Is it normal to correct at that level of detail?

I'm a bit concerned that I will come out of my viva and not really know the result. My supervisor is away and out of email contact and I don't know if I can expect any clear indication from my examiners. What is the general experience with this?

Ah now this is why it's good to be a married PhDer. Husbands are such low maintenance compared to boyfriends ;-)

Oh no Aloha - I can't bear to think of the post Viva twilight zone. I can easily imagine this happening to me - the corrections not being ready for the next board meeting and on and on......

I did my masters in a different field, then my PhD mainly in yet a different field again. I do sometimes wonder what on earth I would do if I had to lecture in any of these fields :p as my knolwledge is quite specialised. I'm definitely not fluent in all areas - but it's not that uncommon and does have some advantages. As Joyce says, a lot of it is about getting bast the jargon boundaries. I do feel as though I frequently reinvent the wheel (because I didn't realise there was already a wheel....), but I tend to think of it as character building.

You might find that you have to set aside small amounts of time to catch up on specific areas you haven't studies - but not whole degree-shed loads. That's what I found.

Hi Lara - do you have a viva date yet? Finally got mine - July 30th. So one week to go. I'm not summarizing each page but going through the thesis (as of yesterday) marking odd points, typos and adding occaisional notes. I've started looking at mock viva questions and there are some areas of the analysis I want to work on and take with me. There have been some very tough vivas leading to resubmissions in my dept recently so I am quite anxious.

I really want to get it over with - it's really hanging over me at the moment. I am becoming rather unbearable to live with I think - terse and irritable. I don't really know what more to do for the via but feel I should try to do something. Most people around me are in relaxed, summer mode and we are experiencing a tidal wave of children's birthday parties. I feel out of sync and preoccupied. Neither fish nor fowl.

For us, tutoring doesn't require any specialist knowledge and we are expected to be able to teach anything to first years. But the attitude is very different for an actual Teaching Assistantship where we were asked to outline how our knowledge of the relevant topics made us suitable candidates. Sounds very contradictory I know, but that's how it works here (and I've done both). I can only imagine that the latter is a more formal post and process done through the faculty compared to the former which is orgaised at dept level (and usually with some degree of desperation on the part of the organiser).

Once you've counted prep and marking time the pay is diabolicle though :-s

I'm in the process of applying for posdoc grants now so there will be a gap of at least 6 months between viva and working again - IF I'm successful. Then I expect to have to do at least one more contract before getting something permanent - but even then you have to keep applying for grants to fund your research. I will be relying on my long-suffering husband during the gaps but will also do some teaching. If I were single and/or didn't have a child I would work freelance in my former capacity and/or teach to cover the gaps - or basically just do anything (bar work etc) I had to to get by. That is the reality I'm afraid, although it is possible to go smoothly from contract to contract depending on your topic, flexibility and luck. Given my topic and total lack of flexibility I expect gaps.

People do live like this. I lived from contract to contract for many years before going back to university so I'm used to it and actually prefer it in some ways. I don't like to be indefinitley committed and with contracts you never need an excuse to move on. There is more variety and excitement - but of course, less security.

It's a leap of faith. How much would you like to try it and how hard would it be to go back to your old profession in a couple of years? How do you see your long-term future? Can you have a long-term future in your filed without lecturing?

I really think this is only a problem in schools. I did some secondary teaching in my early 20s and I was mistaken for a 13 year-old school girl :p The kids totally wiped the floor with me - it was a nightmare. I have taught teenagers and young adults since then.

As for looking younger - make the most of it because I suddenly seemd to age fast at around 40 and don't look as young for my age as I expected to :-(

There are a few of us who bombed out of a first PhD but then did a second one from scratch - I did that with a gap of 15 years. I would start with a literature search on your topic to get up to date and see how much of the old project you can realistically recycle. That might also suggest possible supervisors. Good luck!

I've also been told that I will need at least 2 postdocs to get a lectureship so it seems you are doing OK.

I think it's certainly enough time if you really finish all the analysis by September. In my case, the anaysis kept going and going and I did a lot of very new analysis 2 months before my delayed submission. I could not have predicted I would do that. But your timeframe does sound very doable if you having nothing new after Sep. I also waited to publish.

''But I question as to whether if you could truly love someone you would put them through this.''

Hold on to that thought. Would you do this to someone? I've also had a similar experience with an ex that wasn't quite an x and it didn't end well. In the end we had to sever all contact and I took it very hard. People can be very jeolous and possesive without committing themselves at all to a relationship, unfotunately. Remember that the saying: 'The best revenge is living well' - get your PhD - once you have it will always be with you, unlike some people....

Your post is confusing. You say you will complete the analysis by Sep - in which case you should be able to write up by May. But then you say you will be analysing and producing a further 4 studies for the thesis - which sounds like a lot of extra work so it's impossible to judge whether you really have enough time or not.

How pregnant will you be then? You may well feel much better if you are say 4-8 months along. I went to a conference when I was 6 months and I certainly felt a lot better than I had up to 3-4 months when I had been feeling really sick and tired.

I assumed that if it was not excluded then it was included - so I e.g. assumed that in my case contents were included.