Very helpful - I passed with v minor changes :-D

Viva was absolutely lovely in the end with two very rigorous but extremely kind & helpful examiners :-D

Reassuring to say that it's OK not to have all the possible answers :-) The prep is tricky as I'm trying to preempt questions that might not even be relevant - and stressing about them, rather than focusing on the strengths (I have a list of identified weaknesses or things I could have done differently / more of!)

It's amazing the range of emotions - from quiet confidence that there's some good work to being convinced there's a fatal flaw I've missed or, worse, that it's all just so obvious!

Ah that sounds very difficult - had you 'prepped' and answers before hand & was this useful? I've got general responses (not learned by rote but prepped) to the obvious questions (where it fits, how it does something novel etc) but have abandoned trying to second guess what they might ask!

And I will - I've genuinely no idea how it'll go - supervisor thinks pass with typos but then, they would say that - they've also pointed out that it's an exam, no way of knowing how it may go etc.

Thank you :-)

The examiners are from two completely different backgrounds / disciplines - I'm trying to navigate the way they'll ask about very different elements of the thesis but also trying not to do a 'naive' spelling out of the relevance to either (if that makes sense). It feels very very odd to be days not weeks away now ... I swing between excitement & (more often) sheer terror!

I'm also trying hard to think that anything other than a fail (which won't happen - it's definitely my work & it's complete!) is a good outcome - kind of like a peer review <for an article in Nature>

Viva in just over a week away - thesis interdisciplinary.

Fretting - a lot - and would appreciate any advice on:

- I can't seem to recall the literary texts I've used - even basic storylines. No time to re read them all - have re read notes I made. Every site I've seen on viva questions seem to focus more on the 'so what' than the minutiae of the analysis - is this people's experience of literary / humanities based PhD's?

- Rereading notes has just made me feel like I've 'missed' lots (but - because interdisciplinary, couldn't include every relevant book / text / quote). I think I can defend the 'missed' bits as less relevant / lack of space - has anyone had a viva focusing on what they didn't write on & how did you handle these types of questions?

- I've re read thesis twice now & plan to re read again next week 24 hours before - it just seems so *simple*. So many of the points (even where I've got a clear 'and this is important because...') seems so obvious. But - I'm immersed in it. Is this normal?!?

- How do I move from 'any revisions are bad outcome' to (more realistic) 'revisions are a positive way to refine the work' type thinking? Any thoughts?

On the upside - only 3 pages of typed / tabulated typos (and they're mainly v v minor ie extra space needed) 😂😂

Thanks all in advance.