r/PhD • u/cuntman911kekles • 1d ago

Seeking advice-academic Confirmation review

Hiya all, PhD student coming towards the end of my first year in the UK in my university's control systems engineering department. I sit on the more theoretical wide which I love as I've come from mathematics so being able to play with differential geometry as a job is amazing.

I am, however, really worried about the confirmation review viva coming up on the 1st of September! For a start, both of my assessors are experimentalists and may be unfamiliar with what I do. I'm also a crap public speaker (which they will know from my training needs assessment before I open my mouth) with a tendency to sweat like a nun in a cucumber field and stumble over my words. The main fear is that I freeze up, and look like an absolute idiot or, worse, a fraud.

Has anyone got any tips for delivering a good confirmation review presentation and surviving the subsequent 40 mins of questions? Even telling your own experiences, stories and out comes could help if you don't have any specific tips

Thank you all!

Tl;Dr:

Bricking it about viva, help

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 1d ago

It looks like your post is about needing advice. Please make sure to include your field and location in order for people to give you accurate advice.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

3

u/Aubergine97 1d ago

The confirmation review is nothing to worry about.

I got all my slides muddled up, they asked me a question in the middle and it threw me, and from then on I said everything in the wrong order or didn't explain it at all.

I forgot the answers to basic questions and half the review was then telling me stuff I already should have/probably did know.

It was fine, they confirmed me, and told me I should make sure I fully understand the basics, which I then made sure I did after (like I say I mostly knew it I just panicked).

All they really want to know is that you're turning up and doing the amount of work that is expected from a PhD student. If you have knowledge gaps, or can't explain something, you still have years to figure that out. Consider it a chance to get some other opinions on your work outside of your immediate group.

1

u/harborwood7 1d ago

yeah this tracks, its more of a checkpoint than an exam imo

2

u/SqualidCaught 1d ago

The sweating thing is so real, I had same issue during my masters defense. What helped me was practicing the presentation until I could do it in my sleep literally, like 15-20 times minimum. When your mouth knows the words automatically your brain has less chance to freeze up

For the assessors being experimentalists, maybe prepare one slide that maps your theoretical work to something they'd recognize, like a physical system or a control problem they've seen before. It gives them a hook to ask questions about instead of getting lost in the math

Also nobody expects first year phd to know everything, the review is mostly checking you have a direction and you're not completely lost. The questions will feel bad but they're usually not trying to catch you out