BRILLIANT, Pink_Numbers (gift)

Yey, well done Pink!!! Hope you have set aside some time to relax and do something fun!

Wooohooo Pink_Numbers, that's fab news!

I've got everything together now, just got to finish the formatting (which is quite a big job!!). Hope to be ready for binding on Monday!!!

Best, KB

Thanks everyone, it's very strange, it's STILL not sunk in....

but I did just go to town and bought myself a gorgeous guitar, so I am happy bunny :)

KeenBean, keep going, you are sooooo close!

Woooo - congratulations pink numbers! Now time to start recovering :-)

I've decided to finally dip my toe into this thread, having been avoiding it. I've mainly been afraid that I'd find people aiming for the same deadline (Sept 30th) a whole lot further ahead than me. Sounds silly but my most hated question right now is "so how many words do you have written?" It's up there with "what are you going to do next?"!

Anyway I've spent my Saturday sat at my desk with my laptop. My OH is away so I've been quite productive. But am working on my most hated chapter (MRI), because I feel we did things badly. I've been having lots of aagh why didn't I do things like that?! moments. Can't even criticise the previous research, becasue I think I've done things worse not better! Anyway enough about me, think I'm rambling as my longest conversation with anyone today was about 5 mins long!

Well done pink numbers. Can't wait to be at the binding stage. (up)
Hope everypne else has had a productive Saturday.

I completely, utterly and totally despair of finding a way to get this done:-(

Ady - don't despair.
Or if you do, at least despair in company!
What's going on? I'm in a right state at the moment as well, but always happy to listen.

Hi Ady, you sound really fed up with your thesis! I can totally sympathise as this final stage is such a drama and frustration. Where are you at? Has your sup come back with comments as last I remember you were checking through while they were reading? You are very close to submission and to be honest I found that as the goal was so close any extra work required was a big deal to me! I was not so open to extra changes as I was just sick of my thesis so I probably provided more resistance to such suggestions! That said at some point enough is enough and it just needs to be submitted. Keep smiling, I really admire your resilience :-)

Hi Dunni and Florence

Thanks for your words of support, much appreciated and very much needed at the moment.

Sorry for posting such a negative comment but I think I sank just about as far as I could go wth this darn PhD yesterday and today. A series of emails with phrases like 'expand to higher analytical level..., don't like the structure, not working as it is...' had me tearing up, literally :$. I was hoping to submit at the end of August but that's not going to happen. Feel a bit better today after marathon supv meeting but I have a ton of re-structuring to do over the next few weeks to get it in by the end of September. No new writing really but have to move, re-structure and make those darn links to and from sections which as we all know are an absolute curse - or is that just me?

If I had been offered MPhil yesterday I would have taken it! I truly felt that I just don't have 'it', whatever 'it' is that is required to submit. Today I'm a bit more philosophical so fingers crossed...

Good luck Florence, I hope yours is coming together but if not, take your advice to me and share :-)

@Dunni, have you got your house all packed and labelled in boxes yet? Don't envy you that job but I would do that for you if you come and finish my thesis ;-)

Hi Ady, If it can be of any relief, I can tell you that I didn't feel this great sense of achievement after I submitted. Actually, I didn't feel that great after the viva either. The whole process of writing up is so stressful - or at least it was for me!- that I found unwinding very difficult.

I have finished with my corrections, nonetheless I will have to wait and see what the internal thinks. It seems a never ending story, although graduation start to be in sight.

It can be very hard when, after so much hard work, you have to go over things again, but you are substantially better off now than you were six months ago. You now know what to do to address any remaining issue (that surely is minor in comparison to writing it all). If you tackle it in small chunks you will be surprised about how quickly you can get things done.

Then, 1 month is really nothing in comparison to the time that you spent working on your project on the whole. It is so much better to spend four weeks to polish it now, rather than having to do it after the viva.

Bon Courage!

  (up)

Hi Ady, I really feel for you. Comments from my sups at this point always felt like a large slap in the face with a wet fish lol. They may not seem like big issues to your sup (a walk in the park maybe) but when you read them, the work it involves feels like another marathon. I am glad you have had a long chat with your sup to clarify the comments. This should give you a more positive approach to resolving them. Linking the work is a crucial element which in my thesis almost felt like repetition from the end of one chapter (a,b and c leads to doing x,y and z) to the next chapter (exploring a,b and c from ch 2 has resulted in tests for x,y and z) etc. It almost felt a little basic to spell it out like a story but for the reader it makes sense of the structure.  Take smaller steps and allow yourself some time out as fresh eyes really does help.

The 'it' factor for a PhD in my opinion is 'dogged perseverance' which you really do have to have come this far. There is no way you should consider an MPhil! Very soon you will submit, just keep hanging on to this thought.

BTW the packers (yes we are cheating and the removals are doing it all :p ) are arriving in the coming week to get a started, descending us into complete chaos I am sure. We actually move 30/31st, arghhh! Would love to restructure your thesis in return for some calm, tranquil stability in our own home. I have so much in limbo right now that it is quite depressing! Still awaiting internal examiners feedback on corrections, not sure I will make graduation this year, got job interview next week, move the week after and a journal paper with sups currently. Would love to actually complete these things and know where I am going or what I am doing :-(

Hey all! First off, Ady- you are soooo nearly there! Even if you submit the end of next month instead of this month, that means you have just 6 weeks of work left after about 175 weeks or whatever it is...you're so close to the finish line. I think you might also get to the point where you need to call time on the changes you are making, and just get it handed in. My sup was whining (sorry- 'making constructive comments') about my discussion until the day I handed it in, and I didn't even get a single question or comment on it in my viva- it was absolutely fine. So do what you can and what you agree with, but be clear with yourself and your supervisors about when you will stop making further changes and prepare it for submission in terms of formatting, binding etc.

Dunni- I know what you mean about all the uncertainty and uprooting etc. I've just spent a few days in the area I will soon be moving to, to have a look round and start thinking about houses etc, and it's going to be a big change from where I am. I'm hoping to hand my corrections in next week (I'm a week after viva and haven't done a thing on them yet), so I'll be waiting for the outcome of that and I'm still waiting for a start date for my new job. Good luck with the move :)

Corinne- I'm with you on what you say about post-submission and post-viva. I didn't feel anything when I submitted and a week after my viva I am still waiting for it to hit me. I'm thrilled to have passed etc, but I think I'm just too exhausted to feel how I expected to. I suppose I'm stressing about moving away etc as well, but it is a strange feeling! Think I'm still quite stressed and haven't quite had the time to unwind either, hopefully that will come with time!

Best wishes all, KB

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Thanks everyone, Corinne, Dunni, KB, Florence, everyone :-). Having read supervisor-related comments on this forum mine is a pet really. It's just he came back to me with major restructuring comments after having my draft for 8 weeks when he originally said he would have it back to me in 2! If I had gotten these comments a few weeks ago I probably would have been better equipped to deal with them. It's a similar situ I think to Sneaks' supv and her comments at the 11th hour. To be fair mine reads everything as an external examiner would and as he has been external examiner for a lot of people's theses he does know what he is talking about and I do trust him. I just wish I had gotten all this earlier!

Corinne, KB, Dunni - you guys have all done brilliantly and you all deserve to give yourselves a pat on the back. I take my inspiration from all of you doctors :-x and hope that I can join the club at the other side of the fence soon.

@Dunni, make sure you keep a firm hand on the children and don't let them get packaged up into any boxes. 'Relocation, Relocation' always makes those major house moves look so easy. At least you're not likely to have Kirstie and Phil popping back for a cup of tea and a status update complete with TV cameras!!

Hi everyone, just popping in to say hi and see how you're all doing at the moment - sounds like everyone's doing pretty well, and Ady, I'm glad you're feeling a bit more positive now. I'm getting my draft back (with final comments from sups) this Thursday, with the hard submission deadline of 30th - I'm really hoping the corrections aren't too huge as I only have 2 weeks to get it corrected, bound and submitted, eek! They've had mine since July too, I didn't realise it'd take this long to do the final draft marking. Feeling very nervous about reading their comments. :$