Hi HuHu

so near and yet so far; I can view the pdf but have tried and tried and can't find a way to save it :-(. Cambridge Journals require [me] to register online over and above my institutional login. I have done that but still I can't save it :-(

Fantastic news Dr. Bond; you're through to the other side!! Congrats, enjoy prolonged celebrations (up)

Yup, I did :-); the viva is probably the one time in anybody's life when it is actually 'all about me' so go for it(up)

Hi Robby

I am a million miles away from theoretical physics but only a few weeks post (social science) viva so I can fully empathise with you re: viva nerves - I was an absoulute nervous wreck before mine! It's a pity your supv is not more positive going into it but over the next few days I would try to verbalise a response to the weaknesses you feel are part of your thesis. You could adopt a 'hands up' approach to them and yet endeavour to defend your work without being defensive - that was stressed numerous times to me just before my viva. It's your thesis so it's up to you to defend it. Try to refer to your own thesis when answering; ie keep bringing the examiners back to your work.

The very besk of luck with it; the madness will be over soon(up)

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Best of luck tomorrow Catalinbond, you can/will do it(up)

I can totally relate to cringeing re-reading parts of the thesis. There are parts of mine I really did not want to re-visit. However, typos etc were not mentioned at all in my viva so fingers crossed not in yours either.

Edit: due typos:$

My immediate response was could you not make it a reflective paper on the process itself - so not necessarily on the results of your past 6 months but what it has taught you, how you might have circumvented the issues you had, but then only with the benefit of hindsight. State that you are aware of the trap of making sweeping statements etc and yet the past six months have been frustrating. I imagine you will have to be careful not to bad-mouth anybody but yet do feel that you should be able to make a paper out of lessons learned etc. Don't forget to say every so often "on reflection..."

good luck with it(up)

Only seeing this now Delta, you poor thing, I can only imgaine
what you went through. You probably have left by now but
would it be an option to bring your laptop and show them on screen
the material you accessed and maybe importantly how you accessed
it?

BEST OF LUCK (up)

pm me an email address and I will send you on the pdfs

Um, at the risk of sounding like a grumpy so and so, if you also include the volume and issue numbers it makes the search so much easier, and um spelling too - annals/annuals

Gripe over:p

and that's one star for you, Potatoes :-)

Congratulations (up)

I don't think it's an issue for non-academic jobs as most people outside academia think you're done once you submit your thesis. I would put the dates on your CV of start to submission and then mention your graduation in an interview, should you get one. To start to clarify in an initial application might make them think there was a problem when there isn't; it's just the wheels of academia slowly turning.

Academic jobs - I have seen people put on their uni bios something like 'PhD, submitted September 2011, graduation September 2012' or words to that effect!!

Thank you everybody for your lovely posts; it's all still a bit surreal, but good!!

Congratulations - onwards and upwards and you're ahead of yourself too; a great start to 2012

winging its way to you in about 2 minutes Emmaki :-)

I did it via the email yesterday :-) - it does only take about 5 mins, folks :-)

I put a post it marker for the beginnig of each chapter but as I say, never looked at the thesis at all. One of the examiners did occasionally refer to specific page numbers but I knew the bit that was being referred to and didn't think it was necessary to open my copy of the thesis - wondering if I should have now :$