oh no! Sorry to hear about your MIL! That's part of the reason I don't want to tell anyone - hubs passed his with minors so there will be a lot of smugness from MIL if I have major corrections etc. She'll also want to take us out for a meal so she can show off for 2 horus in front of the waiting staff - I'll probably tell her in a few years if I pass. ;-)

well I'm trying to get one paper from my thesis out for publication - hoping to write this up this week really, so may focus on that (cos that's kinda prep anyway????) and then go full swing into proper viva prep when I've made some headway with that.

I told my hubs and he burst out laught too :p

But i did wake up this morning convinced I'd illustrated my thesis!

when should I start prep? I'm scared of starting too early as I have an AWFUL memory and may forget everything! I have about 1 month

Had my 1st viva nightmare last night. I had a dream where I took the first post-submission look at my thesis and realised I'd handed in a version where I'd illustrated manga characters onto every paragraph - like the guy from pokemon pointing at one of my bullet points - like a childs textbook. I had the horrible sinking feeling of having to explain to examiners that it was a mistake and I would remove the manga characters in the corrections.

It was really freaky - specially as I don't even like manga lol. :$

it was a bit of an odd issue with my sup, I'll PM you -I'm just a bit anxious abotu it all now!

I wish the examiners could email you 2 weeks after submission and say "btw, we think its a pass, so the viva is just a chat" - I can't begin to think about failing - it would be mortifying. BUt I had some issues with supervision in the last few weeks meaning that large chunks (i.e. 20-30,000 words) were never read. Very scared that its all a pile of rubbish and will fail!

no I'm going to read the latest stuff - I've been told that they'll be looking to see whether you as a researcher are of doctoral standard, more so than the thesis, so being well read I guess comes under that. I am just scared they'll ask me to incorporate newer stuff in.

yes I guess so - otherwise you'd never get it finished as everytime you handed it in more would be published!

on the vitae checklist it says "I have kept up to date with relevant literature" - what happens if I find something that could very well go in my thesis that's been published in the last few months? what do I do in the viva? just say "yes I've read that" or will they ask me to put stuff in??

hubs didn't tell his family and I haven't told mine. I think its the best solution really - takes all the pressure off. I just wish the other people in my department didn't know! The thought of having my mum buying a 'congratulations' card and then for her to have to put it away because I failed is mortifying - I'd rather not have the stress of those negative thoughts!

Hubs just took a day off work and then we phoned everyone in the evening - they were all so surprised as they too thought he'd given up on it!

I started a lecturing post this year and I am exhausted by the amount of teaching I have to do and that's 'official' hours - all those students who insist on coming to see me out of those hours is in the 100s - So far I've been very open and accomodating, but I can see its not sustainable - I've had no time to do my own research because of trying to support students. I've ended up working 12 hour days 7 days a week. I can't keep this up, and as I'm held accountable for the REF, the research needs to take priority.

THe problem with the fee increase is that students assume lecturers get more money, when they're just getting the same! but for more work as we are held accountable for student experience/satisfaction and employability. I've had 1 day off this holiday :-(

1st week of feb, so nearly. Haven't done anything for it though - currently trying to write up one of my studies for a journal call, so guess that's relevant??

I was going to start tomorrow (1st!) argh - can't believe its so soon, have really no idea what to do for it. All I do know is that I don't want to read any 'how to pass your viva' books

eek how exciting - I would say I would come and visit but 1/ You haven't invited me and 2/ I can't go to Oz cos of the spider INFESTATION they have there.

But I'm sure you will love it! Also be careful of the sharks!! On the plus side I think tazmanian devils are really cool so you could get a pet one and feed it bits of annoying students

erm, I really don't think you can think in terms of how many references. It depends on how you write and what's out there in your field. My sup thinks I over-reference, I find it easier to stick in a few citations, rather than being confident and saying "this is my point - I don't need citations because I'm STRONG" haha! anyway, I have about 30 pages of references for my thesis, whcih is about 300 pages long including contents pages, refs, appendices etc. But as I say, its a bad measure - its the critical thinking and in-depth analysis you need, NOT a list of citations.