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i'm in the twilight zone too! waiting for my viva. 'the powers that be' at my own uni are sorting it out

to keep myself sane. i'm focusing on the baby steps in preparing for my viva.

just heard this great interview on 6 music of prof. wiseman on his book called 59 steps, that dispels the misleading myths about self help. instead of focusing on for example passing an exam. instead focus seeing yourself revising. its the baby steps that will help you motivate. and not to daydream about the day you recieve your certificate, but instead focus on the steps that will get you there. and to focus on the day to day activities. which i've been doing :)

i think by gollly i might go out and by it!!

Smilodon, what is your daily viva preparation routine?

mine at the moment, i am going through each page of my thesis and summarising the key points. i hope to get it finished by end of july. and then i will start working on the viva questions :-)

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Hey Ruby, nice to hear from you, wow i'm suprised you're stuck in the twilight zone, i thought you would be long gone by now!!:-(

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oh wow that's awesome!! can you tell me more about it?

i used to be a member of St johns ambulance.

ahhh thanks! that's a great website. i checked it out . thanks so much

what are you going to volunteer for?

that's a splendid idea! good for you!!!

can you tell me about this organisation??

i went to doit.org. but it seems to be a website about software :$

i also thought about volunteering. i looked into volunteering for childline. i think once i'm done with my phd, i might seriously do it. they train you up, but you have to commit for a year. and do shift work. but its a great organisation.

as for extra curricular activities, i like playing the piano. well learning to play the piano more like! at the moment, i'm trying to learn clair de lune by Debussy , i only have gotten the first two bars!! :-) and learning 9 crimes by damien rice, i've gotten the beginning of that down
that reminds me, i really ought to practice everyday even if its just for 5-10minutes! instead of just at the weekend.

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oh i definately can relate to the no motivation part. i'm feeling so lazy these days when it comes to studying...i blame the hot weather hehehe. i just kinda force myself to do a little bit each day, even if its not alot. the key point is to do something each day. i also have set myself small tasks. at the moment i am summarising each page of my thesis, into a few sentences. that way i am reading through the thesis and familiarising myself with it and doing something active with it.

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hey miss spacey! thanks, but i cant see the pm :-( i went to my inbox., and it said , one new message waiting, and told me to delete some. which i did. i deleted old emails. but i dont see your pm, nor does it say, new pm awaiting :-(

wow well done on breaking through the 100,000 word barrier. so that means you're practically done. cause thats like the word limit isnt it for a thesis?

======= Date Modified 01 Jul 2009 21:43:43 =======
hello everyone! just wanted a quick catch up with everyone. not heard from Armendaf in a while. i hope he is okay :$

my viva preperation strategy at the moment, is consisting, of :

summarising the important key points from each page of my thesis into a word document.
and also summarising each page into one sentence.


how is everyone else coming along?

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here you go !!

http://www.year-planner-calendar.wanadoo.co.uk/2009-year-planner-wall-diary-calendar-public-holiday-chart-free.htm

:-)(up)

hi omega, thanks for asking :) the postgraduate professor, that handles all things related to submission and viva, is on the case! and told me he will let me know ASAP

in the meantime, i'm studying away. life is good
:-)

well done walminskipeas..!!!

Chris. that's cool! maybe you're a night owl. and no matter what - you just cant fight it :P

i read that we all have certain times of days that we're naturally better suited at for being productive. cant fight against our physiological blueprint.

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thanks Sinead! well it's going slowly. but at least i have started studying again :-)

i'm at the moment trying to summarise my chapters. and condense my notes to key words. im very bad at summarising. i want to write everything down lol

what have you got planned for today?

choo choo

i'll be inhabitating one of the cabins thank you :)

i want to get some studying done before i call it a day. its been a rather slow unproductive study day today! i want to get at least a few pages of summary notes written from my chapter

that's a nice idea :)

i definately need a thread like this, to remind me to keep going! i got tons of revision to do for my viva.

i took a little holiday break last week, now finding it abit tough to get back into revision /study mode again! but i've started today . hurrah!

my aim today is to summarise one of my chapters.

good luck! great advice given below . i'm gonna try that too!

my friend advised me to summarise each chapter onto 1 A4 page. so when i am in the viva, i can quickly look at it.

but i also like the idea of summarising each page into 1 line. thats a good idea too

basically at the moment, i'm working on summarsing each chapter. and answering the basic questions. i just compiled the list of qs for each chapter this morning.
here they are:

1. Basic definitions
2. What was known before
3. What is the chapter based on
4. What was the result
5. Importance of the result
6. How was the experiment carried out (which method)
7. Limitations of the method
8. Strengths of the method
9. Future experiments

im gonna answer all these qs for each chapter.

and yah its a good idea to have an answer for the common qs of viva preperation. i made a list of questions from various different sources. namely from the murray book but also from this website

http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/cs/cs710/viva.html

good luck . i will join you in preparing for my viva. which is soon also

======= Date Modified 03 Jun 2009 14:14:13 =======
Thanks Ju-Ju, Hazyjane, Bilbobaggins and Ruby for your really helpful advice and support really appreciate it!!

Ju -Ju - Thanks Ju-ju. well when my phd funding ran out, i worked just over a year as a RA and i saved up my money, and i'm just being careful with money..just living a simple life at the moment :)
nope its not affecting my career really, but i would eventually like to move on from this whole phd thing, its like having a constant cloud over your head. i'm still not decided what i actually want to do , to be honest. but would be nice to get out there and see whats out there in the world that i would enjoy doing.

Thanks Hazyjane. hmmm are you , who i think you are??? (wink wink) i mean, do i know you?
yeh it is abit scary not knowing when my viva date is, i'm on edge, thinking it can be anytime!
you're right , i should put more focus on my own thesis. i will start to do that :)
thanks for the tip about what your boss said, thats good advice.
thanks again for your help

Bilbobaggins, - WOW i really admire you, what with your adversities, you really are an inspiration. Thank you so much for your advice , its very helpful indeed!

Hey Ruby, sooo lovely to hear from you!!! Thanks for your advice, that is really good to know, you’re so right.

my sup didnt reply to my email (3rd attempt at emailing him). but this time, a prof from my own uni that deals with post graduate stuff, did reply and asked me when i handed in my thesis. i told him 30th october 2008, and how i havent heard anything about who my examiners are, and when my viva might be, or heard from my supervisor, so feeling abit concerned.

So the prof just replied again today and told me he understands my concern and he has followed it up and will update me asap. So now feeling abit nervous that my viva could be very soon! Yikes!! but also grateful that i finally have gotten a response from someone!!

Im not sure Ruby when it will be, senate house told me when examiners are given the thesis, the minimum time they are given is 3 weeks to read through a thesis, and maximum is like a few months i think. So i’m guessing my viva could be anytime from july 1st onwards. So i am hoping i still have one month left to fully prepare for my viva. in a way i think it will be good for it not to drag on too long, i'm already finding that i am forgetting what i did! it seems like such a long time ago that i wrote my thesis. i need to read through my thesis again. i did read through it a couple of months ago, but need to go through it again.

I’m going to cornwall tomorrow for a few days with some friends, for a mini holiday. im really looking forward to that :) But im taking my discussion sections from each chapter with me, so i can do some studying, will wake up early before everyone else and get in at least an hours worth or something.

I find that if i go a few days without studying, i lose my momentum and focus. and then its really hard for me to get back into studying mode again.

Thanks again everyone for your support and advice. You all are brilliant!

Kmille, welcome to the thread! sounds like you are working well on your thesis, great job! keep going :)

Armendaf good luck for your viva!!!!! (up)