======= Date Modified 28 Feb 2011 18:40:51 =======
======= Date Modified 28 Feb 2011 18:40:30 =======
I now work 2 hours from where my husbs live and we manage OK. It's tough at first but you get used to it, plus it's so difficult to get post docs now I'm not sure you can choose to turn it down! So I manage by staying one or two nights a week where in the place I work and spending the rest of the week either commuting or working from home. It's only for another 1.5 years anyway, we can handle it :)

I would stick with what you have already - it is very likely that your supervisor will ask you to make some final changes anyway, and this will may include chopping bits out. At the last stage my supervisor chopped out 6,000 words from mine (I was so desperate to hand it in and get rid of it by then that I didn't care!). But even if he/she doesn't then your examiners won't notice I'm sure :)

Thanks guys!

Perhaps my questions might be better placed in the post-doc section (mince)

Hi all, finally got my minor corrections submitted last night, feeling good! I just wondered what your experiences were at this stage of the PhD? Did you have to wait a long time to have them approved? Do the examiners ever reject your corrections and ask for further work to be done? Ta, Charls

You really don't need to worry, just write a list of typos/errors you have found and take them with you. My examiners spotted *2* typos, I found more like 150 (not joking!), plus I made a mistake in presenting some of my findings. I thought the latter was a major or I'd fail. But I needn't have worried; the main purpose of the viva is to see you have understood what you have done and recognising your mistakes and thesis weaknesses is all part of that. And yes, I passed, with *minors*. You'll be fine!

Believe me, this is pretty normal. I felt exactly the same way, every day repeating the mantra "I hate my PhD, should I quit?" And hating myself even more so. Luckily I had a supportive husband/friends/fellow phd-ers who listened to me moaning on and on. I passed the third deadline with pretty much nothing written and felt terrible, as all my friends were submitting and my funding finished. But I set a target of one chapter of cr&p a month, however terrible. In the end I got used to just sending half-finished drafts off, and my supervisor was excellent at getting back to me with loads of changes/edits/suggestions. In the end, one you overcome your insecurities, you just realise that it is a task that needs to be done. And once a few chapters are under your belt the whole writing thing gets easier, I promise! My thesis was not the best in the world, but I passed, and so will you :)

I use an Olympus WS-200S and brought a microphone to plug in to it - these work together perfectly, and easy to get the audio over to your computer with the inbuilt USB (as per the previous poster)

Well done you! It's a good feeling isn't it :)

You could try allocating a certain room or space to work in at home, and then your worries could be confined to that area and not the rest of your house. I have a shoe box of an office and I find it works just fine as I only use the room for work. Incidentally, I suffer from severe anxiety problems that were really problematic in the first year of my PhD. I found working from home on the "bad" days a real help. It was also useful to try and balance that with days in Uni too otherwise it can build into a fear of going into Uni - also it can be quite isolating being at home, and good company may cheer you up.

======= Date Modified 02 Dec 2010 09:24:24 =======
The r is the degree of association between two variables (the correlation). What you need to state is the "r-squared" which is the variance explained, the strength of the relationship between two variables.

Yayyy!! Feels damn good doesn't it? I still haven't recovered from mine yet (last Thursday), but definitely have "inner peace" now it's out of the way :)

Hi Corinne, Sorry to hear you're so down about your PhD. You probably should find a new 2nd supervisor who may be able to offer you a new perspective, and perhaps some motivation? I often felt the same way as you throughout my PhD, and if it hadn't been for my friends and husband telling me to keep going then I wouldn't have made it. Even if you don't like what you're doing anymore, you need to try and take a fresh look at it, see it as a process and aim to get the PhD if you can, especially as you're so near to finishing. I *started* the write up in January and had to finish by the end of August, so I managed to write up the whole thing in that time... you can def. do it in the time you have left. Start with a work plan and stick to it, keep sending the Chapters to your sups, find a new supervisor.

[sorry didn't all fit in!] ...had to do for corrections; a week's work at most.

Overall, the experience was very positive, much more like a discussion. I think I was very lucky as I had a very experienced external who was relaxed and not trying to "prove" himself.

Hope that helps! 8-)

Right, here's what I did/didn't do, if it helps. I'm a social scientist BTW so this may not be relevant for all.

I had three months between submission and viva, but I have been working in between full-time so I couldn't dedicate myself to revising. In fact I only started two weeks before, and decided to book a week off work just before the viva so I had time to prepare mentally. I knew I was going to be nervous, and had to get myself into a good state. Most people I know do not do this/don't need to do this, and they take off one day before.

I re-read through my Thesis twice in total, the first time just to refamiliarise, the second to look for typos and errors. I attempted to summarise each section/chapter for recall, but got bored of that and stopped after the first chapter. To get me to face it, writing out a list of typos was really helpful. I did this in word so I could print it out and take it in to the viva. I was really depressed to find so many mistakes (perhaps 100, but this included extra spaces, commas etc). Really, the typos *do not* matter at all. I did find a more problematic error - a mistake in my results. I panicked, then recovered, and considered ways I would bring it up in the viva. I decided I couldn't just lie about it, so I had a strategy to cope with it (and I did mention it, and it didn't matter).

The other prep I did included answering and revising my answers to 40 questions about my thesis. I got these from a "viva prep seminar" run at my uni. I can email them if you PM me. This was very very helpful, as it made me locate the "answers" in my Thesis. Actually, only two came up in the actual viva, but I still used the other answers I'd prepared to help me answer the actual viva questions. Once I'd answered the questions, I read them over and over, highlighted important bits, went on a couple of long walks and thought about the answers. For me, knowing why I did the thesis, being able to summarise it, its original contribution, its strengths and weaknesses, the findings, and what I would do next research-wise - these were the most important things to know.

I also did a mock viva with someone in my department - not my supervisor. I thought I'd be embarrassed with my sup. It was a hard as I couldn't answer the questions properly but it did make me think about my work. I also practised answering a few questions with friends.

I also stuck chapter post-its and hundreds of other postits in the thesis directing me to important bits. This was a total waste of time, don't bother!! The chapter ones were helpful I guess.

On the day I took water, tissues, aspirin, my thesis, pens, paper, also my Q&A (just in case I froze!!). I'm a girl, and decided to wear smart casual, definitely not a suit (not my style - I'm a jeans and trainers chick). So I wore a black and brown wrap-over dress, black cardigan, tights and boots.

The examiners started by telling me that my work was good, which immediately calmed me down :) Then they asked me about why I chose to do it, what its contribution was, where I'd like to take my research. They then went through the areas that they wanted me to correct (I realised afterwards), about six in all. These q's were about "had you thought of this" "what about this?" "what's your opinion on this in relation to this?" I'd say they were broad q's to examine whether I could discuss my work more generally, in relation to other theories etc. Quite a lot to do with my external's research interests (top tip - make sure you check out what your external is doing before the viva!). Then I was asked a few specific q's about the thesis ("turn to page x, why did you do that?"). I definitely did not have the page-by-page going through the thesis experience that some have. The whole thing lasted just over 1.5 hours, quite short really. They sent me out then asked me back in and gave me the result and told me what I h