I did it!! I passed my viva with some written changes to be made to the thesis. I found it pretty tough but I guess it is not meant to be easy. Yaaaaay

so just to stress me out even more, i just find out tonight that my internal wants me to give a 20 minute powerpoint presentation to kick things off I can see how it might help kick off the whole discussion but I would have appreciated a bit of advance warning about this to give me time to prepare it well. I know this isn't unheard off but it's not that common is it? I personally don't know anyone who has had to do this...

yeah I've made a 1 page summary for each of my results chapters and identified the limitations/weaknesses and have come up with a counter argument for each one to defend my approach. I've met my external once a while back but she is not familar with the UK viva system. My internal has a lot of UK viva experience and I guess will keep my external right. I submitted back in November and was meant to have the viva last month but it had to be rescheduled at the last minute so all this waiting hasn't helped. I just want to get it over with now!

Hi everyone. My viva is this Friday and I wondered if anyone could offer me some advice in terms of preparation at this stage. Obviously by now I've gone through my thesis in quite a bit of detail and I'm making sure I'm familiar with the key references. Is there anything else I should be doing? I've heard that a common starter is to be asked to give an overview of the thesis so I guess I should be able to regurgitate my abstract?! It's the more open ended/bigger picture questions I'm most worried about. I'm quite confident at presenting my data at conferences but in that situation I'd have powerpoint slides as prompts and will have practised the 'performance'. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated...!

Hi phder, I have my viva in 7 weeks time and also work full time. I haven't looked at my thesis since I handed in (early Nov). I am planning on starting to read it in the next week or two, making notes as I go, and re-reading the key references again. And probably some at weekends too in the last week or two before it. I don't think it is necessary to take substantial periods of time off to prepare as you should know your stuff by now but you want it to be 'fresh' in your head for the big day. Good luck! Let us know how you get on.

Hi, I'm writing my thesis just now and going to write all my final detailed methods in one big M and Ms (chapter 2) then a brief methods in each results chapter with the method development and how I arrived at the final method, different incubations, dilutions, methods of quantification etc. (I'm doing a cell and molecular biology project). Hope this helps.

What is practice? I'm not sure what field you are in?

Mine is a medical sciences PhD. Completely lab based. I discovered recently my funding runs out at the end of August too - actually my last pay will be the end of July as I get paid in advance which is annoying since even if everything goes to plan and I finish on time and I get a job starting in September, I won't be paid again until end of Sept and that's the best case scenario. Just need to hope all goes to plan and expect to have a tough few months...

Cheers! Good luck with yours. So what stage are you at? When does your funding run out? When do you think you will finish your research, hand in etc.?

I have grand plans of handing in roughly on time which is maybe unrealistic but think it's best to aim high than just accept that it won't happen which seems to be the feeling I get from students around me. It's a stressful time for sure but I think you have to stay positive.

I went on one in my 2nd year and personally got loads out of it. I think the more effort you put in, in terms of moving out of your comfort zone, the more you will get back. It's hard work though, so be prepared for that. The group exercises can seem a bit 'cheesy' at the time, but looking back I can see how they relate to the real world. I think you will have fun. I did mine in Windermere with half a day of outdoor stuff which was great. Plus it was a free trip to the Lake district! Enjoy!

Hey everyone. I can totally relate to what has been said. I would consider myself a perfectionist and think it's probably a common trait amongst scientists, after all you need to have an eye for detail. But to get the thesis handed in in a timely manner I think you need to learn when to say enough is enough and hand in your chapters to your supervisors even if you are not 100% happy with them. I handed in my first results chapter today and on a bit of a high! It's by no means great but at least it's a start and hopefully the feedback I get from it will make the rest of my thesis easier to write!

Hi 404. I kind of know how you feel with thesis chapter deadlines - I am in my final year too and promised my supervisors that I'd hand in my first results chapter by the end of the month after talking about it for around 2 months! My supervisory basically told me that I'd need to try and stick to thesis chapter deadlines, at least at the start as there is no sense in wasting lots of time trying to get it right in your own eyes when they will probably rip it to shreds anyway! Sorry, hope that doesn't depress you, it's just my take on thesis prep. For me, it's very different to anything I've written before which has just been end of year reports. Basically, my advice would be to just get something to them as soon as you can. You were right to email though if you def won't have it in state to hand in.