I'm feeling quite depressed at the mo', and hoping someone can give me some perspective on things. Had my viva last week - I've passed, but have got 12 weeks to make corrections. Both examiners (and my supervisor) expressed some doubts about whether I'd be able to do everything in 12 weeks, but it was either 12 weeks, or resubmit (with another viva) in 12 months. Even though I've passed, I feel like I've just scraped through. And yesterday, I got my external's copy of the thesis back - practically every page is marked with corrections and comments. And her actual report was so negative that I don't know how I passed. I'm starting to think if she hadn't been friends with my supervisor, I'd have probably failed. I'm so depressed and I feel like a total fraud telling people I've passed. Any one with a similar experience/advice to get me back on track?

I've not been through my viva yet so i can't say that I know how you are feeling. However, at the end of the day you have passed so congrats for that, if you weren't worthy of a pass then i'm sure you wouldn't have passed. I know people who have had a lorry load of corrections to do and from what I have heard it is common to have corrections to do. Have you talked to your supervisor about how you are feeling? It might be worth having a chat with him/her to air your worries and then work with them to come up with a plan of action for sorting out your corrections.

Also some externals are just very harsh in a viva. There is a group leader here who did a viva for a friend of one of the phd students I work with and apparently he totally ripped him to shreds, found fault and questioned everything he did. This group leader is known for going off on an ego trip and the whole viva was basically a case of him arguing black is white for the sake of it. So don't beat yourself up cos at the end of the day you did pass 8-)

sounds like you did fine. I know someone who had an experience like this at upgrade. Then he met the examiner who gave him loads of stick in a corridor one day and the bloke said it was the best upgrade he had ever seen. I think people often want to come across as taking a hard line - I wouldn't be too disheartened, you've passed! 12 weeks and you never have to look at the thing again - can't wait for me to be in that position!

I have not passed my viva yet but if you got only 12 weeks of corrections it sounds reasonable to me, one of my colleagues was asked to change his theoretical framework altogether and conduct more field work, was given 6 months, so don't worry , you passed CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Also if you work consistently am sure you can complete the corrections in 12 weeks

Congratulations: you, like the vast majority of PhDs, have passed with a few corrections to make.

Ignore your miso examiners. I was talking just yesterday to a student who's been really productive, probably one of the best in the department: but his supervisor is always telling him "Oooh, I'm not sure if you'll write up in time...what if you need an extension?" and so on. Some people are just gloomy.

As for the corrections: I passed my transfer report and got quite good comments, but when I got the report back it was literally covered with comments and "corrections", but when I looked closer a lot of them were quite daft: the examiner didn't like the Endnote format and had circled every single reference, or had pulled me up for italicing certain Latin words (which I thought was correct anyway).

Dont worry about it! I passed my viva and my examiner kept saying how much he loved the thesis - was so positive throughout it and I know I was lucky - he was probably just a nice man and yours was probably a negative person, I had a list of only 6 corrections to do - some really minor like adjusting a graph but one was to correct all points made throughout by him in my thesis (typos, missing scientific names, differences of opinion on refs etc..)- when I got it this was literally something on every page - it was covered in (often indecipherable) red pen and he had said it was well written! So i think it is normal to have it covered in corrections. A lot of them will just be differences of opinion and you may not agree with them but unless you defending them specifically in the viva then just crack on and do whatever needs to be done then go out and pop the champagne. Just do them as soon as possible and youll be fine. You passed! - dont feel like a fraud, get the corrections done and prove them wrong. Remember your examiner also stakes his/her reputation on the body of work they rate as a pass and you will want to be proud of it for years to come so if it means making it better through a load of corrections its worth it - I found it hard to stop correcting it as it can always be better....

Don't feel depressed - feel relieved you don't have to go through your viva again. My viva was 50 mins and it barely even touched the surface... cue the examiner at the end saying 'I wasn't sure whether it would be minor or major corrections as you have to write another CHAPTER about research methods'.

12 weeks is loads of time, and if you manage your time well, you shouldn't have any problems - just manage your time and actually aim for 10 weeks, that's due to the fact you might have issues with your internal examiner approving your changes in time.. so don't work write up until the line, only to realise your internal has gone on holiday for 2 weeks. Congratulations on passing your viva :-)

Thanks, everyone. Your comments have really cheered me up. I guess things aren't as bad as I thought. It's just, when you're reading through your list of corrections and see that your examiner has branded part of your argument as 'perverse', it's hard to see the positive. I know I've got to do the corrections, so I've decided to try and minimise my depression by doing a little bit of work everyday, and then doing something to cheer myself up afterwards.

Hi Sidrun,

I completely understand what you are going through. I had my viva a few months back, and a similar thing happened. At first, I felt a little sad as to why some people get little or no changes, and I got what seemed like so many! The good thing is that they were mainly cosmetic changes (i.e. moving paragraphs around/explaining concepts) rather than repeating experiments/doing statistical tests which would have taken ages. Please do remember that you have passed the viva (pretty much a Dr pending the ceremony), and you'll be finished up soon. Best of luck with the final push! You'll manage it!

Firstly CONGRATULATIONS you passed! I had to resubmit my thesis. I had to do loads of extra data and re order and rework chapters. By the time I finished corrections I felt I had re written it. I also had to do a second viva which I passed with minor corrections. Did you get a written report? If so start by digesting that. It may not be the result you want but it beats the stress of a resubmission trust me. Dig deep this one last time and soon you'll be Dr.