I passed!!!
Congrads! Glad to hear this news for you and for my sanity (it can be done!). Enjoy the celebrating.
Hey everyone, thank you for your well wishes, and thank you for the last year or so of support you've all given me.
I don't really feel today like it is all real, very tired, couldn't sleep last night, had the whole thing just running through my head, corrections to make etc! We didn't stay out too late last night, after afew drinks I was totally shattered, so just came home!
My pre viva talk was at 1pm, so arrived at place for 11.30, saw supervisor and met my examiner who was very nice, went and checked computer and projector were all set up and ready to go and then went to TRY and eat lunch, very unsuccessfully!
Talk went OK, got quite a few questions, mostly ok, but a couple I just couldn't answer, however, most annoyingly and just to put the final icing on how much I hate my sup - he asked me a really horrid question! I couldn't answer it very well, and worst of all, I was speaking to him the other week and told him I felt this area was a weak point for me, so in his usual manner, he decided to take that and pick on it!! Anyway, best thing about finishing - I NEVER have to deal with him again!
I then went into viva, convenor went through what everyone's roles were and how they were going to proceed. I knew, although I wasn't meant to, that my internal examiner had other commitments later in afternoon so my exam wasn't going to exceed 2-2.5 hours. This was quite a relief, but also turned it all into pretty intense grilling, and I didn't really get the chance to just discuss the work, tell them all about it, my ideas etc, so I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I could have done if we'd had longer. Maybe that sounds silly, but I was hoping that if they were generally happy with it, and I could relax then we could discuss my work and enjoy - as so many PhD students have told me about theirs.
Anyway, due to time constraints, it was more, lets go from start to finish and you can tell me all the things we have discrepancies over, so basically - these are your mistakes, see if you can get yourself out of it. They were nice, and it wasn't like I was defending the whole thing, they told me clearly from start that they liked the thesis, enjoyed reading it, and saw there was a lot of data in it. I just felt there was no time to discuss the best and exciting parts, we just concentrated on the stuff I got wrong, or didn't explain clearly etc! :( It lasted around 1 and 3/4 hours, which I think is pretty fast, but this was obviously due to internal needing to get away. They sent me out of room to discuss and i swear it was the longest 5 minutes of my life, i'm not even sure whether it was more like 10-15 min!!
They then brought me back in, all stood up, said, congratulations you've passed, and shook my hand (it really did feel like they stood up for me as I came in, and that was it, I was 'allowed' to join they're academic group)! or cool enough to join they're gang as my partner just put it - haha, I had to stop myself from bursting out laughing! :p
But, that was it, and by the time I got home the convenor had sent me the corrections, which are basically what they went over in exam!!
It all feels pretty weird, but I think until I've done the corrections it is not going to feel complete and over and I won't be able to relax properly. So I might actually do them tomorrow and get them out of the way, they should take me an afternoon and then that will be it done!
So that's my viva story! In general, I agree it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, but I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, i'm just glad it is over.
Preparations wise, I'm so glad I read some papers, especially surrounding my externals work as he brought a couple things up that I could better answer having done this. I also had gone through thesis and not only listed my typos (which they didn't talk about, but I'm going to correct anyway), but I also
cont...
but I also put post-its in areas which I wasn't confident about, or knew that I didnt know it VERY well, and put key points down on the post-it. for example, I had found a mistake in one paper, that on reading it over and over before submission had never thought to check, but when I went to it wanting to understand the scientific mechanisms better I realised that the info in the paper I quoted was wrong, so I wrote down the actual thing on teh post-it! This came up, and I was so relieved when he told me page number and I went to it and it was there waiting with all the info on - I would never have remembered this information otherwise!
I found that having extra kind of mini-revision notes on the pages made me feel more at ease that if they asked me something on teh topic I had some extra info to work with. And this came in handy more than once!
I did also have answers for the broad key questions, as per Bilbo's advice and Tinklers. This came in handy just because it helped me concentrate my thoughts down. They asked me why I decided on the project, and I was glad I had thought about this in advance - Bilbo, i took your advice and answered it this way, so thank you! The only other broad question they asked was for at each chapter, they asked me to briefly tell them what I did, how I did it, and what was the significance. I had planned to write down a summary of each chapter as preparation, but I never got round to it, maybe I should have, but I think also, I knew it anyway, but might have helped just formulate the wordings etc.
That's it really, if anyone wants to know more then just ask.
Thank you all again, AL
Sorry this is a little late but - WELL DONE!!! (up)
Thanks for the detailed account too! I am still waiting for my viva date but i think i will search for viva-related threads here to look for the advice you mentioned here when i start to prepare.
Congrats again! V happy for you!
Hi Monte and Natassia!
Thank you, wow, I can't believe its been 3 weeks now! I've still not had much chance to chill out and relax, do nothing and let it all just sink in. But I think it must have done in some ways as my body is starting to feel released of all the stress!!
Got my hard bounds this week - and as per the rest of my phd process, something had to go wrong! The printers or binders mixed up pages on two of the copies, so there's duplicates in one, and missing in the other - typical!!! Luckily the one I submitted to uni was right - phew! So need to go get that all fixed!! Otherwise, good really, very tired, everyone seems so proud and excited for me, but to me i'm just relieved its over, glad I never have to deal with supervisor again, and I can go home and chill out at nights! Maybe one day i'll be proud of myself, but i'm just glad the hell is over!!
Keep going everyone, it's worth it to be done! :)
AL xx
