======= Date Modified 10 Apr 2009 11:54:03 =======
Hi Sarah,

Nice to hear from you! Oooh, how lovely to be almost finished and be able to move on to something else! Have you started thinking about what you want to do next, or are you still too close to the whole thing to imagine life after the PhD experience? I was wondering what you did in the days leading up to your viva? It said in that Murray book to minimise stress and avoid annoying people which seems obvious really. My supervisor is doing a talk a few days before my viva and I think I'll go, maybe it will spur me on or something! I'll have a solid week away from work to revise, so hopefully that should be enough if I start seriously with it now.

I'm in a similar situation as you in a way, crossing disciplines, and I'm wondering how this might figure in my viva. I guess I'd better start thinking of some robust reasons for doing what I did and why it was successful for the project.

Lara, how are you getting on? Did your sup get back to you? I hope you're ok anyway.
Armendaf, any more progress with your situation?

Hi,

I've got news today. I'm having my Viva on the 12th of June. So, now I can go back to freaking out mode ;-)

Hi Ruby, both my vivas took place during term time so I was working right up to the day before. It didn't stop me worrying but it was good to have something else to focus on. When I wasn't working I generally went out, watched films or read fluff - anything to stop me dwelling on my fate :p I also spent time investigating the topics I want to look at when my PhD is over and none of them relate to my PhD at all. It was useful to look at something completely different and start planning how I am going to tackle these things. Go and see your supervisor's presentation because you may get some fresh ideas and it'll help to take your mind off your viva. I wouldn't recommend too much revision because it might make you more nervous, particularly if you find imaginary errors like I did :p Having a cross-disciplinary PhD might be an advantage in your viva, I know I got away lightly a couple of times because of it and the good thing is that your nerves will go the minute they ask you the first question. So keep calm and carry on ;-)

Good luck to everyone preparing for their viva (up)

======= Date Modified 16 Apr 2009 19:16:13 =======
hey everyone!!

Sarah thats really good advice, thanks so much :)

Hi Ruby, nice to hear from you, and thanks for asking about me and for the advice. i am fine. i didnt send the email yet, my dads friend wants to work on the email for abit. so waiting to hear back from him.

i've actually took a week off ! unintentionally, i've had a couple of weddings to go to over the easter break! so i was quite busy with that. but it was a nice break, it was nice to have something to do over easter. i took some photos at the wedding, as favour to my friends, so past few days i've been working on the photographs. but coming back to study mode now.

anyways feel guilty as i have done no revision whatsover this past week!! so i thought i would do some today. i keep procrastinating though! its true what they say, when you break the momentum, its hard getting back into it! but luckily no more functions to get me distracted, so the next couple of months, its just gonna be study study study!

Armendaf, congrats on your viva date, 2 months plenty of time!!

Ruby - answer to your question, nope not heard back from my supervisor yet. but thats okay, gives me more time to prepare for my viva. i think by the end of the month i might send another email and see what happens. but im guessing since i told him i wanted a few months to prepare, he's probably just letting me get on with it.
i'll reevaluate the situation in a few weeks time.

okay my aims for the rest of the week till sunday is :
work on the viva question about future plans
read papers and make notes
read my thesis

Hello!

Sarah, thanks, that's reassuring to hear. I'm quite glad none of the examiners are fashion ones, so maybe that will help - at least I know the death part of it is original so they shouldn't have seen it before!

It's really annoying the way errors leap out at you while you're trying to read your work, I discovered to my horror I'd used a slightly older version of the intro, no idea how I'd managed that as I'd labelled all my files really clearly, but that's stress and tiredness for you. I heard about one of our profs who had to do major revisions for their PhD and had a bad time in the viva, but years later who knows about that or even cares, it was still a PhD in the end, and it doesn't seem to have had a detrimental effect careerwise.

Lara, it sounds nice to have had a decent break! So you'll be glued to your thesis for the near future then, heheh :p I'm not finding this revision very enticing myself at the moment, so I sympathise.:-s

Armendaf, don't freak out, at least it's definite now and 2 months is loads of time to get back into it. Good luck!

Hey guys

I have just bouight the book - I have seen this thread around since last year and now am starting to read-to-write-up... Still a long way to go, am just over half way through the PhD, but am struggling so much to write every day. Seeing peeps are at Viva stage inspired me to get the book and get timing!

Good luck all and thanks for the inspiration!
jayney

Hey Ruby, great to hear from you. definately nice to have company on the viva train :)
i was out of it for awhile, and its hard to get back into studying, but im back to studying. i still feel like theres so much revision to do and i'll never really be prepared for it. but try to just do as much as i can day by day.


Hey Janey, lovely to have a new recruit! buying that book is the best thing i ever did, and really helped me!! i look forward to hearing your progress :-) good luck!
yesterday was the first day i properly studied, made loads of notes from this really good paper, ended up making 10 pages of notes.
so i've set myself a target now, everyday will try to make 8-10 pages of notes for revision. i find i have to "do" something, i cant simply just sit there and read. i have to be active.

i'm heading to the british library tommorow. and then on thursday, i am going to force myself to start planning the answer to the horrible viva question which is " what would you do next??" right now, still havent formulated a good answer, but i have some ideas floating around. and reading papers has inspired me with some ideas. but yeh no more procrastinating on that , must start work on that viva question.

======= Date Modified 24 Apr 2009 13:56:15 =======

Hey everyone! i hope all is well with you guys.

well after much deliberating i've decided to contact my supervisor again. i sent him an email about a month ago asking about my viva, no reply. so after much thought, and advice from people, thought the best approach would be to just send a simple straightforward 1 line sentence and CC'ing the admin people aswell.

just gonna write:

Dear Mr X

I was wondering when my viva is and who my examiners will be.

Thanks very much for your help,

I have CC'd Admin1 and Admin2, to keep them informed of my progress. I was told by senate house that appointment of examiners forms are to be sent directly to the University instead of to senate house and then the university sends the forms to senate house.

Also I want to thank you all once again for all your help and advice with submission of my thesis. I really appreciate it.

kindest regards,
Lara.

does that sound okay?

Hi Lara,

That email sounds fine, just send it! It's good that you're cc-ing in the rest of the people involved too, it's sensible if you're not sure exactly who does what in the various departments to get this viva situation moving.

======= Date Modified 27 Apr 2009 13:22:10 =======
Thanks Ruby, you are so right! i am nervous though!! i am scared my sup is gonna reply with a nasty email and say something you dont know jack **** and you want to know when your viva is. or something like that. which will demotivate me for viva studying. but yep i cant keep putting it off. must find out my viva situation.

hows your viva prep going Ruby?

edit:

yikesamondo! i've just sent the email!! okay im gonna be very nervous for the rest of the day now!!!! and tommorow, but it had to be done. im gonna try to get my mind of it and do some revision.

Hi Lara, I don't blame you for feeling nervous about it. The whole submission/viva plays havoc with your confidence at the best of times - well, it has with mine! I just feel that any extra info that moves it forward must be better than that limbo between submission and a vague but unknown viva date, or maybe it's just marginally better....?

My preparation is slow and tedious, but it's got to be done as it's so near (this week and next) that I'll have to speed up a bit now. It'll happen anyway, so the best thing I can do is go in there and be as confident as possible about what I've written. It's the first time for over a year I've been able to distance myself from the thesis, as writing up was quite rushed and intensive really. I'm glad that it's proving better than I thought it was when I was in that horrible post-submission well of misery to quote Nick Cave (he hasn't done a PhD but is good on gloom). Not that I'm listening to doom and gloom these days, but songs stick in your mind sometimes, don't they.

I went to see the room my viva's being held in the other day, it's in a 'parlour' in the head of college's suite. It's off her senior management meeting room and the other exit is in the main college foyer where undergrad students hang around watching fashion videos playing on a loop on a big tv screen... I can't decide whether it's good because it's a nice room, or bad because it's SO in the middle of what's going on there.

I'm doing a talk for a load of students this week about my subject, so hopefully it'll help with the viva prep. Plus I get paid and the new course director might come along, which is good as she's well-known in that field and some of us are quite excited about her appointment. Otherwise it's a horrible stressful time, I get down to revision and think it's all going to be ok, then I have the odd panic about how much there is to revise and wonder how on earth I'll get it all done in time and feel a bit sick. I'm not sleeping very well either, I get the right amount of sleep but can't say I feel very perky when I wake up. I've started dreaming viva questions and answers recently too! Our heads of research have been great, one's booked me in for a pep talk in case I need it this week, though the other said I probably know loads more than I think I do, but to expect bad cop/bad cop for the mock viva interrogation technique....

Anyway, it's probably not much different to anyone else's experience, it's just something unpleasantly stressful to get through isn't it, then hopefully I can have a normal life again. One day!! That stuff you sent me has been useful, so thank you again for that!

Hope things are ok with you? And Armendaf too?

======= Date Modified 20 May 2009 19:40:11 =======
======= Date Modified 20 May 2009 18:58:03 =======
Hey Ruby, how are you doing? sorry taken so long to get back to you.
i'm okay, reading papers and making notes, and trying to scoop up background knowledge . i havent read my thesis in awhile, i keep avoiding reading it, instead i keep reading papers. but i'm gonna force myself to read through the discussion sections of each chapter again.
right now though, im feeling very lazy and lethargic and feeling like, i cant be bothered to do anything. but sitting here forcing myself to read a paper and make notes. not gonna move until i get it done.

Armendaf how is it going?

Ruby - CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR VIVA PASSING! WELL DONE!!

Did I read that Ruby passed her viva????? Congratulations!!!!!

Mine is in three weeks and I'm finding it very hard to find time to prepare. I've done bits and pieces here and there, but as always you never feel 100% prepared. Fortunately I've finished all my marking and besides some reporting I need to do, I now can organise a bit better so I can put aside a couple of hours every day to prepare. If I can, I'll start from today, if not tomorrow with a bit of a more methodical preparation.

Hang on there Lara, we'll get through this (up)

======= Date Modified 21 May 2009 12:31:53 =======
Yeh she did! i'm so happy for her :)

good idea about finding a couple of hours each day to study. i find that i cant study for more than a couple of hours each day anyways and i dont have a job ! i think there is so much our brains can cope with!

good luck with the preperation. i made myself a 2 week plan (going away for a few days) so thought i would cram in as much before i take a little holiday.

everyday i'm gonna read a paper, write an answer to 1 viva question and read a part of my thesis. well thats the plan! starting today.

so my aims are:
1. read 1 paper.
2. read discussion section of chapter 3
3. write out a answer to the viva qs: "why did you do this project?"

i keep worrying that my answers are either crap, wrong, or not detailed enough, but i'm gonna just write a answer and then at least i have something written down, and when i see my supervisor (whenever that is) i will have "something" infront of me. like a security blanket :p

thanks Armendaf, really great to hear from you, and thanks for your support :)

Hey guys, good luck armendaf for your viva preperation! battle on soldier!!!

well i sent a 3rd email to my sup (previous 2 emails asking about my viva were ignored, he ignored this 3rd one aswell) and then CC'd the admin people and one of the professers at my uni that deals with post graduate studies, and he was the only one that replied to my email yesterday, asking me when i handed in my thesis. so i'm suspecting now he will deal with my sup and ask him what's going on regarding my viva. my sup will probably say that I asked for extra time to prepare for my viva, i'm not prepared and probably blame me, which is true, but i still want to know "when" my viva will be and "who" will be my examiners, so i can start reading their work.

anyways feeling abit nervous about whats going to happen next!

in the meantime will just carry on trying to prepare. i feel like i will never ever be ready. got mountains of papers to read and still gotta read through my thesis again. i read through it a couple of months ago, i feel like i've forgotten it all :$

and then another part of me thinks, what the heck - might aswell just get it over and done with and see what my examiners say about my thesis. and take the next step.
i have nightmares (well not literally) that i will fail my viva and go in and not be able to answer any of the questions and just be dumbfounded. i know people say i should know my work. but i feel the amount i know is just very superficial.