I was in this situation - 1 year of corrections - resubmitted 2.5 months ago, and today got an email saying I had passed :) So it can be done!!

Thanks! I posted a message here right after I resubmitted saying how stressed I was and how I was convinced it would fail, so the email came completely out of the blue! It was an email from the internal examiner, cc'd to the external, my supervisor and to the PGR office, I guess in advance of the final official confirmation from the PGR office itself - so a nice 'we want you to know this as soon as possible', I guess!

It said:

"[The external examiner] and I have now read your revised thesis, conferred, and I am glad to say that we have agreed to recommend to the PGR board that it be awarded a PhD. I'm attaching our comments. We both think you did an excellent job in responding to our comments on the first draft, and that the thesis is now well structured and works very well. You write with great intelligence and subtlety, and it is a fine piece of work. Well done!

[Internal examiner]."

The reports both just recommend it be passed as it is, while lightly criticising a few aspects and highly praising others. No calls for further minor revisions at all - though I bank on one final typo sweep!

My disastrous viva was in December 2012, and since then I have gone through two long periods where I just wasn't going to bother resubmitting. They wanted the order of the chapters completely changing, an entirely new argument about the material going from start to finish, and three of the six chapters, once moved, completely rewritten to accommodate their new position and the new argument, and then an entirely new conclusion. But I did exactly that and they think I did it well! Waking up today was bizarre - it's like I don't remember not having this hanging over me!

I want to stress that anyone given 12 months should have a very clear list of what exact changes they want. Even if they are huge changes, the examiners should leave you in no doubt of what changes need to happen in order for them to pass it.

Well you know what Locke? I'm going to toast your success with a cuppa right now. Well done indeed, and thanks for sharing the email. As I await my result, I am convinced I will have more corrections to make to my arguments but hope it works out well. I'll post back when I hear from them. Anyway, here's to you: raise your cuppa. 8--)

Thanks to both of you! It literally still feels unreal :) Also, I just got a call from the PGR office saying they can probably rush through my graduation so it can happen next Wednesday!

I hope you both get similarly good news. I really get from this experience that examiners genuinely want you to do the things they say it needs, so they can pass it!

Congratulations! Great to hear a success story!

Dear Both

Congrats to both of you on going through the R & R successfully. I am now in a similar situation but my external examiner said I will not have another viva. She cleared me and that is what I tell all my colleagues that I have passed but the university regulations do not allow the option of 6 months submission which is what I am opting for. It's either 3 or 12 months. Some people, appear worried when I say R AND R but the examiners are trying to help me! Imagine if they had failed or just awarded an MPhil it would have been a disaster as I would have to get readmitted fro another Phd and also do my empirical data avian! Instead, by allowing me the R & R option, they are giving me a second chance to get this upto a Phd standard and I have their corrections in front of me that they want to see. Basically, my supervisors have failed me. What I wrote for them was rejected by the examiners. I could not submit until the supervisors said it was ready to be submitted. If they wanted to fail me or have another Viva then my first viva day was their chance to do so. I would believe that the examiners really and genuinely want to see this research get published and loved my empirical data and have rejected not me but my sloppy supervision and heartless supervisors who kept bullying me all the time and the examiners have set me free. I have very little if any respect for my supervisors.

I try not to look back. Meanwhile, I am still waiting to hear my results.

Mara Sp.

Dear Marasp, I hope that you have finally been given answer. I am in a similar predicament and am waiting for the outcome after resubmitting. I had an awful 4.5 hour viva with two examiners who wanted to outdo each other. I thought I had done well for the first two hours, until the external started going through each and every page. At the end of it I was given a pass with major modifications and given a year to complete. That was 30th April. I resubmitted 30th September but haven't received anything yet. The waiting is killing me... if I dont get an answer by 15th Dec I miss January graduation and have to wait till September, provided all goes well.

hope all goes well for you!

My best wishes to you both, Butterfly and Marasp. It's really bad form to leave people waiting in limbo. Really bothers me that these people in their ivory towers don't realise they're messing with people's lives leaving them waiting. There's been plenty of success stories on here from people who got the R&R outcome. You'll get there in the end. Go to the conferring ceremony and do a somersault across the stage when picking up your scroll :-) That's what I'm planning ;-)

No news here. I should hear back by the end of the year. Meanwhile, I am concentrating on my academic teaching career, and I try to publish as much as possible. Good luck to everyone who is waiting for results!

Mara Sp.

Thank you J STANLEY. Meanwhile I'm pleased to report that I got an email this morning addressed to DR Butterfly from the university stating that my amendments were accepted and I can graduate in January! I'm chuffed to say the least but still can't believe that it's finally over. It's so surreal. The waiting has been awful. But it was worth it. Marasp, hang in there!

Dr. Butterfly congrats to you! I got R & R outcome in Septmeber 2014 and aiming to submit Mar 2015 but the uni has given me until Feb 2016, so really not sure if i need that long even if I procrastinate, I should be done by Feb really.hear your story does sound that this might be something to look forward to... Anyways, I am getting back to my writing...