I got a second opinion from someone that deals with Bioscience companies in my region and she confirms that this was "sadly" an accurate salary.
I'm definately reconsidering my options as salary is important to me along with geographical location.

I think my confidence has dropped. I was quite confident/enthusiastic in my first year.

They are saying no experience=low salary

They said £12k as employers don't take academic experience as job experience...even from postdocs.

I talked to an agency about finding my first job in industry and with no experience she said even with a PhD I could be paid £11-12K.
I was shocked and feel quite depressed now :-(
I'm looking at pharma/healthcare in the North of England and have a PhD in Biochemistry. To me starting graduate salaries would be £18-20k. A postdoc would be at least this. Anyone any experience/views on this?

"My viva was very specific to my thesis - page by page really. 'I had a query about something on page x', then we all turned to that page and I had to make some sensible comments."
That was how my viva went too

A surprising number of my lab were on anti-depressants

See http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/cs/cs710/viva.html
It explains the types of questions you will be asked.
I would find out what your examiner does, they may have an interest that overlaps. If they know about an area they are more likely to ask you about it.
The discussion depends on what you have written, you are expected to have some general knowledge. It tend to be based around the thesis. Perhaps you need someone to predict some questions for you to give you
Mine was a series of questions. I found a lot of criticisms with my work before submission and picked a nice examiner as I'm not so confident and it went very smoothly. They are not trying to trip you up, some questions will be because they are interested or just don't know that area well.
Also was anyone told they had passed before the viva started?
No, you leave for 5 mins while the examiners discuss then come back. You can gauge by the questions e.g. minor points or gaping holes in your thesis.

I really didn't think they should be different. I'd get it sorted out.
Normally the internal is there just to keep the external in line and the the worse corrections/requests are from the external!

You could try moneysupermarket or similar site to compare (student) accounts. I found I got a free overdraft as a student, card, cheques and online banking (Smile). I moved to Smile due to much higher rates of interest and online banking.
I needed a letter from the uni student services to say I was a registered student as well as lots of proof of ID/address with me. I'm not sure if there are differences for international students. There were issues setting up a joint standard account with my partner to pay bills as I had a student account but we sorted it eventually.

Good excuse for not doing things

Good luck. Tips: know about the subject and that research group

It's just easier to put on weight. If you compare the calories in a chocolate cake and the calories burnt on an exercise machine in the gym the cake wins crumbs down.

After writing up for many months I went up a clothes size and my clothes don't fit. My stomach hangs out for the first time in my life. I just exercised less and less as I was just at home, and was doing a minimal level to start with. I comfort ate a lot as I was bored and fed up with the whole thing.

I got a letter signed/dated 11 Feb and stamped on 19 Feb that I got on 20 Feb. They clearly knew on 11 Feb I was not suitable but held onto it until after other interviews on 18 Feb just in case. They promised sincerely to stay in touch during these 2 weeks but never bothered. The lady on the phone fobbed me off with how it was lost in the post until I told her about the date stamp, then she said it was very unusual. She made a point of saying she would not apologise, it was not her fault and was inappropriate to even bring it up over the phone. I'm not impressed I can tell you! I've now got to wait for a day, a week or whenever to find out what they have to say, stomach churning every time I open my email.