Thanks for the tips Chobba.

I guess I'm just struggling with the motivation. I had a week off from submission till I opened my copy. Worked on it for a few days and I haven't opened since. It's been a month now so I should be able to do it?? Maybe I'm worrying too much about it? Saying that, I'd like to go in prepared rather than risk failing the viva.

Thank you Ady and Catalinbond. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one!

Maybe I should make my steps even smaller than they are.

Not me at all. I'm an ESFJ. I'm in the wrong career altogether! lol

I know a few of us are having their vivas soon and I was just wondering how prep is going?

I have a mock in a few weeks (yes, sups thought it'd be best to have it before Xmas:-s) and I can't seem to be bothered. I haven't even managed to submit my papers yet! Working hasn't helped as I don't seem to have much spare time as previously and when I do, I'm pretty tired:-(

Hi Blackbyrd!

Sorry to hear you didn't get the job. From talking to others, it seems that competition for posts is quite fierce at present which is not helpful in itself.

I've received mixed feedback from my interviews including 'we really liked you and can't fault you at all but we chose someone with more experience'. But I've also received some constructive feedback and, as annoying and disappointing as hearing the feedback was for me, at least I got to know why I wasn't chosen and I can act on it for next time! So perhaps you could do the same?

I've had a few interviews over the past several months and I'm still unemployed so not sure I'm the best advisor on this :$ but don't give up!! You CAN do it! Plus I've been told that practice makes perfect;-)

Naturalme, I hope you had a productive day yesterday. We all have to start somewhere!

Ady, well done on securing a job! Congrats! I think the avoidance to do viva prep could well be part of the journey as I haven't done much myself and I have a mock soon enough so I better step up!

You're very welcome :-)

Work is ok, thanks. I've not had much time to do things due to paid work and other commitments but I'm hoping things will settle down a bit from this week.

I've been slacking a bit in recent weeks but I'm going to plan a schedule for the rest of the week so fingers crossed that will help me. You finding the time to work on your revisions?

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Hi Naturalme!

Congratulations on passing (up) Well done (once again)!

It sounds like the revisions feel a bit overwhelming right now but you're are soo close!

Keep up the good work.

Good luck! I hope you get all the participants you need!

Hi there!

Congrats on submitting!

Just to add to the suggestions already given, it may be helpful to prepare a bullet point list of sentences you may want to use as well.

Also I'd imagine that the examiners would be aware that English is not your first language and that, like most of us, you'll be nervous during the viva so I'd like to think that they'd take these in consideration as well.

But very importantly (and serious!) remember to breathe and give yourself a break too, words can sometimes 'disappear' from our heads when we're nervous regardless of the language we're speaking.

Good luck with the viva and let us know how it goes!

Hi Pixy

Well done on getting all your interviews done and transcribed. I've not used NVivo so please forgive me if this is an obvious question, but do you know what method you'll be using to analyse the data?

Hi Naturalme! I'm so happy for you! Congratulations(up)

Sokia, Congratulations(up) I'm sure you'll manage to get your revisions done and everything will work out. I doubt they'd let you off the hook otherwise;-) have some faith in yourself, the examiners do...

Hey, Delta! I agree with KB. Neither of mine are experts. The internal is someone who has a general interest on the topic but hasn't conducted research on it at all (I have the feeling he's been picked for other reasons, maybe politics) and the external is interested on a parallel topic so neither of mine are experts.

I expect this to be pretty hard though as there is a chance they might know nothing about the exact topic (I can't predict how much they know or how much they'll know by then!) so I'm preparing for the worst, which is me having to explain everything to them!

I thought they had to be experts to, but it seems this is not the case;-)

Congrats (up)

Totally agree with Delta! Waiting isn't fun... good news Sneaks! I hope you manage to submit soon.

Well done Claudia!

That's good news Delta. I'm finding that looking for a job in my area is almost impossible when working full-time and still dealing with uni stuff (e.g. revising, writing for publication, etc) so it's great that you can dedicate yourself to the priorities in life;-) I hope you get a job soon. Good luck!