If i remember correctly, certain phd program in CalTech used to state that "bachelor degree is not required".

However, some universities allow gifted students at the age of, say 14, to attend certain undergraduate courses.
I happen to know some high school students who published papers in *good* journals; their works are even better than many Master degrees students.

1. Even publication that helps one to receive nobel prize can be incorrect.

2. There is some truth in this advice on publication:

If you want to get published, then heed this advice:
Cite your friends at least once and your enemies twice,
Cite the editor three times, yourself at least four,
And write in a style that's intended to bore.
If you want to get published, here's what you must do
Above all: don't come up with anything new. J.E.C.

Old professor may also worry that he'll be forced into retirement.
Examiner may feel insecure just like the students.

Essentially, examiners may also fear that students challenge them.
That is, examiners do not like to be 'embarrassed' by students who do not trust their judgement.
So, just always affirm them in the first statement... :-)

Perhaps this 'stress' can be reduced if we can be more compassionate towards the internal examiner.
This examiner could be an assistant professor who is waiting to be promoted; he feels desperate to show that he knows everything about everything.
So, doing minor correction is actually a game.

anxious if the conference will reject your paper? Or if the conference will be folded?

The conference's first deadline is often not fixed; it gives the committee a feel on the number of participants. But the second or third deadline helps the conference to generate more monetary gains...

If the participants are few (as suggested in Easychair), then the conference will very, very likely accept your paper. They need more participants to cover many expenses for organizing a conference.
So, just wait for good news.

Unless you worry the conference will be folded? Then re-register your paper and check the Easychair number... Hopefully, the number has increased significantly; better still more than the participants in previous year.

Frankly speaking, one could consider to publish five papers before starting MA. Have you published numerous papers?
Better still, go for volunteering work in the third world countries simultaneously after some papers are published...

Another question is do we need to 'acquire knowledge' through MA?
Isn't PhD better when one is capable of generating knowledge?

It seems that you still have one more year to submit your thesis, so just revise and improve your papers first.
Keeping him as examiner is a good choice; you may get very good comments for your thesis.

However, there could be 'ethical' issue. Your friend may report your collaboration with the examiner... your supervisor and you may get into trouble.
However, some universities may allow collaboration with examiner which is not 'directly' related to your thesis.

It really depends on the rules and regulations of the universities.

In some universities (Australia?), you may not be allowed to know the examiners.
In some universities, you are allowed to know the examiners such that you can cite the works of the examiners. However, you are not supposed to communicate with the examiners.
In some universities (US?), collaboration with examiner is fine.

For your case, you may want to check if delay publication is possible. It is also possible that the reviewers suggest major revision; it may require more than one year to publish your works. That is, it also depends on the nature of your paper.

A semi retired supervisor may retire in a few years' time.
My friend had similar experience; five years later, the new supervisor had a different perspective from the retired supervisor...

She rewrote her thesis to please the new supervisor.
However, the examiner preferred the perspective of retired supervisor...
So, she rewrote her thesis again.

Thanks for the technical explanations. ;-)

My point is to illustrate *nasty* examiners. Just imagine the examiners insist you have to re-prepare the samples such that the SEM micrographs are consistently in 20 kV. (By the way, sometimes 1 kV could be carried out to avoid charging, but the image is less sharp.)
One may consider to appeal for another examiner...

Perhaps going through nasty examiners may help one to be stronger; but it is really some kind of nightmare.

Hi Ian,

It is uncommon to have minor corrections (three typos). During the discussion between the examiners and your supervisor, they are probably impressed not only with your thesis, but your character, attitude and the hard work you put in… The skill and hard work in preparing the specimen may not be easily obvious or noticeable to some examiners.

However, I have a glance at your thesis, just a few minutes. It seems that your SEM micrographs are usually in 20 kV (There is no mention of tilting angle). But in Page 114, one of the SEM micrographs is 22kV, then page 116 two SEM micrographs are 18 kV. A nasty examiner may question the inconsistency of voltage, as the penetration depth may vary. Also there is no mention if the specimen for EDX was coated by gold or carbon as well as the duration… Alternatively, some nasty examiners may question why SIMS or AFM were not carried out… Probably nasty examiners may ask anything under the sun.

One journal editor in my university advised us to avoid high impact journal in our first attempt.
His first paper was rejected; one of the comments was something like worthless paper.
Don't worry. Just try again and again. Invest books on "how to publish your paper"...

But if you are willing to pay, some open-access journals are willing to publish.

Hi catalinbond, Mackem_Beefy, psychresearcher, Smoobles,

Thanks for the comments. Recently, one retired professor shared with me a lot of his experience in academia.
According to him, major revision may mean the thesis is not of high quality.
It may also mean the examiner is very critical or there could be politics between someone...
But major revision could be blessing in disguise when there are many suggestions for improvement.

On the other hand, minor revision or correction may mean the thesis is of high quality.
It may also mean the examiner is not very thorough or there could be excellent relationship between the supervisor and the examiner.
But minor revision could be unfortunate when many weaknesses in the thesis are overlooked or they were not revealed as good gestures...

If we read many theses carefully, it is not really difficult to discover errors or weaknesses. However, it seems that errors or weaknesses in thesis are rarely cited in papers. But we cannot be sure.

My thesis was submitted about two months ago. The results should be released very soon.

i have been reading my thesis about two to three pages every day after the submission, and just realised that every single page should be revised...

Thus, whether the examiners recommend major revision or minor revision, has anyone revised every page in the thesis? Perhaps, i am the only one here who feel so bad about the thesis?