My supervisor does not drink (nor eat chocolate) so I sent him the first series of Shaun the Sheep which he is addicted to! Weird but he really appreciated it. Also presenting him with a bound copy of the thesis.

I did this, I then went through the whole thing and found typos. Sent the list to my supervisor who sent them to my examiners. This meant that they knew I had been through the thesis and also meant they only found 12 typos, not bad for 442 pages! Ask your supervisor whether they think you should do the same.

Hi Tenacity, I recieved the following corrections: 12 typos (I did send a list of typos to my examiners before the viva so the 12 were the ones I did not find), take one appendix out and put in the main thesis, add a clear set of recomendations, add three aspects to the final reflection, and add about 10 para throughout. I was given all of them at the end of the viva, my external offered to go through them, which I turned down because I was in shock that I had passed! Took me about three days to do them and have them agreed with my supervisor. It then took a day to sort all the page numbers out!!! Viva 10 December, corrections to external in January, agreed over a weekend, printed, bound and couriered the thesis to the uni and I recieved my formal confirmation last Monday. Bank cards changed to Dr already!!!

Done it!! All revisions agreed with my examiners, all I now have to wait for is the letter from the VC. My supervisor has just rung to call me Doctor - hard to believe it has happened. To all on the way, keep going, you can do it!

Congratulations, what a wonderful start to the new year! Do your corrections as soon as you can, repaging can take ages!!

Just sent off my revisions! What a relief, it did take longer to repage the whole thing than do the revisions!! Now just need to see if they are accepted. That and try and find out the date of graduation, with a full time job I need to arrange a day off.

L0lly, I am sorry to hear this, as you are in the UK you wil be able to take the case to the OIA, however they will only investigate once you have been through the complaints' proceedure of your university and if it is a case they can investigate. So you need to obtain a copy of the complaints' proceedure and work your way through it. You may find that this works for you. It might be worth having a look at the OIA website to see if this is the type of complaint which they are allowed to investigate: they are limited.

I gave my examiners a list of typos, the list was sent to them via the uni. It meant they knew I had read it and their list was much shorter. I did not re-write any paragraphs. I would agree with bilbo on that one, I would have thought that they would want to examine on what they have been sent, not your alterations. You never know they might not pick up on them!

I am pleased you have decided to appeal. One thing I did when I was unable to meet a deadline was write to the university and state that I would be proceeding. In my uni this letter kept the proceedure open. One thing: follow every regulation to the letter, if your supervisor has been told not to talk to you then do not try to contact them. In my appeal I followed the regulations and the uni did not: this put me in a strong postion when it went to the OIA. Happy to receive a PM if you would like to discuss it more.

I am sorry anonphd. I had a similar situation, I submitted my thesis and my supervisors said it was great and 100% certain to pass. I was then phoned 9 days before my viva to be told my external thought it was so unsatisfactory that the viva was pulled. After the shock I went through the complaints proceedure. Everything I wrote was cross ref to every piece of paper/electronic communication I had ever had, one thing you might like to do is a data protection/freedom of information request. I then went to the OIA (which you can do if you are at a British university). The OIA upheld the majority of my complaint awarded damages and demanded (as the OIA is binding on a university) that the uni make changes. It did take over three years! The good news for me was I then started again with a new team and nine months later (December 11 2009) had my viva which I passed with minor revisions. Do not give up, complaints are upheld and they can make your viva null and void which means that you still have a chance. I will not deny how difficult it is, certainly many people are not talking to me (I will graduate from another school in the uni) and the uni will support its staff to the hilt. However as one person said to me - what have you go to loose, the worst has happened, it can only get better.

If you google 'how to toggle field codes' the answer shoudl come up. I had the problem but my solution is for vista and V6.

Still partying! Far too much champagne in the house to stop! I don't think it has sunk in yet, OH keeps calling me Doctor (subject, of course to revisions!!!)

Congratulations, champagne all round, minor revisions for me too.

Congratulations, I too passed with minor revisions, to be tackled next week! Champagne and sleep planned!

Well, here we go I passed!!!!!!!! Minor revisions, which I was expecting, all in all an interesting, and intellectual conversation, hard but not as difficult as I expected. To the weekend, champagne and a chance to realise it is Christmas!