I had my viva six months ago and was given major corrections (although I still fail to see much difference between major corrections and R&R). After a very demotivating viva experience and a lot of drama beyond this (the chair lost my viva report & I had a 3 months wait to get my hands on it), I have finally finished my corrections.

On the one hand I am really pleased as I genuinely believed that I would never get my corrections done as they were so overwhelming. So it's an amazing feeling to have, in essence, done the impossible! However, I am currently editing my new chapters & corrections in accordance with my supervisor's critique and now feel incredibly stressed and nervous again. I appreciate that embarking on a PhD is an isolating experience and you are always in a world of 'not knowing' what the hell is going to happen next (which doesn't bode well for an organised 'needing to know what's round the corner' person such as myself). However, I'm starting to seriously lose sleep over resubmitting my thesis and fear that I will either get called for viva again (the first one was one of the worst experiences of my life so I don't really fancy a second), or my thesis will be failed completely. I have worked so hard over the past 5 years and seriously disagreed with some of the recommendations of my viva report...but I've done everything that's been asked. This process has just been so tedious and unpredictable, (with little support from my supervisor), I fear the system is just going to chew me up & spit me out for the last time.

Has anyone got any advice so I can stop losing my much needed sleep?!

If you have done everything that was on your sheet of corrections, they CANNOT fail you.

Simple as that!

Hi Anz, I remember your posts from earlier this year. I just wanted to say well done on getting the corrections done. You'll probably recall that I was in a very similar position. I endured a full week of feeling sick and sleepless nights after resubmitting it post-viva before they let me know it had passed and all was fine. I even took to saying novenas (was raised a Roman Catholic). I know that rubs people up the wrong way but it did give me much needed solace at probably the lowest point in my life. I had no idea when they would get back and it was coincidence/divine intervention (take your pick) that on the night before I received confirmation I had passed I just finished the 9 day novena and I lay awake all night watching The Godfather series of films. I then got up and had to go to the social welfare office. Could life get more depressing? Came home and there was an email waiting for me. I was at the point where I wasn't sleeping, I was sick, I was shaking, I couldn't have cared if I died. Then the arseholes finally let me know I had passed. They completely ruined my thesis and damaged my confidence for a brief period but I am now converting the proper version into a book and have recovered but it's made me very wary of people. The rest is history. I'm so sorry you had to endure the same shite as me. It's beyond ridiculous. Never feel that you did anything wrong here. Just remember you encountered a pair of self-centred idiots and that's it. Wishing you all the v best but no solutions as to how to get through this limbo period.

Well done Anz - it sounds like you have done all that you can and once you submit, it is in someone else's hands - I am not sure anything will stop this time from being stressful for you, but try to remember that you have done everything to give yourself the best chance, and stressing will not add anything good to the experience. I can only recommend looking after yourself and doing some things that you enjoy - start to re-connect with the life you have outside of the PhD.

JStanley - that sounds like a complete nightmare and well done for coming through it all with your PhD and the will to go on and publish your work as it should be!