Now why does that sound familiar? Conference next week (and presentation not yet started - ouch!), second conference in March with paper, to prepare, journal article final revision by end of month, pilot study to write up, workshop toolkit to revise. Yep - January is almost upon us!

Hi Zingo

I suspect they will want to see that you can provide a coherent and clearly structured overview of your research. What you're doing, why, how - processes, progress, relationship to the research question, link to possible future research. Say, a slide for each.

If you're not feeling too good about the results - not to worry - focus on the positive - "it has allowed me to learn about an area I was unfamiliar with before" - the aim of any good pilot study. I would focus on this phrase... what have you learned, how did you learn it, what parts of your project brought these things to your attention, why do you think these things are important, how will you use them in the future? You could include these as a conclusions slide, bullet pointing the benefits of the research as a learning process.

Good luck.

Read this book, if you can... "The Doctoral Examination Process". Have a mock viva. 4 things to think on: (1) presentation and clarity, (2)integration and coherence (3) contribution to knowledge (4)originality and creativity.

See how your thesis measures up - any weak areas? Those are what examiner's will pick up on - not to make you feel a fool, but to give you the opportunity to clarify. Identify your strengths and weaknesses... and make the most of them - feel good about what you're contributing and work on weaknesses. Some tips about 'taking' your thesis mentally with you to the viva: (1) know what's in it (2) understand what's in it and why it's there (3) justify/defend your ideas/arguments (4) identify your contribution (5) show how it fits in the overall scheme of things (6) think about what you could have done differently

Is this the end? Heh Heh

If you can get hold of it from your uni library, there's a useful book for those approaching the PhD exam called "The Doctoral Examination Process: A handbook for students, examiners and supervisors" by Penny Tinkler and Carolyn Jackson - it doesn't answer your question exactly (well, not on a quick perusal) but it does offer a lot of advice on the implications of selecting known/unknown examiners, etc. and it covers a lot of ground for those new to the exam process. It's a quick read, small paperback, 200 or so pages and easy to dip in and out of.

Hi (first post...) - also tired. As to the teaching idea... Well, I teach full-time (secondary) and am studying for my PhD part-time and, here I am, one year in and it feels like my PhD is going down the drain. Any tips for kick-starting myself (currently wallowing in the mires of methodology) most welcome!

Bibi, one tip I had with writing mountains was to 'see what's in front of you' rather than 'what lies ahead of you'. Dunno, maybe it'll help. Something like take one chunk at a time.