I submitted in April but my viva is not until end July. I've circulated the first draft paper but suspect it will take a LONG time for my co-authors to deal with it. I'm starting on a postdoc grant but have no idea what the realistic timescale is - and don't like to press it since I haven't had my viva yet. But I'm anxious about what childcare to book for Sep and whether I need to fork out to keep our childminder on retainer.

I'm just steadily increasing in anxiety like a frog in boiling water.

Anyone else in the twilight zone?

Hi Smiloden,

Yep I feel your pain! I submitted my thesis two weeks ago and am in limbo.
I have funding till september and my supervisor is trying to get a grant to stay on for a year but I've been offered a really cool job starting the beginning of aug
I don't want to let my supervisor down but I never wanted to stay in academia!!! I don't know what to do
Do i take the job or risk the post doc?


:-s

I am also waiting for comments on a paper like yourself!

Do you need to sort out the childcare now?
I know I am clueless about these things having never had children!
As my husband keeps telling me - keep patient!!

Hope things work out for you
xx

Good luck to you both.

Based on what you have said, you should take the job especially if it's permanent.

I know how you feel about letting your sup down. I really didn't get anything in the way of supervision but I still feel like that a bit as I am now hoping to get a postdoc in another dept and I know there is an aspect of my work he would like to keep within the dept. Won't stop me though 8-)

Take the job and be happy! You don't owe your supervisor a postdoc - and there is absolutely no point unless you actually want to stay in academia.

My childminder will need to know by Augustish as she will get a lot of enquiries from parents before the school year starts in Sep. I think I will be optimistic and book an extra day's after school care.

Tried to start another paper today but it just isn't coming - worked on my daughter's birthday party invites instead....

I'm in a different twilight zone to you, less stressful than the pre-viva situation, but it's still mildly annoying. I had my viva in mid-May but still haven't heard anything official about the results yet, not even a letter saying I passed subject to minor corrections. All I know is what the examiners told me after the viva. The corrections have to be approved by a committee, but now it's the end of term and the examiner's report has only just been done, so it looks like the whole thing will drag on until the autumn now. I know it's not likely, but sometimes I think something will change as there's nothing on paper yet and someone will say oh yes, there was a problem with you, we've changed our minds about that result, SO sorry dear, but you haven't really passed after all.

It's a bit annoying as doing the corrections will clash with the autumn term's teaching which is quite intensively timetabled, but otherwise it's nice not to have to think about the thesis for a while and hopefully my brain will stop feeling like mush soon as well.

Great to have submitted though, Smilodon!! (up)

That is very inconsiderate - they must realise you want this wrapped up. I'll have waited 4 long months for my viva and I do hope I don't have too much more after that. The thought of working on my thesis again is really quite nauseating!

======= Date Modified 22 Jul 2009 12:07:38 =======
======= Date Modified 22 Jul 2009 12:05:27 =======

i'm in the twilight zone too! waiting for my viva. 'the powers that be' at my own uni are sorting it out

to keep myself sane. i'm focusing on the baby steps in preparing for my viva.

just heard this great interview on 6 music of prof. wiseman on his book called 59 steps, that dispels the misleading myths about self help. instead of focusing on for example passing an exam. instead focus seeing yourself revising. its the baby steps that will help you motivate. and not to daydream about the day you recieve your certificate, but instead focus on the steps that will get you there. and to focus on the day to day activities. which i've been doing :)

i think by gollly i might go out and by it!!

Smilodon, what is your daily viva preparation routine?

mine at the moment, i am going through each page of my thesis and summarising the key points. i hope to get it finished by end of july. and then i will start working on the viva questions :-)

---

Hey Ruby, nice to hear from you, wow i'm suprised you're stuck in the twilight zone, i thought you would be long gone by now!!:-(

Hi Lara - do you have a viva date yet? Finally got mine - July 30th. So one week to go. I'm not summarizing each page but going through the thesis (as of yesterday) marking odd points, typos and adding occaisional notes. I've started looking at mock viva questions and there are some areas of the analysis I want to work on and take with me. There have been some very tough vivas leading to resubmissions in my dept recently so I am quite anxious.

I really want to get it over with - it's really hanging over me at the moment. I am becoming rather unbearable to live with I think - terse and irritable. I don't really know what more to do for the via but feel I should try to do something. Most people around me are in relaxed, summer mode and we are experiencing a tidal wave of children's birthday parties. I feel out of sync and preoccupied. Neither fish nor fowl.

Hi Smilodon, no i dont have a viva date yet. But i contacted the powers that be at my own university, explained the whole situation and they have now taken over and sorting it out for me. they told me they will update me ASAP. I just emailed them again yesterday and waiting anxiously to hear what they say, i keep checking my email and getting nervous lol.

good luck! it will be over soon enough :-)
i know what you mean , its tough being in limbo land. not long for you to go, till you're put out of your misery and you leave this limbo land and onto greener pastures. my thoughts are with you!!

Ooh hell no, you must be joking!!!!!!! :-) :-):-)

I'm still stuck in the endless admin procedures involved in validating the examiner's report and getting the corrections to me. In fact, I still haven't heard anything official from the central research dept about even having passed my viva. Not even an email and my viva was in mid-May! If it wasn't for unofficial news about what's going on, I'd be really fed up with the whole thing. The examiners missed the deadline for their report to go to a committee, then there have been various admin people not around to do their bit, then whether or not another committee would sit before the summer, postal strike, people's holidays etc etc... I'm still hoping to get the official corrections soon, as I only have 2 months to get them done and really want to get them out of the way before the autumn term's teaching gets underway.

I'm glad your revision is still chugging along though!

Smilodon, good luck with your viva! (up)

======= Date Modified 22 Jul 2009 19:20:05 =======
I'm worried that the swine flu pandemic will affect examiners traveling to vivas etc. That would delay thinks till sometime next year or even further. I know I am being selfish and callous but I don't care about the swine flu per se, just worried about getting the viva date after submitting and for that I need my examiners to travel. :-(

"Avoid swine flu.. pack a preferentially infected prophylatic pig!"

Another helpful community medical advice blurb brought to you by Hypothesis...

:p

I'm afraid twilight zone goes on and on... had viva, had party, had corrections, done corrections, corrections approved, repaginating thesis, submitting e-thesis, printing thesis for supervisors.... it goes on and on.
I'm near the end of this chain of events but there are still things to do.

Oh no Aloha - I can't bear to think of the post Viva twilight zone. I can easily imagine this happening to me - the corrections not being ready for the next board meeting and on and on......

Another Twilight Zoner here ;-) I'm in the minor corrections slump at the moment. I completed the minor corrections and thought I was done. HA! My examiner sent them back with further corrections. Now the examiner is correcting my punctuation - adding commas and semi-colons - and I'm not sure I agree with all of the changes. It is seriously driving me nuts. I know I'm nearly there and I know I'm moaning but I'm losing the will to live :p