Hi all,
I just submitted by PhD thesis last month for examination. I had some issues with printing my thesis and ended up printing two copies separately at different computers with the help of different people. Now when I opened the USB from which I printed the thesis it has got an older version of the thesis. As I only printed two copies and not one for myself I don’t even know which version I printed and submitted. I cannot recall if I double checked it before submission. My viva is in a month and I’m freaking out. What happens if it is the older version and has a lot of inconsistencies 🤧 and is there any way of checking whether I have submitted the same version to both my external and internal? I’m not sure if I submitted the same version to both and I’m not sure whether it was an older version 😵😵.. I have anxiety issues and feels like my brain will burst if I can’t verify the same. The issue is I don’t remember if I checked whether they were the same and I am such an idiot not to have taken the additional copy for myself

I don't see a way to verify either way without telling the examiners. How big is the difference and will it matter that much?

Hi rewt,
Yes, the difference is considerable actually. I made a lot of adjustments on the last day. I can’t recall whether I checked both my soft bound thesis to check if it were the same. I remember checking one and it was the correct version if I remember correctly.It’s all blurry memory actually.

Identify a key sentence on one of the pages which you know are different in the two versions.
Then ask your internal to urgently compare with the external ASAP to see there's a match.
Raising a flag might then allow you the opportunity to re-send the thesis.

The key thing is to stop thinking and worrying about it and get the phone call made.
Today if possible.

I can't see any problems getting this sorted if the worst comes to the worst.
Simply re-send the correct thesis and apologise like hell.
Perhaps your thesis hasn't been read yet.

Hi,

Yes please don't worry. Have you been able to find out yet which one you submitted? If it comes to it and you can't resubmit at this stage then you need to just do what pm133 says, and take the changes/updates along to the viva. Then if they ask you a question and it pertains to a part you updated, you would just explain that. So at the start of the viva, you can just explain your mistake, apologise for any inconvenience, and say that you might need to update them on certain parts/changes as you go through the viva. The bottom line is the actual essence of your thesis won't have changed.

I'm not sure if this helps - but my thesis was an alternative format one, and I had changed quite a few things in one of the studies/papers - based on feedback from reviewers at a journal. I printed out a copy of the revised paper and highlighted the changes I had made - just in case those were relevant parts that came up in the viva. Actually, there was no need for me to tell them about the changes in the end as they just didn't really ask about those specific things and I didn't want to make a big deal about it so kept quiet.

Hope you are managing to calm down - stressful I know. But it'll be fine. And your final thesis (available to the public online etc) is the one you submit AFTER your viva.

Best
Tudor