Hi folks

Used to post on here a lot more, but I've been so busy I haven't really been able to. Thought I would share my viva / PhD experience.

My PhD is quite left-field for for the area - humanitarian law but also statistics. Most lawyers abandon numbers at the age of 16, and so to write a PhD in law with lots of numbers is quite unusual. I had a number of problems within my own institution, with members of staff not understanding what it was I was doing. I was prepared to accept the blame for that, as I am supposed to ensure people DO understand it? Anywho, we decided to go with an external examiner at the top of the field. I thought this was something of a risk, but I needed someone who was sympathetic to the methods.

I went into the viva thinking minor corrections, but thinking there was a chance it could all go wrong and I could end up with majors. In the event, I have received 'minor corrections', with 6 months to complete them. The decision on the external was entirely correct, so one piece of advice would be to put a lot of thought into that.

Then I received the examiners' report and I was a little disappointed. I would say my 'minors' are at the upper end of the minor scale / lower end of the major scale. My sup thinks that it isn't that bad, and probably it isn't once I actually get involved with them. So I will leave it a short while, before cracking on with those.

After browsing this forum, it appears that doing a PhD is usually a terrible experience. I would say that my PhD has generally been quite smooth (subject to what I said above about people not getting it). I submitted on time, with no mental, family, or supervisor breakdown! I've also been appointed as a full time lecturer at my PhD university, with no publications (although some in the pipeline). So everybody, it can be done.

Congratulations! Enjoy your break and then crack on with the corrections!

Encouraging! Congrats!!!!