Thanks for the posts marasp! It's definitely reassuring to read them and there's some good points in there, especially about seeing the positive side of things and knowing your examiners' work (I know my internal's work quite well, but I brushed up a bit more on the external's stuff today, and tried to think about how his work could potentially link with mine)!

Hi all, I'm new to the forum but have found reading through some of the old posts to be quite helpful as I have my PhD viva coming up in just over a week. I submitted in November and have since had time to read through my thesis a few times and highlight potential problem areas as well as go through some recent literature and think about general questions like contribution to knowledge, future work etc. I'm expecting some corrections of course and have made a list of all the typos and a few other mistakes (not anything major thankfully) I found in the submitted copy.

However, there are a few things that make my case a bit unusual, and for that reason I'm feeling extra nervous! Firstly, I started my PhD in 2008 and left in 2012 to start a job overseas when I had just written a (very rough) first draft! In the meantime it took me over two years to finish writing (at times I thought I never would). So despite the fact that I know my thesis pretty well I'm afraid that I'll stumble when asked to justify things I did years ago of which I don't remember every detail, or that they'll pick on things such as my literature review not being up to date (when I felt that I had to draw a line somewhere as I didn't want to cite things that make my work seem outdated in the thesis!). Secondly, I had never even heard of my external examiner till my supervisor told me his name when I was submitting (I had suggested a couple of names but they weren't available) so despite the fact that I've since read some of his papers (he's in a different but somewhat related field), I have no idea what to expect and am worried about this unknown quantity. I guess I just need some moral support and to hear from people who have gone through this as well! Any replies would be appreciated :)