Overview of Dr_Crabby

This is if no help to you at all so sorry but...your post has made me feel better.

I have my viva on Friday and have had major issues with my only supervisor and no support for most of it, everytime I think of my viva I break out in a sweat. I have been absolutely stressed out my box and pretty sure I have anxiety and depression although it's extremely hard for me to admit that. My husband just told me he doesn't like this person I've turned into and I'm insufferable to live with and he's trying to be supportive until after my viva but then he wants the old me back because no amount of qualifications and titles is worth the stress I've put us both under.

I keep telling myself to just keep pushing on and get past the viva and get this whole horrible process over with, so my advice to you would be the same, you've come too far to quit now, just use what you've got and do what you can. We deserve it!!!!!!

Yeah that's a good point, fingers crossed they just add it to the list of corrections and move on to the next section. I'll be glad when it's over.

I haven't told anyone when my viva is apart from my other half. I don't want the extra pressure of people bringing it up all the time leading up to it or asking how it went if it goes horrible.

In terms of arguing with her over decisions, the stats section is literally the only input she has had throughout the whole thing, she has been off sick for the majority of my PhD and dis-interested when she returned and I am confident enough with the qual analysis that I didn't need any guidance from her.

When she explained to me how I had got the stats wrong originally she seemed entirely plausible and I genuinely think she understands those reasons and I just tried to learn her way and her justification for it because I did assume I had mixed it all up. The way I have corrected it I DO understand and I can justify my reasons for those new tests but she disagrees with them and that's where I'm still worried that I have it entirely wrong.

Going into the viva with them "corrected" I can justify my reasons for those, but explaining why I have done them the way I have now totally contradicts the way I had done them to begin with. Also, because none of the original tests showed anything significant I have basically ignored them and focused on the qual findings which are really novel and interesting, some of them at least but it turns out my tests are significant so I should have focused on them more.

It's all just a big mess and a big stress and I can't wait to get it over with. If I don't get major corrections then I don't think I have it in me to rewrite and resubmit the whole thing.

Just what you needed to hear eh?!

My gran asked me when I would be finished so she could start telling people she was proud of me. Aye thanks for that ya old bag lol.

To be honest I don't concern myself with what the family think of it but at stressful times it's nice to be able to offload.

Thanks I needed this! Personally I think there is a difference between being an independent researcher and doing it all on your own. If you get a job as a research assistant for example, you generally work within a team and play to your strengths, stats is not my strength but it is hers so of course I took her advice. I do appreciate what everyone is saying and to be honest I already feel better after discussing it with people who understand what I'm talking about. I'm so sick of hearing the same "just don't think about it" or "it'll be fine" from family who don't really know what difference is makes.

When I highlighted it to my supervisor following the mock she agreed that the chi-square was wrong and it should have been a Pearson's which is where the confusion has probably come in. I'm not so worried about defending it in the viva, I've made some errors, this is why and this is what I've done to fix them. My concern is that they will see that as more than major amendments and want the whole thing rewritten, not just because the stats are potentially wrong but because the rest of the qualitative chapters highlight the original stats e.g. "although the hypothesis have not been supported, the qual findings suggest that xyz".

I'm not entirely sure what counts as major corrections and where the cut off is for that, or does this depend entirely on your examiners?

I just can't get out of my own head right now and I'm already not sleeping worrying about it so by the time the viva actually comes around I'll be half dead lol.

Also, pm133 I apologise for being a bitch, I'm pretty stressed but that's no excuse :)

Hi Tudor_Queen

The way the mock examiners explained it is the way I had originally done it and the way that I had understood it. My supervisor told me to do non-parametric tests even though some of the data was normally distributed because she said it didn't make any difference and I was doing non-parametric tests on one variable so keep it the same. She also advised I do a chi-square on variables that are categorical, which I admit could have been a misunderstanding on my part because I get Pearson's and chi-square mixed up, so that was likely my error, although she did call it a chi-square but I should maybe have known that's not what she meant. I don't know.

I suppose I'm more annoyed because it literally has been one thing after another with this whole process and she went awol for a good chunk of last year and didn't read any of my work, however, she did say she had read the stats chapter and it was correct. Other than the stats stuff which is not my strong point, I would have managed fine without her help. I have redone the tests and re-written the chapter and had someone else read it and check it for me but I know when I email it to my supervisor she will say it's all wrong and I'm in a catch 22 whether to go in with stats that she says are right but I don't believe they are or whether to go in against the advice of my only supervisor and potentially have it all wrong and shoot myself in the foot.

I have accepted the fact that I'm going to get major revisions and I'm ok with that as long as it's a pass but right now I honestly feel like flinging the whole lot in the bin!!

I understand what you're saying, yes I know it is a fuck up on my part and I don't need that pointing out to me.

We went through the stats together and she explained to me how I had got it "wrong" and she made sense at the time so I had my argument in the viva without saying she told me to do that but I can't change any of that now!!

I have fixed the stats and went over and over it all again so that I can go into the viva prepared for it coming up, my question isn't around how much of a fuck up I've made, it's around my chances of getting through the viva without a fail and if you haven't got any advice on that I'd appreciate it if you stop making me feel worse.

As I said, comments about relying on her for help aren't helpful!

My understanding of the stats and everything I had learnt about them was questioned when she told me I had got it all wrong and do this instead, being that she is my supervisor and has a lot of experience with stats, I assumed I had got it wrong and "corrected" it. So yes I am placing some of the blame onto her!!

I am in the process of redoing all the tests and rewriting the stats chapter to take in with me but I have focused a lot of my qual analysis around trying to explain why the stats didn't show any significance which is why I'm panicking that they will want a total resubmission.

My viva is next week and I am having a bit of a meltdown.

To cut a long story short, my only supervisor has been an absolute waste of time for about the last year (final year), however, she is heavy into stats, written books on the subject and is essentially a statistician so when I came to doing my statistical analysis, I took her word for it that the tests she was advising would be correct.

Only, when I had my mock viva last week they picked up on the fact that not only have I used the wrong tests and explained them wrong, if I had carried out the correct tests, I would have generated a number of significant results and supported ALL of my hypothesis. As it stands, I had to say throughout my entire thesis that my predictions were wrong because the results were not significant.

Fast forward to speaking to my supervisor about this, she said there is only one test that I have done wrong and she did tell me not to do that but I misunderstood her, even though I have the email that says what test she was advising and why. But she swears the rest are correct.

Anyway, after ignoring her advice and carrying out what I now think are the correct tests, I have significant results popping up everywhere, supporting my hypothesis (yey) only I have already submitted and written throughout each chapter how the qualitative findings are the opposite of the statistical findings.

I know that it's better to have picked up this before the viva so that I can go in with the correct results but my worry now is that it is going to be a complete revise and resubmit with a second viva and everything because of the extent of the corrections that will need to be made (i.e. fixing every single findings chapter, there are 5/6). Has anyone had this before??

p.s. any comments about relying on my supervisor for help with the stats are not needed right now.

Honestly, in the first year this is not a big issue. You have plenty of time to sort it, make changes or whatever you need to. Better to have found this out now than at your viva.

Eats up time!! Haha I hadn't considered this before, I have my viva coming up in less than a fortnight and I am bricking it!

My supervisor has been a nightmare too, for different reasons and should be reported but I am so close to the end I can't bring myself to rock the boat further. It's a horrible and lonely situation to be in.

We have all been there and it is a very real and horrible phase of PhD life, my only advice to you is be kind to yourself and try not to focus too far on "post-PhD life" until you really have to.