I'm a teacher, currently a Deputy Principal of an Independent Secondary College. When I first dreamed of a Phd it was to be an academic and it would have been in a different discipline. Thus I dreamed of completing a PhD in the Arts looking at comparative literature with a psychological focus-I even had a topic in mind. However, family life and responsibilities needed to be met and it has turned out that I completed a Masters with a major research component and am now finishing off my PhD in Education.

Again, when I completed the Masters after some years in teaching and began the PhD, I did think of academia, this time looking at teacher education or similar but have realised that both the goal posts have changed and my own experiences, expertise (and age now) mean that academia is a very unlikely end point for me.

I realised this very early on (right at the start of the PhD-which I am completing part -time). Then I went through a soul searching period wondering "why do it?" However, what I have realised is that I love the understanding, the change in my thinking and the new abilities I have to really critically engage with education and my own and others work and research.

I do plan to use this to write and publish as a professional and also think it will help my career a bit (but not as much as you might expect). Right at the moment my main goal is to finish-and I'm hoping this will be Jan 2017 submission date (just over 5 years and two months since starting). Once I have submitted, I will immerse myself in my professional responsibilities, need to complete a specific PG Cert for my system (Theology-I'm in the Catholic system) but do hope to publish some professional articles from my thesis and use this expertise to further my work in teaching.

One of my supervisors explained how it works at my university. There are two external examiners who are awarding a letter grade. Plus as my supervisor is Head of School, she also reviews PhD's before they are sent off to examiners. She may recommend changes as Head of School and provide some time for this to occur but won't recheck after this. They are then sent off to the externals and they award a letter grade based on a long list of criteria. The thesis comes back from both examiners with the check list ticked off and a grade from each and then they have a panel meeting.

Double A- brilliant, absolutely nothing could improve this, very rarely achieved-she's an experienced academic of many years and she can only remember two.

B's (or B/A combo).

Just need to fix a small number of minor things, a couple of typos, an inaccurately presented reference-or small errors or other matters.

C's - need to revise a few things and are given a period of time to do this but do not need to resubmit.

C-'s - Revise and resubmit (still a pass but the thesis needs substantial changes and you are given a period of time to fix this before the examiners take another look).

Ds (Her version of a non pass-she has only seen one or two of these in her career as well).

She didn't mention an MPhil. I was a bit too bemused to ask further...I'm assuming that a combination of C/B or D/B modifies these somewhat.

Hi Hugh, by paradigm I mean an organising or conceptual framework for my findings. My study is a mixed methods and uses basic descriptive statistics plus qualitative data through surveys and questionnaires and then has a chapter that includes purely qualitative data from participant interviews. I've used a social constructionist/interpretive epistemology overall and thematic analysis techniques (Braun & Clarke, 2006) for the qualitative data. However, the first two data chapters included most of the descriptive statistics with some qualitative stuff while the 3rd chapter data processing took ages-coding, creating tables, aggregating masses of codes into categories and then merging categories into themes. I've worked a while on trying to link the data chapters, especially as one was a bit different-a sideways look at the topic (a larger survey I used when I panicked and thought I wasn't going to have enough data)

I originally wanted to put in everything but could see that from an outsider's perspective, it was just too busy and too complex. So my supervisors questioned my major themes a little (and I began reducing them). Then all of a sudden I saw that really I could simplify both my themes and my original research questions and once I could do this, I could take all of the data and reorganise it into the new themes and take these and the collapsed questions and use these as organisers to contain all of my categories and data more effectively in the discussion chapter.

It has meant a lot of reorganisation but doesn't change the findings or rather it sort of puts it in a different light. What I was agonising over was whether I then had to go back and do this with the very detailed descriptive statistic chapters-or whether I could just highlight the themes a little which were emerging even then, without me really realising. It all sounds exciting but it isn't really-but I think it will improve the final product. I have actually completed a full draft including conclusion and am writing final drafts of each chapter. Good luck with yours btw and hope this is helpful.

Hi I have a question that is sort of on this theme. I've also got three separate data chapters and have written a discussion chapter to link them. When my supervisors went through the final data chapter and discussion chapter they became a bit overwhelmed and made some suggestions to simplify. After a lot of thinking, I came up with a sort of simplified paradigm to help with the third (main) data chapter that has meant that I would reshape the discussion chapter (not writing new stuff but presenting it in a different format based on the paradigm that reworked my 3rd data chapter).

Now when I skim through the 1st and 2nd data chapter, I can see all these links and threads that foreshadow my organisation for the final big data chapter and discussion chapter. What I am now wondering, is do I need to go back to these earlier chapters of data and reorganise them along the final data chapters paradigm, or can I just highlight the 'threads' a bit more. Is it okay for these to be on the same topic but be organised quite differently based on the surveys and questions. There is no way I would have written these originally using the final organisation, as I had to do all the research to get to this point-if this makes sense. From your comment Hazy Jane, it seems as if I can leave these two earlier chapters organised a little differently, as long as the whole thing is cohesive and the discussion chapter makes all of the links? (Hope this all makes sense-today I am pulling my hair out and was really relieved to see that you had asked this question Hugh).

Congratulations Eska-Dr Eska that is! Great result and happy for you that it is all done now.

Don't engage Adobe-don't respond to his humour. Just be business like and if possible, when you do need to catch up outside of class, have a friend with you while you ask questions. I don't mean make this a big deal, just be totally professional, limit your communications to the study and don't spend time with him outside of class asking questions unless you are doing it with a companion near by. If you follow all of this-it shouldn't even be an issue. Like everyone else I thought it was a typo-but even if it isn't it just may be his strange sense of humour. Having said that you don't have to like it or respond to it.

Hi there Jerry, it sounds like it has been very distressing to learn of the pass with amendments and I admire your ability to just get on and complete the amendments in such a short time. Best wishes for a really positive outcome to this.

The university would be charging the fee because they still have to do all of the administrative processes involved in the examination of your thesis and I would imagine that you would also still have access to your supervisors, ( if you wanted this) while you were working on the amendments. It sounds like you didn't require this and were able to work really quickly on getting in the amendments and that's great!

It seems really unfair in some ways because naturally it is you who is doing most of the work. However, that being said, the admin processes still go on, the examiners have to reread and reassess the amended thesis and all of the processes associated with this also continue. And so they charge the fee. And the fee schedule is completely different and usually more expensive for international students than it is for domestic students. I think these differences in fee scales between international students and domestic would operate in all countries.

I had a thought regarding the two different comments you were given initially about the R & R and Pass with Amendments. Sometimes examiners disagree on the results and there has to be a compromise, but both results need to be recorded and passed on and then the compromise appears on the mark sheets as well. (This happened to me with my Masters Thesis, which was graded. One examiner awarded one grade, the other another grade and they compromised with a grade that split the difference. I just got all of the results and reports after a very long wait and worked out from the mark sheets what had happened).

My experience is mixed but there are some very specific reasons for this. I love study, research and writing and believe that if I had completed this earlier in my life and full time, my enjoyment of the process would be far greater. I still enjoy many aspects but because it is part-time and my full time job is very busy and demanding, it can be stressful at times-especially those times when recruiting participants, etc, and there is less control over the outcome, plus the whole experience goes on for so much longer when it is part-time.

However, that being said, it has long been a goal of mine, and given my life circumstances, I chose to do it no matter what, (which means for me, while working full time as a more mature student and having very little personal time beyond this). I think now that I am very close to the end of the project, I can see exactly what I have sacrificed to get here and while I think I would do it again, I no longer have a naive understanding of the process and it has been very hard-in ways unexpected. Not hard in terms of level, but in terms of needing endurance, persistence, and endless discipline for a long time. Having said this I will be really happy and proud when it is complete and I probably would still do it again.

I also know of a candidate who chose to terminate her PhD with an MPhil after two years, as after much thought, she believed she did not want to continue, but did not want her work to go to waste either. This decision was not made lightly, nor did she need to do this. It was a life choice rather than one of necessity. Her supervisors were surprised I think, but ultimately supportive of her reasons. She is very proud of her MPhil and has chosen to travel and then look for professional work in administration where her research skills are considered a significant advantage.

Congratulations Dr ToL! :) Have a great celebration and all the best for future plans.

Sorry to read about data difficulties. I was there earlier in the part time PhD process and managed to scrape through with 'enough' data, after a long time of miserable recruitment and uptake issues.

Currently, I have just had a meeting with both supervisors and now need to re-organise my final chapters. Sounds okay but actually, I can tell it is a lot of work really and I tried not to seem too dispirited with my supervisors after a long day at work followed by the supervision meeting.

I can't face even looking at it today (Saturday) but will try again tomorrow. It's okay, it will happen but I just remember sitting in the meeting room late Thursday afternoon, with a cup of cold tea, looking out at the window as the supervisors discussed this with me (using third person quite often "she needs to do this".." well I think if she does that"), I felt as if I wasn't even there... and thinking as I drove out, (to get caught in the only peak hour traffic my regional city ever gets, which when we have a National football game on in the stadium and we did that evening only I had forgotten about it), and finally got home-'did I ever want to be an academic?'...'who was that person?', 'what happened to her?'. Well onwards and upwards I suppose. Best wishes all...

Mine will be between 75-80 000 words. That wouldn't be including appendixes or refs though. I'm on about 70,000 right now but am in the process of re-organising and re writing different parts. I'm doing a mixed methods thesis in Education.

anz07, sorry to learn of your really tough and incredibly disheartening situation. I think Scrabbler's advice is just brilliant. Hope that things improve for you.

Hey, firstly I am sorry that it has been so hard for you-basically the situation does 'suck' and 'sucking it up' is much more easily said than done.

Having said that, while I know it isn't easy to park one's emotions somewhere else, and what has happened to you is basically very unfair, finally you might need to work towards accepting that while it is unfair, you might need to accept it as an unpleasant and unfair event that you cannot do anything about...what happened is beyond your control. Those feelings of sadness and moments of despair are probably well justified. However, what you can control is how you respond to this... What happened doesn't actually reflect intrinsically on you as a person, who you are and all the gifts you bring to the world. I think with PhD's, that sometimes we really think they make us 'smart' or a better person or have other aspirations tied into achieving one. But there can be an element of luck with PhD's. You may or may not get an effective supervisor. You may or may not have experiments that work and you may or may not manage to get the quota of participants for your interviews that you had originally hoped for. And when this happens, things do not go to plan despite how well you might have planned it or how clever you are.

200 words is okay-it is better than no words at all and if you persist with this, you will make progress. I would reiterate persisting with the counselling, as have others. In the previous year of my combined part time PhD and full time job as a leader in my workplace, I needed counselling to help me make sense of my emotions which were being triggered into overdrive by prolonged stress. I have found that sometimes accepting many things are beyond my control, these matters do not reflect on my personal worth or ability in any way and that sometimes I need to allow myself to be sad about this but to keep to a disciplined schedule helps.

Hey there must be some others in their final year on the forum surely?