So I had my viva this morning. 3.5 hours and I felt like I was run through the mill. The clinician everyone thought wouldn't know much about electrophysiology was actually s**t-hot on my area. I felt like a total fraud in his presence and I couldn't argue with anything he said. In summary, the verdict was "deferred decision, pending major corrections".
I have to literally reanalyse everything using a different parameter and I have no idea whether my original findings/conclusions will be the same. My examiners thought I gave a good viva and that I shouldn't need to do another one. However, I think they didn't want to kick me while I was down. What I was thinking would be an intellectually stimulating chat turned out to be an admission of naiveity.
They explained that the volume of work was too much for 3 months ( minor corrections) and given that I have a full time job, giving me major corrections (12 months) was more appropriate.
As this was something that was evidently a problem before I started writing my thesis, I feel angry and frustrated at my supervisors for not picking this up beforehand.Has anyone else had a similar experience? I need reassurance :(

Sorry to hear about the viva. Its a big relief that we don't have them in the Australian system.

From my experience, once you have had a few weeks to re-gather your thoughts and objectively look at the corrections, they don't seem as overwhelming as they did at first. Another positive is that you don't have a R & R.

I can imagine how hard it must be to defend your work in a viva under such stress. I would start making responses to all the corrections, and for some items you may even find that you can defend your work to the point where you may not even be required to make a correction. Once you have done this, you can go through this document with your supervisors.

All the best!