You sound more prepared than I was! Good luck - and remember to eat some breakfast!

Any news? I hope you have heard something by now.

Incertus - I had quite a few typos too but they weren't a problem. I was just told to fix them.

Hello everyone. I have just had my viva this past week and passed with minor corrections. I am in shock - albeit a very nice shock!

I just wanted to thank everyone who helped me on here over the years, both with finding articles and providing excellent advice and encouragement when I was flagging (which was often!) You really are a lovely bunch. I found the whole process really hardgoing at times (I had two babies during my candidacy which was great but certainly didn't help!) and was mainly working from a distance so this forum really helped me feel like I was actually a "real" student.

At several points I thought about giving up as I really seemed to be making no progress at all and between work and family commitments it seemed like it was taking over my whole life. However, I changed to part-time status and kept on plugging away at it and I got there in the end. I really want to encourage anyone else feeling the same way to keep at it as, even though it might seem that you are not getting anywhere, mine only really started coming together in the last six months!

The viva was fairly brief (about an hour and a quarter) compared to some I have read on here and I have to say it was actually quite pleasant! I haven't had much chance to talk about my research so it was good to finally get to do that. The questions were thoughtful and probing but not at all aggressive. I was mainly asked to explain my thought processes behind the methodological choices and what impact they had on my results.

I now have a few months to make the corrections (mainly small omissions and typos) and I am actually looking forward to making the corrections and "polishing" it.

Best of luck to everyone still going through it - and especially to the parents of young children who are trying to complete with a million distractions!

Hi Grumpymule! I don't know the answer to the number of hours but I have four weeks until my viva and am only really just getting started with serious prep. I have a terrible memory anyway so I am hoping this way it will stay fresh in my mind!

To be honest I think you should have followed the advice given in the earlier thread! You are really in a vulnerable position now - are you in the UK? I would suggest talking in confidence to a university support service if you have one and asking their advice.

Thanks GrumpyMule - hope I don't lose everything in the move! My viva is at the beginning of November.

Well done! I know exactly how you feel as I submitted mine last week :-) I keep on having a recurring dream that I actually submitted an early draft by mistake - am now terrified to open my copy in case that is actually true! I am having a couple of weeks off to move house and then am going to get started with the viva prep. Do you have a date for yours yet?

Congratulations and thanks for sharing! I wanted to ask what you took in with you - a copy of your thesis I suppose, but was it annotated in any way? Can you take other notes in?

Dear Jay - thank you! I have sent you a PM. I haven't written the abstract yet though - saving that for last, sorry. It's not actually on immigration policy though, rather immigration experience.

Yes

Me too! Thanks anyway.

Bump! Anyone?

Update: my computer had a hard drive problem and packed up anyway. When I got it sorted out I installed Windows 10 and so far, no problems.

I had already started collecting data and then changed direction - and so started collecting different data and treated the first lot as a sort of pilot study I suppose.