the painful writing process is behind..viva set for Dec.:$ anyone else taking the journey?(up)

Yep. Sooner than December, although I'm keeping the precise date to myself :)

HI. I sumbitted on the 29th Oct - awaiting my date still but am starting to get nervous. Will probably be January now I think

@ Barnaby, how is the prep going? I have started to read the thesis and found few mistakes, missing brackets etc. Can't imagine how I missed them, but I guess its pretty hard to even miss one or two typos. Going to make summaries of each chapter, more like bullet points.

@ Kikuka, you can rest for a while I guess. I spent abt two weeks not even looking at my work. That was a good break to have a different perspective on the thesis

Hi, this is my first post. Funny, a few months ago I was looking at a similar thread thinking about what it would like leading up to the viva - and now I have mine in two weeks. As with many of you PhD'ers out there mine was a long and tortuous process. What's been most challenging is returning my work after a 2 week break - not helped by finding numerous errors - some that I hope will remain undetected! With only 2 weeks to go I think it's important to remember that even getting this far is an achievement and the rest of the process is just part of the journey. Satisfaction is the death of desire - stay hungry guys!

Well I wish I was at that stage! I am writing my last discussion chapter, then the polishing of the lit review before inserting graphs etc and editing it all, long way to go!

I wish you all well with your viva prep and hope you pass your vivas.

I shall be reading this topic with interest to guage what I should be doing next!

@Sheena - it's going slowly. Had a nightmare when I submitted and found lots of typos in the intro. Took a while to pluck up courage to read the rest properly. All in all, a lot of mistakes, but not as many as I'd feared. Now I need a bit of structure in terms of preparation. I'm not having a mock, and each time I sit down to do stuff I end up idly flicking through the thesis. I think summaries of the chapters as bullet points is a good idea. I'm leaving it very late now, but that's kind of been the theme all along! I've started a job, the wife works shifts, and we have 3 young kids.That's the reality, and the prep just has to be as and when.

@ Palafour, wish you the best for the coming viva. It was a huge relief to actually to see someone write that they have found mistakes after submission. I knew this but thought it was only mine (no sense of reality at all) and I submitted it too quickly, now I realise that majority of theses are not 100% perfect at submission.
@dunni73, keep the hunger going...as I'm feeling a bit lazy and doing all other things except writing the summaries which I need to get done!
@barnaby, I'm in same boat, 2 small kids under 3 and a hubby who is always busy at work, he didn't help in write-up, so its now or never for him to help me. Only good thing is that I don't work. but I'm a full time baby-sitter, housekeeper and a cook ;-).

Good luck to us..I hope I can say I have done some proper work by the end of this week. Dec is not far..hmmm

Wow Sheena, I am impressed that you have done this with small bambinos and a busy household. I am in the same situation now although never dreamt of bambinos when I started lol. I am glad to see that it can be done with dedication as this is what I have to keep reminding myself. I can imagine it to be hard to get motivated for the viva once you have submitted but this is the final prep. Just polishing off the knowledge and tweaking the errors in the thesis, yes there is likely to be some!

Just a small question, how long did you have to wait between submission and viva?

Thanks Dunni73 (I had loads of help from my in-laws and few close friends especially when I was writing), There is exactly 2.5months between sub & v day. I think I'm lucky as I've heard people waiting a lot longer. Hopefully I can eat x'mas dinner without any stresses.
(up)

Hi Sheena

So good to see that it can be done (I too am a PhD mum with 2 under 5's). Time to enjoy the festive season! Best of the luck for the viva

Hello all, again. Regarding mistakes, as painful as it is to find them the sooner you read cover to cover and make a note of them the better. Whilst it is demoralising it is also empowering - you'll be aware of them if they are mentioned in the viva and will be better able to respond e.g. 'yes, a typo' or 'appears misleading but...' Having done this I'm now reading with more interest and my enthusiasm is beginning to build again. I don't know if the link I'm about to provide will appear in this post but I recommend this as a very good starting position - it will help you make the most of your time and energy.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=0335233821

I'm taking a week's leave to really go through next week - less than 2 weeks now!

regards to all

Hi Sheena.

I submitted on the 9th of October and I'm STILL waiting for my viva date :(

My supervisors think I'll have my viva in early January.

Next week, I'm going to bite the bullet and look at my thesis. Serious procrastination regarding thesis prep! I'm not working at the mo (living off savings) so I focus on my thesis and preperation pre viva.

I know my thesis conains many many typos- as I also was under immense pressure which resulted in a substandard thesis. My supervisors think I'll receive revise and resubmit/major corrections- as my thesis was around 110,000 words and due to number of typos throughout :(

Next week I'm going to start pulling my thesis apart and drafting a thesis typo list for my viva. I'm also going to have a stab at improving on some of my chapters in light of thoughts post submission- ie elaboration on some discussion points.

I'm feeling very refreshed after a little break and complete break from my thesis.

I have days where I feel completely confident, days where I'm feeling numb and days where I'm sitting in a complete state of panic (ie fears of complete failure!) I just want this whole process to be over! It's nice to know I'm not alone on this horrible, horrible journey.

Hi pineapple, I was hoping for a early Jan viva but have to be ready for dec now. I share your views as viva prep is not going as I hoped, I am getting lazy and don't seem to have the enthusiasm as before.

My biggest worry is what to wear? ??????? (I can imagine the wide grins when people read this). A formal SUIT or no suit...whyyy I'm thinking this probably my way of getting out of the real work;-)

Anyone who reads this...have you decided what you are going to wear dor the viva?:$

I'm going to wear the black suit I wore to my PhD interview and my research interview. I secured both positions wearing my suit, so its brought me luck in the past!

I'm still waiting for my viva date. I hope its not because their considering pulling my thesis from examination and more to do with busy academics trying to agree on a date. I would have loved to have had my viva before Christmas and before my 30th birthday in early January.

I know what you mean- I'm very lazy these days which is VERY unlike me. I'm really struggling to find the motivation to anything productive these days which is very worrying!