Thanks! Glad to help. Do you have a viva date yet? Good luck with that anyway.

Oh and my very minor corrections just took 1 very leisurely week to do. The delay after then was sorting out the binding, and waiting for my supervisor (to sign the dratted thesis), and convenor to come back from their Easter time away.

I was given 1 month minor (typographical) corrections. That time included getting a new version of the thesis hard bound, and resubmitted to my viva convenor. That happened today, because my supervisor had been away for weeks, and my viva convenor was overseas!

At my university more major minor corrections (called minor revisions) are done in 2 months.

Beyond that it's resubmission.

I didn't have to pay any additional fee to re-register for the corrections. And I kept my email access, and library borrowing rights. I think my status is a bit up-in-the-air, but it didn't cost me.

I've given my parents copies of my journal papers, but don't know how much they read them.

However they are both now reading my completed thesis :-) Mum's already commented that it's much more readable than she thought it would be, she is really enjoying it, and it's a fascinating topic (nice to hear after all these years!). And Dad is making excellent progress at reading the thesis, and tells me what he thinks of each chapter after he's finished it.

Yes I recommended this too. I started reading it on the day my thesis was submitted, and it calmed me down immensely, taking away a lot of the fear about the viva. I particularly liked the way it was backed up by lots of research/statistics and accounts of many students, supervisors and examiners. I also find its advice about summarising the thesis as well as just rereading it very helpful, in making me engage with the thesis that bit more, rather than just skim-reading it.

Well done! Not surprised you feel drained. I felt numb myself for days afterwards.

If you are funded by a research council I would also recommend complaining to them. Universities get extra money from research councils for funded students specifically to pay for their research training. If the research training is not up to scratch you should let the research council know.

I did this during my degree, and at the end in my end-of-award report. It may not have changed much, but I felt better about it. There was good training by the end at my university, but it was too late for me, and not there when I needed it.

I did my Masters after a distance-learning OU degree. I was a part-time Masters student at my local university, but there was very little practical day-to-day difference between the full-timers and myself. We all had to attend taught seminars, and submit essays etc. (I was doing a history taught Masters). The only difference was they had to squeeze their final research project and dissertation into one summer, whereas we were given much longer. There was very little at-uni time needed, apart from the core taught events, and extra time to pick up library books etc.

And I seemed to cope fine. My distance-learning OU degree made me very self-reliant. Another Masters student in my year was an ex OU student as well, and we were the two who went on to start PhDs. So don't view your distance-learning past as a disadvantage. It might be a plus.

One thing I learned quickly was to look at the reading lists very carefully and figure out which books were most essential. I needed to do this for disability reasons, but it was clear that we didn't need to read all the set texts. And even those we read could be read more sparingly. Also I focused very much on the submitted work, and bent that as much as possible towards my own research interests, to make it more fun for me, and give me a chance to do as well as possible.

Good luck!

If you're waiting for a viva surely you wouldn't count as a full-time student any more, since you're not needing to study for the required number of hours? See http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/paying_for_a_home/housing_benefit_and_local_housing_allowance/housing_benefit_for_students

If you are still writing up though, and still studying for 16 hours or more a week, then you would be classed as a full-time. If you've finished and are just waiting for the viva then argue that you're not studying any more. You're waiting for your final exam (oral) results.

I've just gone for the very modest approach of a card, with a very personal handwritten message, and a copy of my hard bound thesis.

I'd be interested to hear what others thing might be appropriate at a bigger scale.

Good luck with everything. Another option for you might be to self-fund the first year, and apply for research council funding during your first year, once your Masters is safely in hand. That's what I did, after starting my PhD very last-minute, and I got funding for the remaining years of my PhD.

I'm doing ok thanks. I did my few typographical corrections within a week, then ordered (by long-distance: no local binderies here any more) hard bound copies. They should be finally signed and submitted next week, and that's it. And I've been sleeping and recuperating an awful lot.

It sounds very encouraging, but do bear in mind the funding issue. If you need funding, then that must come from somewhere. Will there be other options for you at your local uni? You've mentioned self-funding. Is that something you'd be happy to fall back on if needs must?

My own supervisor seems to supervise about 10 students, and accounts for a large proportion of our department's research students! I believe the normal numbers per supervisor would be much lower. Also policy on numbers may vary by university. It's good that you're bearing this in mind.

Good luck!

Practice performing the paper at least a couple of times. It should make you more confident on the day, and - even more importantly - should flag up areas where you might go down unwelcome diversions, or edits that you need to make. Especially practice for timing. Actually record it if you can, time it, and play it back to pick up on potential problem areas and fix them.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll be fine. I always got through nerves for that sort of thing by thinking that in a certain amount of time it would all be over :)