source: http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/cs/cs710/viva.html



quote>>>>>>"The time between submitting the thesis and the viva varies greatly. I submitted my thesis on 28th September 2001, and had my viva on 18th September 2002! My thesis was very long (390 pages including appendices), and there was a delay in finding a suitable external examiner, but above all you have to remember that your examiners will be busy with other things too!

The shortest time I've heard of between submission and viva is three weeks (different subject, different university).

They have to give you at least two weeks' notice before the viva. I got five weeks' notice. My internal examiner suggested a couple of dates, I chose 18th September and asked for 14:00 in IT406, and this was officially confirmed a few days later." <<<<<<< end quote

======= Date Modified 05 Apr 2009 01:34:42 =======
it can be anytime between 1 month to 3 months, and i too have heard of one year later having a viva. someone on the internet wrote an article about his viva experience, and said he submitted his thesis and about 11 months or so had his viva!

it depends on examiners. usual time i've heard is a few months. but i wont be suprised if its a year.

i submitted my thesis in november last year. and i dont know when my viva is :p hehe but my situation might be very rare and not the norm. but in my personal case i say the more time the better!

anberlin, i agree with everyone below me. its perfectly normal!!!

i dont think its lazyness. i think sometimes theres so much to do, or you dont know what to do, that you just end up not doing anything.

the advice given below about giving yourself something to study each day, is a good one. even if its just one hour of studying. give yourself a small task to accomplish everyday. whether its reading a paper and making notes on it. or whatever. and also the advice about keeping a diary of what you do everyday is good too!

so just get stuck in and do something everyday and hold yourself accountable. say to yourself, you cant do X (which is something you enjoy) until you've done ZY (something related to your phd).

Thanks Armendaf, thats really good advice, you're right! And its nice to hear from you. wow you got your examiners sorted and your thesis is on the way, thats good actually. the sooner you get the viva done and dusted the better. otherwise its just like a black cloud over your head.

i still feel like i got a mountain of work to get through before my viva. i hope i have a couple of months before my viva is set. eeeek.

funny thing is, i actually WANT to just do a RA job after my phd, (if i ever pass) because its less hassle. i hear post docs are really stressful. i just like doing lab work, and dont like writing papers or grants or want the extra responsibilities.

my sup once told me, he had so many applications from newly qualified phd'ers for RA positiions. so its not too crazy of an idea. when you do a post doc, you're like thrown into the deep end.

if you like the project idea, then i dont see why not, and the pay is good. i would advise to take it :)

how long is it for?

Hi Chris, i was also worried about fees, but when i spoke to the admin they kinda gave me the impression that it would only be £200 max. and i read in the handbook that its about that much. i suppose every uni is different.

you should find out that way you wont worry. but i dont think it will be that much. and in most cases probably wont even make you pay.

Ruby - how are things going?

Armendaf = heard anything yet concerning your viva date?

Miss spacey hope the writing is going well.

Satchi, hope the paper reading is going good.

======= Date Modified 01 Apr 2009 19:29:16 =======
Hey everyone

hope everyone is good.

well my friends and family have adviced me to email my supervisor again and CC the admin from the university, to find out about the viva. they all keep telling me to get my head out of the sand and face it. and that what if there is a deadline for a viva and you miss it and you fail your phd because you didnt have a viva in time! so that freaked me out.

i guess i've been hiding , studying away, thinking if i keep postponing the idea of having a viva and i dont have a viva i wont have to face the humilation of failing my phd. in my warped head, it sounds better to say im waiting for my viva. then say i failed my phd. i have this overbearing sense of dread that examiners will either fail me or tell me to write it up as a mphil. then i keep worrying what my family and friends will say that i failed and what they would think of me. as a failure.

but i gues i cant hide forever. so i'm sending my supervisor another email to ask him whats going on with regards to examiners and when my viva date is.

one of my family friend says, that you end up forgetting your phd the longer it is, no matter how many times you keep revising. cause i said, i keep forgetting my thesis and i feel if i had more time i could study harder . but maybe even if i had a year its no gurantee that i would do any better at my viva.

i feel kinda bad having to CC the admin people as i dont want my sup to get into trouble or be seen as a tale teller. but i feel he will keep ignoring my emails hoping i would go away, and if i dont keep the uni informed i might get in trouble for not chasing up getting my viva organised

this is the email i have composed. not sent it yet. will send it tommorow, once my family friend gets back to me


Dear *X*


I was wondering if you have heard anything from QMUL or Senate house regarding my viva date. I would like to know how much time I have left to study for my viva, and who my examiners are, so I can read up on their work. I was also wondering if you know what the deadline is for having a viva date after submitting a thesis, is there a maximum time period after submitting a thesis, that one must have a viva by ? Have you heard anything from QMUL about when my viva date should take place by?


Thanks so much for your help. I have CC'd Mr Z and Ms J, as to find out what the rules are regarding viva dates.
Mr Z and Ms J- do QMUL set a deadline by which I must have my viva by or do Senate house pose a deadline?

Kindest Regards,

Lara.

======= Date Modified 25 Mar 2009 15:27:47 =======

i am finding the really good advice that JB talks about coming in useful for revision aswell. i've adapted it to "revision" whereby i tell myself i have to write 2 pages of hand written notes and then i can take a break. i find that i cant simply just read *something* i have to *do* something- make it *active* ie make notes , even if its just verbatim copying it out.

Joan Bolker writes:
.."the sit there method - is to say that you will write for a fixed amoutn of time, say two hours, every day. there are not a lot of people who can just write - not stare off into space , not get up to make five pots of coffee......for more than about 2 hours a day. you can write for a very long time on any given day, but the trouble is you canthen do it again the next and again and again and writing daily is the pattern thats best suited to finishing a dissertation........ The [other] "many pages method" is to pick a reasonable number of pages and write that same number every day. ....I think the many pages method works best. If you fix an amount of time as in the sit there method, its possible to spend all or most of that time staring at the wall, and then you've both wasted time and produced nothing. The advantage to the many pages method, is that it rewards fast writing, writing about five pages can take between 1 and five hours. i'm not talking about 5 polished pages, but rather five junk pages, very close to free writing. But with a goal of five pages , the faster you can do them, the sooner your time is your own this method rewards learning to write faster....fast writing produces no worse results than slow writing does. "...


and this bit of advice i got from "study /revision tips" from this website. http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/how-to-study.html
"Rewrite your notes.

This can be done by hand or on the computer. However, you should keep in mind that writing by hand can often stimulate more neural activity than when writing on the computer.

Everyone should study their notes at home but often times, simply re-reading them is too passive. Re-reading your notes can cause you to become disengaged and distracted.

To get the most out of your study time, make sure that it is active. Rewriting your notes turns a passive study time into an active and engaging learning tool."

http://www.johndclare.net/how_to_revise.htm#Notes%20on%20notes

" 3.

Fix the information

Revising is remembering. It's not 'revising' unless you're fixing it into your brain. If you spend five hours working in your room, but you still can't remember it in the exam, you've spent 5 hours working, but you've not done any revision.



Never just read your notes. You must always be DOING something with them to FIX the information in your brain (and probably the easiest way to do this is to write it down).

Notes on notes on notes

The easiest way to 'fix the information' in your brain is to:



WRITE IT DOWN.



Your brain has three kinds of memory cells - sound, sight and feel. The best kind of learning occurs when you use all three at the same time. Writing it down does this - you see the words, you say them in your mind as you write them, and you are using your movement/spatial senses as you write them down on the paper.

One tried and tested method is just to copy out your notes, by hand, again and again. Better still - because it makes you THINK about what you are writing - is to make a paraphrase of your notes, then a paraphrase of the paraphrase, and so on, until you have compressed your notes into a series of cryptic headings. Not only are these easy to learn, by writing and re-writing the words you have helped to embed them in your brain."

======= Date Modified 25 Mar 2009 15:26:16 =======

Hey Ruby, great to hear from you! I agree you should take some serious time off and relax. after i submitted i took a couple of months off! then slowly got back into it. i'm still not studying full steam, just doing abit everyday. i tend not to berrate myself if i havent studied for hours and hours. as long as i do *something* even if its just a teeny winy bit, its OK. i just gotta study everyday thats all, even if its just for 15-20mins!! haha

but yeh, take time off , treat yourself, and relax. you got plenty of time to study for your viva, if it wont be till may/june.

nope not heard from my sup yet. but the main thing is, i sent him an update with what i am doing and what i want, so i've done my bit :) so i feel better about that. but in the meantime, i'm gonna carry on working on those pesky viva questions and reading though thesis and reading papers. so much to do! but just taking it one day at a time. i find that if i give myself a smallish task to do i tend to actually do some studying, not alot, but some. :)

bit by bit...

Hey Satchi! great to hear from you. well done on your 52 mins! glad that the timer is coming in useful. your post yesterday geared me into doing some work aswell, and i timed myself lol. throughout the day, i used the timer, to see how much time i was studying. its a good way to monitor your progress.

so my time from yesterday was: 1 hour and 27 minutes. and i made 4 pages of hand written notes.

thats really great that you got the book Satchi, and already on page 62! wow. and well done on doing some freewriting ;)

okay my aim today is :
1. answer viva question 8. which involves reading parts of my thesis.
2. read a paper and make notes
3. make rough key word notes for 4 new viva questions.

Hey Ruby, how's it going?

Armendaf - heard anything yet from the sup?

miss spacey i know you're away from the net, but wanted to wish you luck for your writing and hope its coming along good.