Hi all,

Thanks for your advices. I have got the official confirmation that I will be given two choices: 1) minior correction for MPhil. 2) Major correction for re-exam for PhD without oral examination.

Is that common for people like me being given choices? Does this mean my thesis is really borderline of a PhD?

Thanks for your reply. The deadline, under university regulation, is 12 months. But certainly I will do it as fast as I can.

Sad, really sad....

Sadly, I just had my Viva and got a re-sumbit without more oral examination. Examinars want me to perform some more experiments. Are there any other people here who has the same experience?

It seems that everybody passed the viva here except me.

Hi all,

I am preparing my Viva which will be held within 3 weeks. Horribly I found an error which happens in 7 equations in my thesis. The big summation sigma should starts from j=1 instead of j=0. These are just type errors, but they should make the equation logic wrong :(

I really don't know how the external examiner will do with this kind of errors :(.

Hi otto,

Thanks. I think the grammar, spelling and punctuation are the only parts I am confident with. Both my supervisors checked it for me word by word. The real problem is the contents of the thesis, research contribution and novel ideas.

Thanks for all your ideas. I feel more confident now. I think the external has hundreds of reasons to fail a person if he really wants. I can understand that famous persons are not normally aggressive because they are on the top. It's quite common for them to see poor ideas from their point of view.

I had been working in a field that totally irrelevant with my PhD project for 1.5 year. The thesis is finished in my spare time. Neither me nor my supervisor think my PhD project can be useful in the future.

God knows what will happen. I really hope the coming holiday summer makes the external happier and passing me easily

Hi Hairui, Shani and Heather,

Thanks for your advices. I will get someone to read my thesis and get feedback. A mock viva has been scheduled in two weeks with my supervisor. I will try my best to prepare it. It has been 6 months since I submitted. And it has been 1.5 year since I left the university where I was having my PhD.

It sounds like people do get failed straight away

Hi all.

I have just been informed the name of my external examiner. Unfortunately, he is a very reputable professional in my research area. This makes me extremely panic :(

My thesis is weak, from my point of view. I only have three publications (one short paper, one refered as first aurthor, one refered as second aurthor). All of them are published in small conferences. My supervisor does not have any experience of supervising PhD student before. Thus, I think his permission of my submission does not actually mean I am at the pass standard. Now, I will face the famous person who can easily find holes in my thesis... I think I am half way towards fail now :(

Does anyone think the famous person will be more strict than normal?