I think it is worth raising the issue with your department to ensure that they understand the impact that your health issues have on you. Speaking from my own experience, my partner had MND and tired very quickly. His voice also faded if he had to do a lot of talking. He also had serious mobility issues at the time of his viva. The university and examiners agreed to make special accommodations for him, which included holding the viva remotely (he wouldn't have been able to sit at a table at the university), allowing me to be in the room so that if he needed assistance with anything physically - I could do that, and the viva was also relatively short - just over one hour. He passed with flying colours.
I recall that there was a longtime user of this forum Bilbobaggins, who also had some health issues - it may be worth checking her old posts as she may also have had special accommodations.
Best of luck with the viva!

Hi Em89

Congratulation and really well done on submitting in such circumstances! I wouldn't worry unduly but that's easier said than done, I know!

I fit helps at all, I didn't have anyone review my entire thesis. I had a great supervisor during my last couple of years who I periodically met with and discussed my thesis but she only actually read one or two chapters in their entirety, although she provided great input to the rest. I passed with minor corrections. There were quite a number of typos but these are easily corrected.

Incidentally, I didn't do a mock viva either. I just read my thesis so that I knew it inside out and mentally prepared some of the "typical" questions. I also thought about questions that I really didn't want to be asked and prepared some responses to those to give me some confidence. I understand the nerves as I had dreaded the viva from the first day of my PhD. I was very anxious on the day but once the viva started the adrenaline kicked in and I just got on with things.

I found it comforting to read the success stories of other so I hope this helps a little. From reading your post, there is nothing that would give me cause for concern from an outsider's perspective. Although there are never any guarantees of course. Best of luck and keep us updated!

EV

I had something similar also. I basically listed all supervisors and noted which years they were involved and also, for one of them, which particular area of my thesis they oversaw. i.e.

Prof X was the Principal Sup of this thesis from 2012 - 2014 and provided invaluable guidance in data analysis of Study A. Prof Y was the Principal Sup from 2014-2016 and Prof Z was the Co-Supervisor from 2012-2016.....

I did my viva at the end of November and got the corrections at the beginning of January. Like you I was told on the day that I had passed subject to corrections and that I would receive the list within two weeks. I had nothing official to say that I had passed and was starting to panic that the examiners had changed their minds or something else was wrong. All totally unfounded and when the corrections eventually came they were fine. Oh and I only got official confirmation (through the University's online system) of the outcome this week.

Wow Wally!!!
So great to hear about your life post-PhD! You were a great source of help to me on this forum as I know you were for so many others.
As for me - I had a long and complicated journey but finally submitted my thesis last year, passed the viva and am working on some minor corrections right now.

Hi Dr Crabby

I am also working on my corrections whilst working full time and have various other commitments. I also submitted my thesis whilst working full-time and found the only way that I get anything constructive done is to have a very detailed plan. I have 2 months to submit my corrections, which total about 25 individual tasks of varying complexity. I have made a schedule for myself which includes all of my extracurricular activities as well as each task I need to complete. I have allocated a specific day over the next 2 months for each task, scheduling in the more simple standalone items for the 1 hour I can commit on 2 working days every week. Then I reserved the more time-consuming tasks for the half day I can commit each Saturday and Sunday. This may seem OTT but it seems to work for me! EV

Hi Nead,

I will PM you my email address. Thank you very much for your help! EV

Hi Rewt
Thanks for the reply. The link you posted was one of the ones that I have tried but unfortunately I can't access it this way without paying $51, which I am reluctant to pay unless I really have to. I was hoping that someone might have access to it through their institution as unfortunately I don't.

Does anybody have access to the following article? I would really appreciate it. Just doing my corrections and seem to have misplaced my copy of it and no longer have access to my uni. Thank you. EV

Birgisdottir, H., Gamst, J. and Christensen, T.H., 2007. Leaching of PAHs from hot mix asphalt pavements. Environmental engineering science, vol. 24, no. 10, pp.1409-1422.

Hi All,

I have my viva in a couple of weeks and as well as all the typical things to be worried about, I am worried about defending my thesis with no journal publications (sciences). My PhD has been long and protracted (10 years ahem) and due to both technical (experiments taking way longer than anticipated) and personal reasons (being a full-time carer for several years and then suffering a bereavement) and then working full-time for the last 3.5 years. Anyhow, I finally submitted a thesis and with the viva upcoming, I am worried about my lack of publications. I have a few conference papers from the early years of my PhD but I have never even submitted a journal paper. The problem isn't a lack of originality as my supervisor and I have identified several aspects of thesis which would be worthy of publication (in our opinion). I didn't have time to publish whilst working, commuting and completing the PhD part-time and honestly since submitting I just needed a bit of a break. I have established a successful career outside of academia which I am content with and which does not require me to publish. My question to you all is how much of a problem is this likely to be in the viva? I could come up with a publication plan with article names and target journals. I could probably even begin to prepare a paper so that I could claim to have one in preparation. What do you guys think?

Thank you everyone for your responses. My internal examiner had to be changed as the original one had left the department and I see that this has been updated officially on the university's system. I also know that the extern was not available during June as he was still lecturing but I thought I would have at least heard from somebody by now. I'm just a bit anxious as I tend to have to travel for work at reasonably short notice and I would like to get a date set. I think you are all correct and I should follow up and make some enquiries.

Hi All,
I finally submitted my PhD (almost 10 years later!!) in the middle of May. I have heard absolutely nothing from anybody in the university since and just wondering how long others have waited to hear about the viva date. I am most definitely dreading it but think it would be best to get it over with as I'm getting a bit too used to having a life again!
EV

Hi there,
Does anybody have access to this standard through their library?

PD CEN/TS 16637-3:2016
Construction products. Assessment of release of dangerous substances. Horizontal up-flow percolation test

Thank you so much in advance for trying!
Ev

Yep. I answered no to question 4 so wasn't really sure how to answer the rest of the questionnaire.

Hi Everyone,

I used to post on this forum a lot at the beginning of my PhD but I haven't really been around for a while. I hope you don't mind me posting on this accountability thread. Long story short - I am coming up on 6 years working on the PhD. My funding ran out after year four so for the past two years I have been taking on some uni based work, essentially making me a part-time student although officially I am full-time. One month ago the uni work also dried up so I really need to get this PhD done and finally get myself a 'proper' job. I have a official deadline of September 2015 but I can't afford to go past July 2015 so it's full steam ahead for the next few months!

At the moment, I am running what should be some of the last lab tests I need to do and writing my lit review (my methodology and results chapters are much further along than the lit review). I also have made a conscious decision to work in my uni office everyday rather than at home (I've had to be at home a lot to look after a sick relative) so I'm hoping that should push the work along more quickly - fingers crossed!

Good luck to everyone working today :-)
EV