This post brings back memories ;)

Congratulations Dr butterfly and sending all my best wishes to those of you waiting :)

Following my r&r, I was kept waiting for my results for 5 months without any idea what was going on or why there was a delay (despite my efforts to find out). The wait nearly broke me as I was left to cope alone, but thankfully it was good news. About to start my second postdoc job so the verdict had no impact on job prospects whatsoever.

Best of luck x

Dr Marasp, big congratulations!! I read your posts in last Nov, after I received my R&R. I felt very inspired, and knew there were many of us, I was not alone.

However, my supervisor was not as responsible as yours. I am not from a English-first language country, he only checked the Abstract and Conclusion, and didn't offer me further suggestions before my thesis submission. My external was a big Prof in one of the top 3 Uni in UK, he is very picky during the viva. I wasn't familiar with the internal either. I had 5 hours viva, I was standing, and struggling in the first 3 hours. I couldn't have concious analysis of each question and lose my mind most of the time. I thought I was totally beaten. I cried a lot at the end of my viva in front of the examiners, because I sensed the possibility of failing. After the viva, my progress was extremely slow, as I didn't want to touch the thesis. My partner helped me a lot, but he had his own work to do. We went back to have our wedding ceremony back in Dec as scheduled, but taking this unfortunate result along with me. I felt a lot better and find my enthusiasm in revision of the thesis after returning. Now I am starting my revision and part-time job as a cashier. I don't know if there will be a second viva. I had a meeting with my supervisor yesterday, he doesn't seem to be supportive on my case, he said I just needed to communicate with the internal, which made me quite upset.

I think I just carry on as you are, before I finish all revisions and check it with the internal for several time. Many thanks for sharing your successful story, which makes me confident in the future.

Hi everyone,

I am glad to have found this forum. Here is my story.
I had my viva this past Tuesday and it went horribly wrong. To be fair I did not prepare that well, maybe I was overconfident as I am told i am good and my work is very promising.

Anyhow, it took me 4 years to finish and i have the supervisor from hell. Also, i wasn't part of the EU when got enrolled so i had 3 scholarships to cover my overseas tuition fees... For the rest I had to work on weekends + my dad died from Parkinson's in October of 2013. No one knows I work cuz my supervisor would kill me. Well i just explain this to leave clear all the effort put to wrap things up on time. I analysed my data and wrote the thesis in 2 months with virtually no help from my supervisor.

He said the worse case scenario would be major corrections cuz is very rough but good enough and to don't worry. Well the day came and to Prof from 2 Ivy universities were my examiners... 1 an expert in a particular technique used and the second one the one who elucidated the structure for my particular protein. They were not kind and hit me with everything to the point they told my supervisor they were surprised I did not collapsed (no joke). One was an old school Prof and she was the worse asking me in the end to resubmit and asked me to do an experiment I never performed cuz I do not have such resources at my uni and cuz of being such important my supervisor never mention its need. I was also asked to half the thesis and to quantify some gels, etc.

At first i was even asked if i copied the main design of my work, which i did not and bluntly left clear I am no cheat.
Passed that they asked about techniques that are in the field of my work but not needed for the work. Afterwards they asked lots of basic questions and to be honest 50% i should have known and the other 50% i was just too stressed to elaborate and speak properly. The torture was of 2 hours with major corrections and as far as i remember 3 or 4 experiments to be done. I have 18 months to do this. They said i am not being failed cu they believe in me and my work. They also asked several times if i was alone in the lab-which is the case and everything was learnt and done from scratch. Ah! I was forgetting, i am also to have another viva "to see if i have learnt something" and offered to take classes at their uni hence mine didnt train me at all for the sort of project i have.

One more thing, when they told me the news i said i accept it and said its actually an opportunity to get my job ready for publication and this is how i see it. After this they told my supervisor i wasn't as weak as they thought.

I am determined to proof i am able to achieve a top level with the right guidance (which they have)

Hi Andie

Wow...you are one hell of a brave person. A lot has happened with you and you have managed it so far. Have trust on yourself and your work. R & R is all about being gutsy and they are trying your patience to see how much you can sustain and still carry on. There is no doubt you are passionate but circumstances have gone out of your hand and you find yourself in an ambitious project. I would concentrate more on your interpretation and analysis and wait for the formal viva report to arrive before you get too panicky. It is in that report that the examiners get a chance to put down everything they want you to do in the final submission. I was a bit lucky, am in social science and in my viva, they cleared me but not my thesis. And they said there will not be another viva as they could see I was able to verbalise but they wanted the same confidence in my writing, so, I got generous amount of time. I am quite happy, it's like a free treat to get this opportunity to sit down and write and clarify. But to be fair, I submitted my thesis less than two years of returning from the field. Amongst my cohort, I was the first one to have my viva and all of my other colleagues got 5 months additional and no wonder they all got minor after their viva. Also, I am on a visa so there are university set restrictions that they have to follow set by UK immigration guideline about maximum time limit. Now, I am more than half way through, enjoying it a lot, and more pleased with the additional time I got! Obviously, when you see your other cohort graduate before you, it reminds you of your viva outcome but, you get over it quickly because you trust your work. So, shut all that noises of doubt and fear and I am sure there must be someone other than your supervisor who can be there for you without judging you. That what you need. Like you, my main supervisor is incompetent. He can of handle and understand and be confident about my research, that is why he creates many doubt in my mind about my research. As a result, I don't confide in him anymore. I go to another more well-known professor (I know two of them who support me) and I am getting my draft read by them. Don't shut them. Once your work will shine through, all these other noises will also disappear and your supervisor will be more than happy to be associated with your success.

Anyone there????I am a R & R...had my viva last week and it went so bad....it lasted for 6 hours...even knowing it was going to be wrong from the beginning, the external made me suffer and being in tension until the end. I do not understand why these things happen...it is so unfair. i have worked so hard, all my reviews were fine...i knew it needed maybe some corrections...but not for r & r plus possible re-viva. The external made me feel humiliated...no positive comment during those 6 hours, everything was wrong according to her criteria. They have given me 12 months and I am going to start a job soon...I do not even know if i will be able to do what they are asking me to change as i am already sick of it and i am devastated. What happen if i fail again? I am not sure I can cope with it if it happens again. Any advice? Thanks for being there. PD. the fact i suggested that external to my supervisor make me feel even worst...i thought she was going to give me useful feedback instead of making me feel like shit!!!

My viva was today... I got major corrections and 6 months to resubmit... Did all of you feel worthless and hopeless and cried for hours? I cant stop crying... ALthough I know I'll correct it and (probably) get the phd... But still... It seems so unfair. I did so much work, self funded all of it for 5 years and now I have to re-register and pay a continuation fee... And I have no money for that, which means a bank loan (if I can even get that with the way my account looks.....) Seriously would be easier to just get a regular job and throw this phd to the bin... but so many years! ........ Cant stop crying............. :-(

Just another 'keep going!' message! As I wrote about here at the time, I was told throughout my PhD that it was great and I'd easily pass, and then got completely blindsided by a 'revise and resubmit' verdict. 18 months after my first viva, I got word that I'd passed, along with a hugely complimentary message from the internal examiner who thought that the new version was brilliant.

At the time of the viva, it felt like the worst thing I'd ever gone through. But now it's completely irrelevant. The best advice to give is make sure they send you a detailed and very specific list of exactly what needs to change for them to pass you. And then do this list. And then write a report stating briefly how you have done each thing on the list. It's not the time to argue that you're right and they're wrong - you've already failed to do this, which is why you got major corrections. The job this time is to show them that you can specifically and precisely give them the changes they want to see. You can even disagree with them, while doing them. I did, when I got started, but by the end was actually convinced they were right!