PamW, I was told by my supervisor that my work is "first rate" and this was obviously so far from the truth. There wasn't even a hint of criticism. I thought that guiding you to if you are on the right track is exactly supervisors job. Of course, I have no way of knowing what she said in front of the panel as I was asked to leave at some stage and supervisor and the panel made the final decision. She also repeatedly told me things like that my chances of failing viva are ZERO, and I was extremly close to failing. I'm stunned by her lack of judgmenent and her failing now to take ANY of the responsibility.

Yeah jojo. I'm now getting into the spirit of I passed YAY! lol

Friends were going to throw me a party if I paased and since I technically did, they are doing it (even though I told them about the negative comments). I kind of feel like a fraud celebrating but might as well get drunk ;)

Thank you guys. This has helped a lot.

My supervisor is young and enthusiathic and not all that experienced with supervison. I think that I'm pretty lucky to get so much of her time, but it is my responsibility to make the most of it.

For one of the panel's questions I actually answered "I have done this because my supervisor told me so". No wonder they picked up on the independence issue. I have taken a week off to ponder those things and make some sort of plan of where to go from here with the project. I have a paper that I'm about to submit for publication and IF it gets accepted that will hopefully lift my spirits.

OR does being independent doesn't have so much to do with this but more me taking the direction/ideas about my project in my hands rather than being mostly directed by the supervisor? I'm confused by what being independent means. Should I push the issue of less frequent meetings with the primary supervisor further? (I have already asked her today if we should meet less frequently and she said NO - but maybe she is just being polite). She was even happy to remain my only supervisor before the viva but she was pushed by the panel into getting two additional people.

About being independent - can anyone explain what does it exactly mean?

I'm aware that I have too much face to face time with my supervisor. I have meetings with her pretty much every day. But it's HER that has set this pace from the start and always schedules next one at the end of the day. I have even tried to slow this pace by saying things like "I don't think that there is anything important to discuss this week", but she just looks confused. So I'm not one of those students that's pastering supervisor constantly, although it might look that way to an outsider. If she has set the pace of one meeting per month, I would have found a way to work around that. I have also thought often who in their right mind says no to extra supervison? Panel was also kind of stunned by the frequency of meetings. Not to put the blame on anybody, but quntatity of supervison doesn't equal quality.

The thing that really concerns me is that my primary/only supervisor didn't really pick up on those issues. I always got comments that everything I do is great and very rarely any criticism. Obviously my work is not as good as she has led me to beleive. And now, when she sees me blaming myself, while she is supportive she never says anything about this being partly her fault - and it definetly is. Have I been alerted to the standard of my work not being that good, I would have definetly worked more on improving it. I'm really hoping that this new supervisory panel will help.

I've talked to my only supervisor today and she said that I shouldn't be too hard on myself and it all went fine - few concerns don't mean a disaster. I'm already being appointed a supervisory panel, rather than just 1 supervisor, and a more senior member of staff offered to see me if I need more advice/clarification.

I have found the whole experience very overwhelming. Panel was pretty tough and questions tricky. I ended up crying all day yesterday bacuase even though I passed, comments were pretty negative. Issues that were brought up were - initiative and the fact that I have mostly been doing directed research until now and they have concerns if I will be able to conduct independent research. My topic is too broad and needs to be narrowed down. I was hesistant when answering some of the questions. Some ideas for new methodology to use. That I need to "step up" if I want to complete a good quality thesis.

I'm going to take a week off as I don't feel like facing anyone. While the viva itself wasn't too scary, comments were a lot harsher than I anticipated. I am considering quitting and need to give this some serious thought.

Sjo4,

Thanks for the tips.

I already had a moderate "freak out" in the supervisor office few hours ago. I kept repeating words "It's going to be a complete disaster" etc. I nearly cried but didn't. Supervisor told me to call anytime if I need to chat other than that we went thorugh some possible queations and we discussed how I'm being too negative about things (it's now 24 hours to go...)

I'm so stressed and scared. I will have to defend my research topic in front of the panel of 7 experts. The problem is when I'm anxious and I sure will be, I'm not able to think so any questions they ask and I haven't anticipated beforehand I won't be able to answer. I'm really not all that confident with my project and am pretty much only able to answer questions that are narrowly related to the project. I have made a decision that if I get any other outcome than a straight pass I'm quitting. My supervisor is not worried but I always had a feeling that she is overestimating my abilities. So I might only be a PhD student for 2 more days...

Is what necesseary?

Yes, it can feel awkaward so the moment has to be right. Mine was after completing a good talk. I thought along the lines of how good it feels when supervisor compliments my work - so it would probably make her happy if I did the same.

I have actually done this recently with great results. I said something along the lines of how lucky I am to have her and how great of a supervisor I think she is (I sounded sincere and NOT kiss-assy). She looked VERY happy with the compliment and seems to be putting even more effort than usual into my supervison. ;)

P.S. She also said that the new guy will go only if there is any leftover funding - but I'm going for sure.

I talked to the sup. and she said yes to that international conference in 2009! No problems for the funding either. I really wasn't expecting this, but hey I'm happy.