Hi Delta!

Thanks!

Nah, don't worry about the viva date. To be honest, I'm unlikely to get any jobs in my area now so I'm happy to do it whenever it comes, preferably before the baby is born though!

How are things your end?

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing your experiences too!

Hello to all!

I've not been around for a while due to various changes in my personal life so I'd thought I'd give you an update. Since submitting my thesis and the whole delay in getting a viva date (which by the way, I still don't have!), things have been pretty caotic.

To be honest, my uni doesn't seem to be very bothered with my viva. It's now come to the point where I'm emailing asking them for a date and they're answering all my other questions relating to publishing and ignoring the elephant in the room.

So... I haven't really been doing any work on my thesis/viva prep and life has moved on to focus on my personal life. Since submitting, I've rescued a puppy, moved homes/cities, changed jobs (although it's still a 'normal' job not in my field) and found myself pregnant! So Baby Skig is in the oven :)

I am hopeful that I'll get a viva date soon but then I've been hopeful for the past 6 months...

I've noticed that quite a few people have passed their vivas and I'm not sure I'll be able to congratulate everyone individually. I'll still try though but just in case I don't manage it, well done to all of you! I'm really glad all your hard work has finally paid off!

Off to catch up with the threads now...

ps. I'll try to pop in more often 8-)

Congratulations!

I disappear for a little while and come back to hear this?? Great news! I'm so thrilled for you!

Indeed, how interesting. Lots of food for thought....

Sorry no luck here.

It can be difficult to let go as we have put so much work into it and we want to succeed! Saying that, at this stage, it is unlikely that any changes you make will have a huge impact on the thesis and it sounds like it's bringing you down and even making you doubt your own abilities. Let's be honest, your supervisors wouldn't let you submit unless they thought it was good enough! So it may be more helpful if, like Ady suggested, you make a list of things you want to do before submitting and self-impose a date. Sticking to doing only the work that's on the list will help you to focus on the task as well.

Congrats on submitting! I know what you mean. I thought the stress would end on submission but it's still there... good luck with viva!

Congrats Sneaks!! Very well done(up)

Honey_bee, I'd imagine that, as your sups have been aware of the difficulties faced, they'd take that into consideration and not provided you with a bad reference (although in the UK this is illegal so not sure where the law stands where you are).

Just to add, I think K22 has a point, if your husband has cheated on you before, there's a chance he may do it again. I'm not saying that he will, but it is likely that the trust between you two may have been affected and you both may wish to see a counsellor/couples therapist to work on your difficulties. I respect your decision to move closer to him, but as they say 'once bitten, twice shy'.

Whatever you decide, please make sure that you put yourself before anything else.

I had a mock viva out of choice. My sups offered it and I accepted it as I'm not confident in interviews and I thought it'd help.

During the mock itself, I had a sup and another member of staff (same dept though) as examiners and found this very helpful. Not only in terms of having ideas of the possible questions, but also got me thinking more about my thesis. Their feedback was invaluable and I was able to identify areas for further work.

I don't think many people have mocks but it's all down to personal choice. If you'd like one, then press the sup for it. If that fails, you can always get a peer to go through your thesis and think of possible questions.

I can't think of any other suggestions at the moment but just wanted to say that it'd probably be expected for you to have some sort of difficulty going back to it following a period of absence. It's completely normal as you haven't done it for a while and it'll take time to adjust. As Delta and Batfink mentioned, take it slowly and as you see things progressing, it'll be become easier. In the meantime, be kind to yourself. You've worked really hard so far so you know that you can do it.

I'd probably recommend you stick to different chapters if you can and stick to talking about the findings alone in the results section, and to have a separate discussion chapter where you put all the findings together and then relate to relevant literature if that makes sense?

I wouldn't worry too much about chapter length unless they're really short/long. I'd imagine anyone would rather have a succint and yet in depth text than a long waffly one.

I think supervisors are used to providing more than one reference as we don't always get a place first time...

Oh, I forgot to mention... holiday wise, if you want to go very far away on the cheap, Dominican Republic is a good option, cheap, far and lovely weather. Another option is Gran Canaria, not as far as Dom Rep, but still far enough, sunny and more reasonably priced!