I posted on here 14 months ago about my first viva and the issues around that, so thought i'd do the follow up in case anyone in the same situation as me finds it one day. My examination was a bit weird as there were some pretty substantial accusations against my examiner due to a conflict of interest and bias. He was internal so it's possible the uni had a word with him or he just realised he cocked up when he read my 20 page long rebuttal letter highlighting the issue.

The good news is that i passed with minor corrections in a viva so easy it has left me feeling like i didnt achieve anything. it lasted 50 mins and they only asked me questions about the choice of words. At no point did I have to defend the contribution to knowledge, its place in the literature, etc.

It all feels like a massive anti-climax, but hopefully when i get the certificate i will feel the sense of achievement that is so far lacking. I spent a whole year preparing to fight the dragon and take the treasure, only to find the dragon had already died, leaving me feeling like a bit of a fraud walking off with the treasure i'm not sure I deserve.

My first viva was a bit of a joke. 4.5 hours of going through everything asking why a graph was a specific shade of blue rather than a slightly darker shade, and trying to force his own rejected unpublished work into the thesis (which later turned out was based on fake data and fabricated results).

It was a very weird experience, but I hope that anyone else who gets 12 months revise and resubmit can take some encouragement from the fact that my story had a good ending!

The viva had an independent chair so it may be that he wanted to behave himself then, but when i get the examiner's report with the corrections perhaps he will sneak something into there, but seems unlikely.

Congrats, that first experience sounds pretty awful. Regarding the easy viva, try not to sweat it. My viva was the same as were a lot of my friends' and dwelling on it does no good, it just feeds your imposter syndrome. Key thing is that you passed easily and can now move forward beyond the PhD!