hi James, sorry to hear.

the same thing happened to me last year. am now finishing corrections. take heart. it was really disappointing as my supervisor who was present in the viva promised i'd pass as we waited for the outcome.

yours is a good outcome. i got major corrections after 5 years at it and no meaningful supervision at all.

6 months in that context really is nothing - depends how you look at it. just put in the 6 months and totally forget about manchester uni. ps - i also go there. so i know what you mean about unrealistic standards.

i totally feel the same but in my case, after my terrible viva am ok with whatever outcome. i just want to leave that institution.

thanks for the idea on the word document. will do that post submission which is like you in about 7 weeks.

i think there comes a point when you decide moving on is the best idea. in my case, my external's revisions were unrealistic. i have ended up writing a whole new thesis and ignoring some of his revisions. he titled his revisions letters 'requirements/suggestions for revision.' i hope to get away by saying that although i didn't cite a particular piece, i took it as a suggestion and referred to similar work that made the same point. suggestions are optional right? i particularly hate that my examiner is from another field and so i have had to learn too much stuff that's not from my area. i've nearly forgotten what my area was all about!

i know how you feel. if that helps. just do your best. that's all you can. in my case the examiners decided that i even need a new viva after saying i didn't at examination. i really hate them. but there's more to life. i can't wait to be done regardless. i only regret that i spent too much time in that institution. but that's life. you live and learn.

all the best Ohmy. :)

thanks Delta! my biggest problem is managing myself and getting back into the swing of things. some days i can do a lot and then do nothing on others. so far i have read a few papers. am yet to write anything.

i've decided to try mytomatoes.com and see if it helps me in managing myself better.

J.

congratulations!

congratulations!

am so sorry to read this pineapple. i haven't read all the posts but what makes me angry is the way your life has been put on hold. am in that same boat. re passing.. at least the examiner didn't outright fail you and there is the opportunity to choose another though that pretty much wastes your time waiting for that other one to read your thesis. i wish they'd told you what to do to the thesis in the meantime so that you aren't just in limbo. (sorry if they already have i haven't read all the posts.)

eitherway.... am sure you'll get through this if i got through my horror of a viva. you will get through this. am glad you have a support network. that counts for everything.

J.

congratulations!

my aim is to finish chapter 1 by the end of this month. ch.1 needs more literature in it so there are about 3 mini lit reviews. most of it is referencing and showing awareness of my examiners work. :( my aim today is just to be able to read a paper. a paper a day would be brilliant and to remind myself what my thesis was actually about. lol. finances are not ideal and so are other responsibilities. i hope i can make time for this. because i still want my phd.


J.

Hey all,

I'm back after a cool three months off after my defending my thesis.. almost 6 months off since submission. I have finally almost recovered from the trauma of defending a thesis against the most arrogant examiner and am now at a point where i can actually look at it again without being traumatised and face up to the corrections i have to do. this thread is for people like me, those who passed with corrections and those who have to resubmit. Let's encourage one another. it's traumatising having to open the thesis again when you'd moved on with life, but hey.. if its to be finished, there is no other way out. For me, this is where i'll come and post my progress, feelings, bitter ones i bet. lol. and where i'll share my joys with you. if you didn't pass outright, it's not the end of the world, only it's tough especially if academia is not your dream. a year locked in it seems like a century. so today i begin a rewrite of the thesis my examiner wants to see. :( i hope one day i'll smile about it. :)

J.

wow Gingersnaps - i love your attitude: "In the scheme of things 6 or 12 months is nothing."

i hope you are feeling better now and corrections are going well. i begin working on my thesis towards the end of the month. and true.. i've never felt this relaxed for years.... good thing i deliberately switched off from the phd for a while. infact, i spoke to a phd student yesterday and thought.. they don't have a life. is that what i was like then? lol. all they talk about is the thesis, methodology, data collection.. supervisor.. theory.. sigh.

hope everyone else is doing fine. :)

Respect TT.

just what i need to hear!


long time Chuff!

======= Date Modified 01 Feb 2011 13:40:37 =======
thank you all! i just got back from a holiday in the sun.. so i've had quite a bit of time to take it all in and decide the way forward. i've decided to carry on with the corrections though there are those days when i see no point in it. your posts are really encouraging and i will be reading them time and time again. thanks again for your support everyone and i do wish you decent vivas lol.. not like the one i had. am still waiting to get the examiners report and as soon as i get it i will let you know how long corrections are to take. initially they said 12 months. after my one month holiday that's 11 months now. yipee!!! am killing time already..

needless to say it was devastating but.. it's amazing how resilient the human spirit is. there are few things that can totally break you. am down about how it all went but not broken. like someone said, there is really nothing to be gained in figuring out how it all happened. instead i'll try to make the best of it.

pineapple - have you had your viva yet? if not, keep positive. i bet if i hadn't believed my work was good my examiners would not have passed me. so there is something to be gained from being your biggest fan! :-)

J.

thanks guys! you all sound so positive. am in two minds as to whether i should bother with corrections or just take an MPhil and move on with life: career reasons, financial reasons etc. but anyway that will be the subject of another thread.

so here's how my viva went:

i arrived, my supervisor was there, he asked me if i'd prepared and i told him i'd done my best. he sat in the viva. i was not expecting him to be there but i allowed him to sit in anyway.

so i found my examiners had sat down and even prepared a glass of water for me. i went in and sat down and it began.

the first thirty minutes were on literature: have you come across the work of A, B, C, D etc. i managed 90% of those and where it was not included in my thesis i explained why. in most cases the examiner said he expected a few pages and footnotes on it. this included his own work and work on which he was currently researching. basically he did not acknowledge the literature i already had. he only asked about one author who he seemed not to be a fan of. at this point the viva was getting quite heated because what he was suggesting that i should do could form another phd in itself - which when i put to him, he acknowledged.

(note thus far all questions are very subject specific - not about my phd.)

after 30 mins my internal took over. he asked only two questions - fairly easy ones and said he'd misunderstood my work.

then back to my external for about 30 mins who was now telling me how he expected the thesis to be done. what concept i should have used and how i should have developed it.

(note i was not asked any real question about my thesis that was not factual. more oddly no one asked me about my argument. which my supervisor said suggested no one seemed to have a problem with it. my external kept saying he was 'sympathetic about my thesis' but .............. where is this literature and have you looked at my work where i have cited it.)

the external insisted that he needed to see footnotes on the papers he was mentioning and i should insert 3 pages here and there of them. he then said he enjoyed reading my thesis and my supervisor and i went out for a decision.

i asked my supervisor how i'd done and he said i'd done ok and the worst he was expecting was minor corrections because i did defend my decisions well and only conceded one.

anyhow, we went back in and my internal said that the best they could give me was major corrections. i said that was quite harsh since he didn't talk about my argument suggesting it was ok. he agreed that my argument was ok and said my thesis needed more detail to make the argument more strongly. he said if i didn't want the major corrections i could take the MPhil.

obviously i decided i'd take the major corrections.

none of the questions i prepared came up. i can't say i had a conventional viva. i was not asked about my argument, the weak/strong parts, the originality or any other question you can expect. in fact, i was never asked to open my thesis. so i wouldn't say my experience is what you should expect. it was quite odd.

J.

hey all... passed with MAJOR corrections. so disappointed. viva went well. my supervisor was there and he predicted pass with minor corrections, but examiners had other ideas. so am picking myself up, taking a few weeks off while i wait for corrections. i actually really enjoyed my viva nonetheless. only my external wants me to look at all his work and a list of reading he intends on giving me. it turned into a discussion of his work and areas of interest. really disappointed i have to put them all in. its almost like am doing research for him.

either way am happy.

yesterday was a very nerve wrecking night. hardly slept. am just glad today is here!

a quick sandwich and final look at slide of 5 main questions................ then that walk to the exam room.

leaving the hotel now...................

thanks everyone for all your support. thanks Littlestar. :-)

i can't wait to bring home the good news. :-) :-)