Glad to help :-)

The 5 key areas I recommend focusing on are originality of my thesis, contribution to knowledge, methodology, weaknesses/gaps/mistakes, and what would I do differently if starting again.

Good luck!

I wouldn't be concerned. I was a part-time (6 year, very few hours a week) student, and had written my literature review (complete) within 3 months of starting, and immediately started researching after then, which is rather the equivalent of your interviewing.

But the best person to speak to about this is your supervisor. If you're ready to interview soon though it sounds as though that will be a good thing to do.

It's important not to burn yourself out. A PhD is a marathon not a sprint. But it sounds as though you are making good sustainable progress.

I do not personally agree with students taking a year for a literature review. I did this in my first go at a PhD (full-time, had to leave due to neurological illness developing). And I wasted a lot of time as a result, and didn't get nearly as far through it in the time as I wish I'd done. When I came back to have another go (part-time, totally opposite discipline) I just got on with things.

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I felt totally numb after my viva. Plus I didn't sleep the night before or the night after, so was a zombie! But basically numb. I had very minor corrections to do (just a small number of typos, and improving captions), which took just a few hours, but I still felt very numb on the day. Only after the corrections were done and officially approved did I feel official. I agree with you that it's wrong to make the viva up to be the be-all-and-end-all. It isn't the end of the process in most cases.

I also had the added emotional baggage of having left a full-time PhD 14 years previously due to a life-changing illness developing. I never thought I'd get to the end of my second go, part-time, in a totally opposite subject/discipline. So it was very unreal, and I didn't believe it.

Congratulations. And that sounds like a very good pass, only swinging towards major corrections to allow you the time to do things, given that you're working full-time. So be very proud of yourself. It will take time to sink in though. But do get on with the corrections once you get the report from the examiners. Once they're done and signed off you will be a Dr 8-)

Glad you have a viva date (approx) firmed up. Excellent news.

Don't start preparing too early though. I found it helpful to prepare just a month or so before my viva, and I didn't get a date confirmed until 3 weeks beforehand. I was guessing too! So at the moment you would be perfectly entitled to have a bit of a rest/recovery from getting a date at last!

I'm happy to share my usual viva advice if that will help, but you may already have read it on here before :p

I have a Kindle. Downloading charges only kick in for some documents over 3G. If you download over WiFi, for example at the uni or at home, there's no cost. And if you transfer via USB cable (for example using Calibre e-book program to do conversions for you) there's no cost either.

Try brainstorming on a piece of paper or on the computer. Break your plan down into sub-sections as much as possible. Try recording your ideas to a voice recorder or to your computer if it has a microphone built in (Audacity is a good free program for recording if you don't have one). Which bit of the literature review would be easiest to start with? You don't need to start with the beginning, so pick any part that's easiest. And you can write near gibberish as your first draft, so don't worry about it being perfect. Just try to get *something* down.

You're going to face this problem (blank sheet of paper / wordprocesser to be reluctantly filled) over and over again during the PhD, but how you tackle it is the important thing.

Good luck!

I had those thoughts all on my own, though my supervisors were positive. But I'd had to leave one (full-time science) PhD before, due to progressive neurological disease developing, so was very sceptical about being able to be successful the second time (part-time, humanities).

But it's not something that's helpful for a supervisor to say. Is your supervisor experienced as a supervisor? How do they treat other students?

But, to be honest, you need to focus on yourself, and not compare yourself with others. When I hit brick walls, as happened all the time, I would pick myself up by producing a massive to-do list of small achievable tasks. Don't set unrealistic things like "write chapter 2". Break everything down into small tasks you can get on with. Then pick the easiest looking one (or least unappealing one, as was usually the case for me!), and do that. Then tick it off. The emphasis is not so much on the number of hours you put in, but making steady progress on tasks to be done.

Also it's very very common in the second year or thereabouts of a full-time PhD to hit the mid-term blues or doldrums. Very very common. You're not at all unusual. The challenge is to keep going, however hard it might be.

Good luck!

A good mind mapping program is well worth investing in. You may even find a free one. I've used a few on my Mac, so can't recommend Windows ones. But others may be able to. Such a program is great for brain-storming more flexibly than on paper. I had one bought for me using my Disabled Student's Allowance, but they're inexpensive/free even if you're not eligible for that.

A digital recorder might also be handy, partly for recording meetings (if all present agree), partly for speaking your own ideas when you have them. Again I got one of these as part of my DSA, but they're relatively inexpensive. Depends on whether you'd use it though. I used it a lot, not for recording meetings, but for recording my own ideas more easily by speaking than typing. I'd play them back and be surprised by some of the ideas I'd had/recorded but had by then forgot!

I'd recommend working out what will go in your remaining chapters, i.e. the overall chapter-by-chapter structure of your thesis. Then work out which of those chapters are easiest to get on with, and start breaking that chapter down into sub-sections. Then pick which is the most appealing (or least unappealing!) sub-section, and start writing that. You don't have to start writing at the beginning of a chapter, or with your first chapter.

The important thing is to get words down. You will need to redraft later, and restructure and reorganise. But once you have words down you have something to work with. That should also apply to your existing literature review. It may be short, but it's something you can develop.

I had a really tough time finding my writing voice when writing up my PhD thesis. I had to nearly restart my writing from scratch at one point. But I got there in the end, mainly by breaking things down into small achievable tasks, and getting on with them in the order of easiest first.

Good luck!

It's perfectly possible to shift direction. My husband's PhD was in a very formal/theoretical branch of computer science. He is now a Research Fellow in an applied area of computing, totally different, but drawing on his wider skill-base and experience as an academic researcher.

I think you need to start being more confident. You seem to have an awful lot of doubts! You got a good Masters result, you were given an unconditional offer, and have started your PhD. There is no good reason on this planet why your supervisors should not want to supervise you now ;-)

Hopefully your confidence will grow as you settle into your PhD. And I'm sure your supervisors will be back in touch soon to arrange a meeting, now you've enrolled. It is a funny time though, starting a PhD. I did it twice (full-time science, then later part-time humanities). But be happy!

Congratulations 8-)

I agree with the advice to take a bit of a break/holiday, then decide whether to appeal. It sounds as though you'd have grounds.

But good luck whatever you decide.

I've finished my PhD but guess I can answer retrospectively :p

I left a full-time science PhD in 1996. I'd wanted to be a lecturer then, and probably would have been, if the neurological illness hadn't developed.

I signed up for a second PhD, this time part-time and in humanities, purely out of love of the topic. I'd never expected to have another try, I was really scared to to be honest. But I stumbled upon a topic which hadn't been adequately researched and I could research to bits. And I loved it.

It was also really good for my neurological illness, as a way of doing something positive, and taking my mind off the bad patches and the nasty chemo treatment. I can't work in academia now, but doing a PhD was still very worthwhile for me.