Congratulations Dan, what a wonderful Christmas pressie! (gift)

Thanks Bilbo, I feel a little like Oliva did this morning. My English teacher at school always said you would know when you had done enough and I really am reaching that point. Just going to go over some methodology this morning, to make sure I am certain about decisions I made. Work (I work FT and do the PhD PT) have given me today and tomorrow off, so I just need to make sure I have everything and go. OH has also taken two days off work, it would be a nice holiday if not for tomorrow morning! I have been told that it has to finish by 1415 as my chair is chairing another meeting. So it will be a max of 2 hours and 15 mins. 27 hours to go ...

End of the day, well sort of. Managed to go through the rest of the questions and read chapters' five to seven. My supervisor has been in touch to make sure I am okay which was nice of him, and much appreciated. Hard to believe that at the end of the week I will know whether all the work, stress and pressure has paid off. I have made my list of what to put in the viva survival kit, that is a job for tonight. Most things are ready for Friday, as with most people I live nearly 100 miles from my uni so I am going over tomorrow night and staying in a hotel. Clothes are clean and pressed, and still fit!!!

Checking in for the day: 51 hours to go. Aims for the day: 1: finish going through questions, 2: make up my viva survival kit, 3: re-read chapters' six and seven in 'how to survive your viva'.

When Lara did her viva she set up a thread on here and posted all the viva questions she had found. I took them off the thread and have worked through them. Also I googled nasty viva questions and found a list on the internet. Most of the questions seem to be different ways of asking what is your contribution to knowledge, how is your work original and have you knowledge of research methods, which are three of the criteria for obtaining a PhD at my uni. Just spent the last 90 mins going through some more questions, as I really need to read the whole thesis this week! :-)

Clocking out for the day - managed to answer 20 questions which is great and means I am ahead. Aim for tomorrow therefore is to finish the rest of the questions. Then have another read of 'how to pass your viva'.

I'm on the count down, three days to go, if I count today. Aims for the day: to go through Lara's questions and have an overview of my answers. She had 42 in total so I am aiming to do 15 today.

Hi Lilbobeep, I am in a different postion as my viva is on Friday. However I opened my thesis two days after I submitted and found a typo! I went through, typed up the list and sent it to my supervisor who sent it to the examiners. I am hoping, therefore, to avoid the list of typos in the viva and also it shows I did not stop working on in it between submission and viva (six weeks and two days in total). At my uni many of us have our viva dates before we submit, it puts the pressure on but it really does mean you make the deadline.

'I will have a mock viva on Tuesday, and am really starting to panic now. The fear and doubts are starting to crystallise, I was a bit controlled before but, now am a mess.'

How did the mock viva go? I have five days to the real thing, on Friday. I had a long 'phone call with my supervisor last week who was very clear that I, as most people, will have revisions. Must admit just want to have it over and done with.

My mock viva was also enjoyable. After nearly two hours it finished and I wanted to keep going as there was someone who wanted to talk about my thesis and work in depth. I was asked about the rationale behind my work, my philosophical stance, the data and the impact of my work. One qu which I did not expect was about the relevance of the work. I started the PhD in 2002 went to March 2006, submitted, and then my viva was pulled because my external examiners thought it was not worth having the viva. It took me three years to go through the compaints proceedure and I started again in March 2009. So my data is all from 2002-2004.

I just read each page and wrote the key points, must admit I agree if someone offered my a viva right now I would take it. Mine is at 1200 so I need to make sure my tummy is not too loud.

Hi someone3, my viva is two weeks tomorrow! At the moment I have written a one line summary of each page, gone through tofind typos and read 'how to survive your viva'. At the moment I am trying to not google 'nasty viva experiences'!