I didn't give a presentation at the start, and wasn't asked to. It might vary by discipline though. I'm humanities.

I had an easy viva, because it only lasted an hour and I was told that I'd passed at the start.

Most of the questions were about my thesis (although not at a page-by-page level), or bigger questions about my views about relevant research questions (not other people's research). But I did have a few general ones, including the opening "Why did you choose this topic?" ice-breaker.

I didn't find revising dozens of potential viva questions to be at all helpful for me. Instead I focused my thinking on 5 main areas: originality of my thesis, contribution to knowledge, methodology, weaknesses/gaps/mistakes, and what would I do differently if starting again. Between them those covered most of the general questions that I would be likely to be asked.

Definitely check the rules of your uni. My uni expects vivas to take place within 6 weeks of submission, and they must take place within 3 months. Your university may have similar rules about time scales.

Also having been through a viva I would not recommend putting off the viva for a very long time. It will make it that much harder for you to be familiar with your work. Yes you can reread the thesis, but you will have lost a lot of familiarity. And that could put you at a disadvantage.

Glad it went well for you!

Oh I know that feeling LOL! That's partly why I gave up counting!

It's a very rare 1 in a million auto-immune neurological disease. Incurable, and progressive, and could kill in a flash. The treatment is permanent chemo drugs and steroids. And the steroids cause huge weight gain, which can't be avoided.

I've been on high-dose steroids since 1998, and particularly high since 2004. They cause massive weight gain. Since starting my part-time PhD I reckon I've gained about 30kg! I get weighed regularly at hospital so we can work out drug doses properly, so I'm painfully aware of my weight. But while I'm on the drugs (and I'll be on them for life) I can't lose the weight unfortunately.

I'm considering staying up. I have a couple of journal papers to start working on, and could do that for a few hours at least, with one eye on the TV.

I'm just watching the end of the forensics programme, then will tune into the election coverage.

Good luck tomorrow!

Just write it, to the best of your ability. If it's still rubbish, send it in and get feedback on it. Better to send it in and get feedback on it, and move on, than keep hoping for something closer to perfection.

My other tip was to start in the middle, but you've already done that, and are struggling with the final (or rather introductory!) bit. But it's probably got near the stage where you have to send it in as it is.

Good luck!

If you want to switch to ecology or conservation I would have thought a better option might be to do a Masters degree in one of those subjects. You'd still have the PhD to back you up, and boost your future employment prospects, while gaining the skills in the new area you want to work in.

I don't think you could do the corrections in advance and be passed on the day with no corrections, because someone would need to see the corrected copy of the thesis (usually in final hard bound copy) to be sure you'd done them. If you get what I mean.

What I did though was draw up a list of the typos I spotted as I read through, and took those into the viva. They were added to a few more the internal examiner spotted, and some captions the external wanted changing. The corrections I spotted were the quickest/easiest to fix!