I wish they could say you've passed, subject to the viva. That would mean that you went into the viva thinking, ok, its not all rubbish, I just have to hold it together for 2 hours and it will be fine. Rather than guessing "do they think its rubbish" the whole time.

ok, so when you say 'methodology' what am I supposed to know?

What it was?
Why I used it?
What I could have used/done differently with the method?
Epistemological stance?

Anything else?

Well I feel after having the q&a session yesterday, a bit more confident that I can easily talk about my topic and my findings and what they mean.

I'm a bit concerned I might talk myself into corrections, so will have to watch out for that (I did an extra piece of analysis which is relevant, but was left out of the thesis in the editing process - I want to say that it would be a useful topic for future research and not admit it was done!)

Its these broad questions I'm concerned by. I can't sum up my thesis in 1-2 sentences, well I can but I don't think I'm saying the right stuff!

This all stems from a piece of paper sup made me write - a summary of my PhD to send to the prospective (at the time) examiners. SHe must have made me write the damn thing 200 times, before she said it was 'ok' because I just wasn't putting the info across well. In my eyes, version 1 was pretty much identicle to version 30+ but apparently not. So I'm concerned that she'll pull my asnwers apart like this the day before and then I'll be a wreck going into it!

maybe I can wheel you in Delta for the qual questions.


..."to answer those on my behalf is Delta, my qual expert who is representing me in this viva today"

8-)

I would LOVE stats questions haha! :-x

the paper was for a deadline, which I met. The top journal in my field had a call out specifically related to my topic, and I need one more submission for REF so it was essential I got it in. I did it though!

I had a mock-ish viva (well not relly) with someone yesterday, he just skim read my discussion and asked me a few questions. I don't think the questions were as in depth as they would be from my examiners (he's not in my field), so they were more as a layman would approach the work, but made me a bit more confident.

I'm really struggling with those broad questions e.g. "explain your PhD in 3 sentences" or "what are your key findings" - these are things my sup rips apart whenever I try to express them.

I'm also a bit peeed off as my only viva prep with sup has now been shortened by half :-(

THanks Bilbo!

I'm struggling to think of the difference between originality and contribution to knowledge though!

I spose originality is "has anyone done this before"

And

Contribution to knowledge "what have you added?"

?

I guess I feel a bit like "isn't this all obvious" when it comes to contribution and "look in there - I've written it down morons"

Where is this stuff from Bilbo - I keep on seeing it mentioned but never seen it (to my knowledge)

Thanks all, Wal - I don't think I've got enough time to read the thesis, let alone books about the viva :$

Doesn't help that I've just submitted a journal paper from my thesis and sup has emailed me saying that the argument for one of my findings is fine for the paper but needs to be strengthened for the viva - I mean what the feck does that mean? how am I supposed to know how to 'strengthen' the argument, what does she want from me???

The only contact I'll have with her is the day before, I just feel like she's going to pull apart every answer I've tried to prepare and say its not good enough, leaving me feeling awful about the viva and no time to prepare different answers.

I guess at the moment, I don't feel like I know it. Its only been about 6 weeks since submission, but so much has happened - xmas, start of new term, it feels like it was 2 years ago! I'm going to sit and read it through tonight but I'm slightly concerned :-(

my head feels like cotton wool though. I know I know those answers, but when I try to extract them from my brain I just go blank.

I am just about to submit a paper based on one of my PhD studies (so at least I've been doing that!) and sup has said I need to sum up the findings in 2 sentences for the conclusion. I've been sat here completely dumbstruck for about 2 hours.

My viva is imminent, but I've done pretty much NO prep.

I've read my thesis ONCE since submitting, and done nothing else. My friends who've done this have all done months of prep and had mock-viva's etc. I haven't had any guidance and I work full time, so have had NO time to do anything. All my weekends and evenings have been taken up with marking or working for deadlines this week.

Is there anything I can do to salvage this? I have about 4 days (although teaching for 2 of them all day!)

I think the 'enjoyableness' is up for debate. I hunger for approval lol so I like them to be enjoyable (e.g. I sometimes hand out sweeties etc.) but I recently spoke to someone more senior who told me "the minute you focus on making it enjoyable it becomes a farce and there's no learning" - not sure I agree with that really.

hey delta, I'd be happy to help - I teach stats too. Although prob mid-feb might be better. I self-taught all my stats (after falling asleep in lessons and not taking anything in) I got Andy Field's book and then from there have taught myself more advanced stuff. I find that if you have to do it and its YOUR project (rather than hypothetical data/scenarios) then its much easier to get to grips with.