I didn't have time to read in the way you did/do Dan: remember I was managing my part-time PhD on just a handful of good hours a week, when well enough neurologically to manage it. I would like to have read as you described, but it was impossible. Instead I focused on what I needed to do for my PhD, and that's how I managed to finish in good time, for such limited hours.

Now access to journals is an issue for me, being based away from campus. I've been awarded an honorary fellowship, so can read online journals for the next year or so - without the fellowship I had no access to those at all any more. But I'm not physically in a library where I can read paper ones. So, again, I read what I need to, and no more. I'm in the process of turning my thesis into more journal papers, and I need to keep up with current relevant research.

My viva preparation involved reading a viva preparation book (Tinkler and Jackson) to demystify the process, rereading and summarising my thesis to familiarise myself with it and spot typos (I took a list into the viva on the day and handed it out - all examiners/convenor were very grateful), and thinking about and memorising my answers to 5 key questions: originality of my thesis, contribution to knowledge, methodology, weaknesses/gaps/mistakes, and what would I do differently if starting again.

You don't have much time left now, but if you could get hold of that book it's readable very quickly. And those core 5 questions/areas can be prepared for very quickly too.

I didn't have a mock viva. I only wanted to go through the horrible process once!

For anxiety I found focusing on it all being over soon really helped. By that I mean the viva. I was prepared for any result from failure upwards! But the viva itself would be over soon.

Good luck.

Congratulations Jojo on a pass. And it is a pass, and if you do what's specified on the corrections you'll walk away with a PhD. Focus on that. Don't think of walking away with an MPhil, please?

How long have you been given to do the corrections? Do you need to resubmit? One year in my department several students were given 1-year resubmissions. Very scary. But 2 of them are now very happy post-docs, so you can get there ;-)

I'd recommend using to-do lists from the start of your PhD to make best use of limited time. I was a part-time PhD student, and towards the end managing on just 1 hour chunks spread throughout the week, adding to no more than 5 hours total. So I had to be totally efficient. I'd never waste time drifting or taking longer than neeed be. I would just knuckle down and pick what was next on my list. I also made good use of my first year, writing my literature review in just 3 months, and getting on with research. It's easy to drift within your first year. And keep track of your references and reading from the start. Use EndNote or a similar package to keep a record. Otherwise you won't remember what you've read when you come to draw up your bibliography years later.

Good luck!

Jojo, I may not be able to login much over the next few days, so want to send you my best wishes for Wednesday now. It sounds as though you have prepared well, so that should stand you in good stead.

For nerves I always find the thought that whatever it is will be over soon helps me. This helped me with my viva too. Though I was alarmingly calm by my standards in the weeks running up to it. I had a 'Que sera sera' attitude, and knew that I'd pretty much decided my fate based on my thesis. The viva can swing things in borderline cases, but the thesis has a lot resting on it too. And that helped me, meaning I was surprisingly calm between submission and the viva date. I don't know if it will help you. But it will all be over soon :p

To Chuff: I'd recommend starting no sooner than a month before the likely date. I actually started before I had a firm date, but I knew roughly when my viva was going to be, and in the end was only given 3 weeks notice, and had already started preparing. As you say, if you start too early it can backfire. I also think you can do a lot in very little time. I had only a handful of good hours a week to work on viva prep, and managed to read and summarise my thesis (70K words) in a very short time, and prepare the 5 key viva questions that Tinkler and Jackson identified. And I passed 8-)

i think you need to be able to tear yourself away, so - to be quite honest - this is a bit worrying. But then you have thrown yourself into it very deeply, so dragging yourself away could be hard. It's a bit like going cold turkey, and it could be quite a shock to your system.

Is there anything non-PhD-y you'd really like to do? For example is there a book (non-academic!) you've been aching to read for ages? Or somewhere you'd like to go for a day trip? What about a computer or console game to get and play?

Personally I never had any trouble having a total break at Christmas during my PhD, but I was always so shattered by then I'd usually collapse and struggle to wake before 5pm on Christmas Day! But I would recommend you have a good break if you can. They're rare at other times.

Though picking up one bit of work to look at isn't too bad. Just don't let it take over!

Wooh hoo! Well done you :)

Ah you're an English literature student Nadia. I was history, so fellow humanities, which is a bit different structure-wise from other subjects, especially the more scientific ones. It's very unusual in my field to have a separate methodology chapter, and it's far more normal for it to be dealt with in a combined lit review / methodology first chapter.

I was having to tease out the methodology other people had used before, and that was a big part of my literature review. I had a huge gap that I was researching, but applying techniques from other countries. So I couldn't separate out the two too much, though I tried a bit in my chapter.

Good luck!

Couldn't you do the research anyway, without the formality of going for a second PhD? I just can't see the point of it myself. And this is me speaking as someone who has started two PhDs (one full-time left due to falling seriously ill with a progressive disease; one part-time completed successfully) and someone who believes in intellectual fulfillment.

An obvious downside against that is if your second PhD is in a radically different area, like mine was. My first one was computer science; my second humanities. I had to start from scratch, including doing a new Bachelors and Masters. Also if you need lab support to complete your second PhD that could be more of a problem if not actually doing the PhD. But otherwise I don't see the point of it, and would recommend just doing the research yourself and writing it up.

My completed (and passed) PhD thesis has a combined lit review / introductory chapter. It starts on page 8 of my final hard-bound thesis. The methodology discussion starts at page 21. Oh and my pages are double-spaced.

I had a similar problem to you, but I teased out the methodology debate from the literature, and I discussed that before I had finished discussing the wider literature.

You need to start being more positive about your PhD. You have every chance in your viva to defend yourself and get a good result, but if you go in expecting to fail then you're ruining your chances.

Hopefully your meeting with your supervisors will help sort things out. And then you can start preparing for your viva. It doesn't take that much time to prepare for a viva (remember I was a ridiculously part-time student, both before submission and after). But you need to think positive. I've posted my viva preparation tips - which take very little time to work through - here before, but if you haven't seen them let me know and I'll repost them here.

My sympathies re your Dad. Spend as much time with him as possible. But you should still be able to prepare for the viva. But start thinking more positive PhD-y. You're doing yourself no favours here.

Ah right. Does indeed sound tricky! Good luck anyway. I wasn't blessed with a mass of relevant literature. Mine was a very under-researched area, which was good for me :p

Congratulations!