Man, I'm almost done and I still feel inadequate but I also see how other academics are not as brilliant as I initially thought.

A break is good, it's good to get yourself to the stage when you are getting excited about it again, move away from it all and then when you come back to it you'll see not everything is awful, you just gain a new perspective. It was easier for me in a way because I was/am working full time. I would have a week away from the Phd when I got frustrated with it and focus on work. Then something would really annoy me at work and I was happy to get back to the PhD :)

God I remember that period, I was so exhausted by the end of it that I literally cried all evening after my submission. I didn't have the issue with the word count, quite the opposite but that's coz my research is qualitative but I can relate to the constant feeling of failure and exhaustion plus frustration with my DOS who just couldn't be bothered to read it and continued adding to my stress. It's the final push, you can do it! Liters of Mountain Dew did it for me.

It probably means that the reviewers they initially asked declined the invitation to review and they assigned new reviewers.

Oh there is plenty of that on the forum :). It's all part of the PhD process - funded, self-funded, full time part time - it will always be challenging but worth it in the end.

I am self-funded, nearly done (I hope!) and it opened a lot of doors for me. Because of doing a PhD I got a full time university job, they gave me some time for writing up etc so even though I am self funded, it got me where I wanted to be.

If typos are your only problem then congratulations :)

I'm in a similar situation, well one supervisor is very supportive and thinks it will go well (but i found some mistakes she hasn't picked up!), the other one is not positive at all, she hasn't even bothered to read the whole thesis - she's the DOS. There was a lot of drama around submission as you can imagine.

Do you know the flaws? Have they told you what the examiners might have a problem with? If so, prepare your line of defence around that, that's what I'm doing at the moment. You don't have to remember the names, make notes. I'm going through the thesis at the moment and putting post its with additional evidence from the literature to support what i've done. Having said that, this is me saying this on a day when I'm feeling positive, any other day it's pure panic and chaos!

Do you embed elements of interaction with the students in your lecture? that will help you fill in 20 minutes and engage the students more into learning rather than them sitting and listening to you all the time. Have you done a PgCert course or a PGR course?

I'm confused now. I have my viva in 3 weeks' time and everywhere I read about original contribution it says that it can be as simple as an application of a concept to a new context, or examination of an already existing model? So what did you say your contribution was in the end? In what way were you evaluative and critical? Of the literature and the field or....? I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, just trying to understand and learn while I still can.

P.S. I've read quite a lot of viva accounts on this forum and every time somebody is actually thinking 'that might be fun, I'm looking onward ti it' it goes downhill.

My confidence is at its lowest low weeks prior to my viva. I just feel like I shouldn't have even been accepted on the programme and they're just going to laugh in my face.

Hi all, i have my viva next month, feeling very anxious about it and generally think that it will be resubmission (if even that!) but I want to prepare for a fight. I'm wondering how you have dealt or going to deal with the question about 'weaknesses of your research'? And how did you turn it round so it doesn't affect how they perceive the research. Could you give me some specific examples?

How come they've actually sent you feedback prior to the viva? My viva is next month and the uncertainty is killing me.