No, it isn't normal. I'd think / talk to someone about switching supervisors. It'll only get worse. I wouldn't be doubting your abilities. This isn't normal!

Hi,

Yes please don't worry. Have you been able to find out yet which one you submitted? If it comes to it and you can't resubmit at this stage then you need to just do what pm133 says, and take the changes/updates along to the viva. Then if they ask you a question and it pertains to a part you updated, you would just explain that. So at the start of the viva, you can just explain your mistake, apologise for any inconvenience, and say that you might need to update them on certain parts/changes as you go through the viva. The bottom line is the actual essence of your thesis won't have changed.

I'm not sure if this helps - but my thesis was an alternative format one, and I had changed quite a few things in one of the studies/papers - based on feedback from reviewers at a journal. I printed out a copy of the revised paper and highlighted the changes I had made - just in case those were relevant parts that came up in the viva. Actually, there was no need for me to tell them about the changes in the end as they just didn't really ask about those specific things and I didn't want to make a big deal about it so kept quiet.

Hope you are managing to calm down - stressful I know. But it'll be fine. And your final thesis (available to the public online etc) is the one you submit AFTER your viva.

Best
Tudor

Thanks Athena and Mark! :)

Hi Navidad

I did sit in on an appeals panel once as a student representative (I was supposed to be there so at least there was another student present who was part of the final decision on the appeal). If you have any specific questions about what the actual appeal panel meeting is like, I ,might be able to answer some of them (although it may differ from place to place). I would say to have any hope of a positive outcome for your appeal, you definitely need to keep a very cool head. Try not to be bated into losing your temper or displaying any negative behaviour - which of course can happen when in such a high pressure situation and no doubt feeling that things being said are unfair.

What are the possible outcomes of your appeal / what are you actually aiming for? If they are asking you to leave and you are appealing, their decision may in part be based on whether or not they think that if you DID stay you would have supervisors you could work with and you could actually see the PhD through. So if your relationships with your current supervisors are very bad, this could be difficult. Anyway, as I say, feel free to get in touch. Whatever the reasons for how you are in this situation, you are not alone. Others have gone through it. Have you tried searching for appeals on this forum? You might find some tips for people were had success.

All the best,
Tudor

Ps. One person I know successfully appealed against being made to leave, and her PhD was changed to an MPhil and her mental health issues officially acknowledged - she was given extra time to write things up etc.

Hi Nic,

I had something like this happen when I was writing my upgrade report. I worked frantically one day and typed up the bulk of it, and then before I was about to go to bed, I hit the following in rapid succession: Control + A (which highlights all the text in the document), Delete, and Control + S (which saves the Word document). So I was left with a saved, blank Word document. I spent much of the next day with software trying to retrieve the deleted work, which proved impossible. Thankfully I did have an earlier version saved on a pen drive, but couldn't get that extremely productive day's work back. I'll never forget my disbelief at what I had done.

As for the actual thesis - I was kinda rushed trying to get it electronically submitted and ready to print on the same day. Somehow I managed to put the Contents Page in the wrong place, which strangely, none of the examiners noticed (although the admin lady did when I handed it in - she alerted me to it immediately).

I don't know if any of this helps or you'd want to interview and ask more questions. Happy to anyway.

Best
Tudor

Thanks! :))

Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for the heartfelt congrats! Really appreciate it! Some people here will be aware of the situation / how my PhD was (at last as perceived by me), and an earlier thread where I was seriously considering throwing the towel in and downgrading to an MPhil. Thanks all those who encouraged me not to do that, although I realise that not everyone found it easy to follow my reasoning as to why I wanted to do such a thing - not getting the PhD award I'd worked for - even though it was within reach. Anyway - THANK YOU - because had I thrown it in, I wouldn't have been able to look for postdocs etc now. I'd be wondering what to do / trying to find another PhD opportunity. So here we are.

Pm133 - I did enjoy the moment in my own simple way. :)

Cheers!!!
Tudor

Happy to say that I passed my viva today with minor corrections. Not sure if I have to wait and submit the corrections and they are approved before I can officially enter the hall of fame! I'm sure someone will pull me up on it if I'm not supposed to be here! :D

Hi everyone

Today I passed my viva with minor corrections. Thanks to all here whose words of advice and support helped me along the way. :)

Tudor

Oh my goodness.

Family not understanding PhD... the worst for me was when I have loads and loads of work left to do and not much time left, and they were like "don't worry, it'll go really quickly!"

OK, well - for the parametic issue - you could argue that the data do not follow a normal distribution (this is rather subjective anyway) or show that there were some outliers, and so you decided to use non parametric tests. The thing is - it shouldn't change the result too much. Yes, non parametric are less powerful, so you might not get the significant result - but the actual pattern of the results (e.g., x was higher for females) should be the same. So it is not as though you have done something so terrible if you conclude a little less strongly than you might had you got the significant results. Actually, it is better than the other way around. For the chi square thing, as far as I know, yes, you would use chi square for categorical variables.

If two sets of academics (i.e., your supervisor and the ones in the mock viva) are in disagreement about how you have done it, then it is possibly one of those slightly fluffy things that could be done either way. I'd take the rewritten chapter to the viva (or be ready to say you're aware of it and have made the changes) but only mention if if they actually raise it. They may be of the same opinion as your supervisor (and for that reason I wouldn't send the rewritten ch to my supervisor at this stage either - you may not end up needing to redo anything).

Hi DrCrabby, Just to take a step back - have you fully considered the approach the examiners from the mock viva were suggesting you do, and whether indeed this is "correct" and the others "incorrect"? Is it this black and white? Knowing why you did the tests you did is the most important thing here. Maybe the ones your supervisor had you do are OK actually? Maybe the results are the same anyway (e.g., the mean was higher for x group) - but it makes them significant if you use the other approach? Or - does it change your whole interpretation of the results? I'd be wanting to get down into the detail of what the differences are in the results and interpretation of the results depending on the approach I use.

I think the following:
- if you can say why you did the stats the way you did (i.e., other researchers have done it, x assumptions were met, etc), you will be in a much better position, even if they do have you re do them because they think it wasn't the best approach
- if appropriate (I don't know specifics) this could make for an interesting discussion in your viva - stats are not the black and white thing people think they are - papers are often published saying people have been doing x test when actually y is more appropriate and would yield different results... you could also bring in the whole p value thing - and how there is great debate about how much weight is placed on that
- if you DO get major revisions one way of looking at it is that often the big difference here is the time they are allowing you to re do stuff - if they think re doing all the stats will take a lot of time when you might already have other commitments, then giving you major revisions is doing you a favour as you have more time to complete them (I remember a similar thing being raised before on this forum)

In sum, try stay calm and know your stuff.