Thanks again guys - always great to hear from everyone

Aloha - I was probably still pissed up until about 9ish - but who cares they are done

Misspacey - so in actual fact I have a meeting with the internal tomorrow to go over the corrections - I highlighted them on the page and used page markers in the pre-viva submission copy and then I printed a black and white copy double sided, of the new version which I'll get bound for tomorrow - hopefully if he agrees them all (it was mostly gramatical probably about 150 I reckon)then I'll be in final print and submission by Tuesday next week.

But I assume if you go through a much more formal system that yes you would submit both your corrections sheet and a new copy (bound) before being able to go to final print.

I'm happy its happening so fast

Its taken me from 5 am till now (9.5hrs non-stop) but my corrections are done! Woop Woop!

Just to say thanks to everyone for the support and encouragement and I'll kepp Y'all updated from time to time

Cheers

S

So way to go me, and good luck to the rest of you, especially those writing up at the moment or waiting for your vivas - before you know it you'll be sat here posting hte weird questions you were asked on your Vivas

Hope this was helpful to some of you

Good Luck

Dr S.

After that it went really quickly, they skipped the methods and said it was very succinct. couple of questions on each results chapters which they really like the science - bish bosh bash and I was done - cue hand shaking and smiling all round all round.

In total I was in for about 2.5 hours, have some minor corrections which will take a day at the most and thats it. all those years, all the heartache and dispair and low points and months of writing, ignoring friends putting on weight etc etc but all of a sudden its over, I'm now Dr S and my Job inthe states starts a week on Monday Yeeeaaaa!

The next thing the external said was, "okay I have to get this off my chest, the scientific content of your thesis was excellent (at which point I was like SCORE!), but your grammar was not at the same standard!" his main gripe was that I had used a lot of capital letters improperly drug names etc so we covered all of those. I just sat like the dog of the churchhill advert smiling and nodding (why interrupt when they are on a role)


My Viva mainly focused on my intro (about 1.5 hours of it), it was quite long 100 pages or so and I kind of knew the history would interst the examiner etc. The main way they asked questions was e.g. "on page 55 you said this happens, would you like to expand on that"

So, the dreaded first question!:
"Okay S, you go to a party and you walk up to your mate and he asks what you have done and why - how would you explain it to him?"
This really threw me and I pondered whether to truly answer it like you would to your mates - in the end I decided going for purely scientific was best - only to be stopped 2 minutes in and told, "do you think anyone would understnad that, try again" (in a friendly way). So I did!


I have to say I think this was a great ice-breaker question, it really set the tone for the whole thing.

They had it set out in a good way, lets say a roughly square table with each of us at an end, so it wasn't like 3 of them staring directly into my face, much less intimidating!

I knew all of the examiners and chair so the tone was slightly less formal I suppose I thought it would be. Its always different when you know the people. They told me that the external was going to direct the questioning and the internal would chip in when he had more thoughts - this I think is reasonably common to have one of them doing the main questioning, instead of fighting over priority etc

Yeeaaa! I passed! so I thought I would put a post describing how it went.

So in my last post I was pondering as to whether to study or not the night before. In the end I read my thesis till about 9pm, had a Pizza had a couple of beers and watch Britiains got talent ;-) and went to bed about 11pm.

I slept fairly sound until about 5am, where I naturally woke up and thought, what the hell, last day of this may as well get up and get going. So I read some journals etc. which for me was probably more about distracting myself than really reading them, but it seemed to help.

Before I knew it I was on a train in to work, then in the Lab talking to folk, then drying the sweat of my shirt on the toilet hand dryers then next thing I knew I was sat at a table infront of 2 examiners and the Chair of the meeting.

Yeaaa! I passed - and then went out for the day - I'll put a separate post of how it went etc.

Thanks for all the support ;)

I think Signature have a good chance if they come up with something awsome for the final! possibly move away from the MJ stuff

The dog probably won't win but is very talented and I'll bet he'll be touring the crufts circuit until he retires ;)

And what the hells wrong with Britains got Talent? that dancing dog was pretty damn funny (amused me at least)

as for the 16 days - had to do it cause I got a job starting in the states in a couple of weeks and the visas were already in place - I had some very understanding examiners

Hey ANG! good to hear from you again

and thanks for all the support from others too

Yes there will always be holes I know but what you gonna do.

I've just been in this odd place for the last couple of days - really a little over complacent - and it worries me that this isn't a good thing - but then I only submitted a few days ago - so how much could the world have changed in that time (probably a lot)

I think the main thing that messes with my head is that they could ask ANYTHING - So whaddya do about that?

I'm pretty sure the format it'll take, because I know both examiners - I guess, I think - will I have enough to say for however long it takes - back to that whole ' will I get found out thingy again'

Ah well - guess you gotta be in it to win it and tomorrow I'm gonna make you all call me Dr S!

Oh and I tried on the old Viva suit - fits (kind of) if I undo a button or two - maybe if I wear it around the house it'll give a little for tomorrow?

I think the problem is that there is so much you could do - but would it make any difference - maybe I'll find that one elusive paper that'll help answer all their questions brilliantly. Or I could just do what I usually do and either answer it or say I don't know.

So do you keep prepping or do you crack a couple of tinnies and relax in front of Britains got talent for the evening? - I know what I'd prefer!

S