagining that it's going to go well. You know, you can practice that eventuality as well. It should hopefully feel like the people on your panel are there to hold you to rigor, but not rip you to shreds. The aim is that this is a scholarly discussion about your work, not hopefully to be really sneaky and try and catch you off guard. So you can go in there and allow yourself to just do your best, you know, try and stay within your window of tolerance, try and think about the way you're sitting. So we want to be sitting with an open posture, not like this with our shoulders really hunched forward, because that might tell the body that we are in fight and flight mode. And we want to be letting the adrenaline flow to help aid our

Starting point is 00:17:52 performance. But we don't want to go so fast and furious with that adrenaline and the cortisol that our performance is affected negatively. Top tip number 11 is that it's okay to ask for clarification. If things are phrased in a weird way or you are tipping outside of your window of tolerance, don't be afraid to ask for the question again or to ask for a little bit of clarification to help your understanding of what the question is. Take some breaths, just take a moment. If you know that you find it helpful, then maybe consider taking a notepad with you. It's better to check rather than kind of ramble or waffle on and give something that just isn't super useful to what you're talking about, because that's not going to help you shine. And last but not least, just be thoughtful, honest,

Starting point is 00:18:44 interested and polite. If you don't know the answer to something, it's OK to say that. And sometimes with clients still now, I'm like, I'm not quite sure, but I'll make sure that I make a note to try and find that out for you. Or just, you know, that is a really interesting point. I hadn't considered that. I'm not actually sure of the answer. But this is maybe how I would go about you know finding that answer. So maybe I'd look at the literature base, maybe I'd look at the evidence base, maybe I'd consider what books might be around there or maybe I'd contact an expert in

Starting point is 00:19:16 the field to help illuminate my understanding of this and to see where there might be some overlap between my work and theirs. You could offer alternative perspectives if you're not quite sure of that answer. Just think around the problem, but be honest. You know, we don't expect you to know everything. This is, you know, definitely not a perfectionist approach that we're striving for. So yeah, remembering that the viva is supposed to be an opportunity to showcase you and your brilliant work rather than feeling like you're being hauled over the coals and ripped to shreds can be really key too. Some people really enjoy their viva from start to finish because it's talking about an area that they are passionate and proud of and I hope that you will absolutely be in that camp. I really enjoyed the first and the third paper section of my viva. Did not enjoy

Starting point is 00:20:06 the second bit, the middle bit. With proper preparation and what is it they say, prior planning prevents poor performance. And we don't want poor performance for you. So I hope you found my whistle-stop tour through my 12 top tips for preparing for and understanding what your viva will be really useful if you did find it helpful please do rate and review the podcast and like subscribe and comment if watching on youtube if you think someone else might find this content useful please do share it with them sharing really is caring thank you so much for being part of my world. If you've got ideas for future podcast episodes, please do let me know. Otherwise, stay kind to

Starting point is 00:20:50 yourself and I'll catch up with you for the next episode of the Aspiring Psychologist podcast, which will be with you from 6am on Monday. Take care. Bye. If you're looking to become a psychologist Then let this be your guide With this podcast at your side You'll be on your way to being qualified It's the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast My name's Jana and I'm a trainee psychological wellbeing practitioner. I read the Clinical Psych well-being practitioner. I read the Clinical Psychologist Collective book.

Starting point is 00:21:57 I found it really interesting about all the different stories and how people got to become a clinical psychologist. It just amazed me how many different routes there are to get there and there's no perfect way to become one and this kind of filled me with confidence that no I'm not doing it wrong and put less pressure on myself. So if you're feeling a bit uneasy about becoming a clinical psychologist I definitely recommend this just to put yourself at ease and everything will be okay. But trust me, you will not put the book down once you start.

The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - How to nail your psychology viva

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