Congratulations Incognito. I'm almost in the same boat as you now :)

Also sitting here wondering about failure rates following minor corrections! :S (even though I put in alot of effort to ensure I've met all of their minor corrections)

Let's hope there's good news for both of us...... We're nearly there :)

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you. Following your posts with interest :)

Perhaps this 'stress' can be reduced if we can be more compassionate towards the internal examiner.
This examiner could be an assistant professor who is waiting to be promoted; he feels desperate to show that he knows everything about everything.
So, doing minor correction is actually a game.

Re MeaningofLife: I don't think that applies in my case- the examiner is very well-established in his field and relatively old; he's been in academia since the 1980s. Fingers crossed all goes well this time!

Old professor may also worry that he'll be forced into retirement.
Examiner may feel insecure just like the students.

Essentially, examiners may also fear that students challenge them.
That is, examiners do not like to be 'embarrassed' by students who do not trust their judgement.
So, just always affirm them in the first statement... :-)

Good point; I think the whole exercise is political- my argument is not 'mainsteam' (hence the original contribution), and this examiner does not like it, but he had no choice but to pass me as it is a strong one :(....I'm very nervous and hope it goes well this time (now that I made all the corrections required).