Hi everyone,

Your thoughts and experiences please.

I recently had my Viva and thought I performed well. I answered all the questions posed by the examiners and was not told that anything crucial was missing from my thesis. My methodology was not criticized nor was my literature review, my research questions or the originality of my work.

Yet I came out of the exam with a revise and resubmit, with a second viva and a change in supervision.

There was no negotiation about what needed to change and a time frame within which to complete was not proposed.

From the examiners' reports, I gathered they didn't like my writing style but did not question much in terms of content.

Can anyone help me to understand this result? Has anyone had a similar experience?

Yours in confusion,

Doodle Berry

Sorry to hear that, sounds like a fairly odd viva. Generally it should be pretty obvious as you go through what they think the 'holes' in your thesis are.

What does your supervisor think? Is there any grounds to appeal?

Try to get more details from your sups about the verdict. R&R is an abnormal outcome and means you almost need to redo your work gain, and waiting for another VIVA which is final and the result could be outright fail if you don't meet the requirements.

Doodle Berry, really sorry to learn of your result. Did your supervisor not say anything to you after the result was given? Some form of debrief or discussion? Surely after being given an R & R (with viva) you would be entitled to ask some questions and talk it over?

Are you up to being persistent with making contact with your supervisor? By this I mean, it is a tough blow (by no means meaning you won't be able to overcome this and pass this after some work) and sometimes instinct in these cases is to curl up in a ball rather than ask legitimate questions of the person who took you up to this point and signed you off on submission.

Can you go and see your supervisors rather than emailing?

yes dood you need to meet your sups before starting with R&R, If you don't get reply try to approach the director bc after R&R is the last chance. Points to be reviewed must be clear otherwise fail or Mphil will be the last result.

Hello again everyone,

I've spent the last week or two trying to get satisfactory answers out of my supervisor (whose middle name is "Big mouth"!) and have received none.

Is there anything to be gained switching supervisor for the remaining tenure of my R&R?

How does one call prejudice on examiners?

Are both of the above fatal mistakes?

Still in confusion...

It is important that you are offered a list of revisions and time frame for the revision. Otherwise in your second round examination you are still facing the danger of fail.

It's highly unlikely you will be able to switch supervisors at this stage, since you are now post submission and what happens next is between you and your examiners. I would go and see the head of graduate school or similar and see what they suggest.

You can't just claim 'prejudice' because you don't like the result- what evidence do you have?

In this stage, you need to work hard on the amendments, your sup's role is almost over in this stage and now your point is to meet what your examiners asked in the report.

Do not waste more time and start the corrections.

I don't have a list of corrections yet which is part of the problem as I still see no justification for the R&R.

As an examiner, I thought one as to turn up to the exam with no set result in mind? I thought that if you do turn up and do not give the candidate a chance to argue you turn, that in a sense is prejudicial? I didn't even get the opportunity to discuss time frame for the changes that are apparently needed. Frankly, I feel as though this examiner has no intention of ever passing me.

My supervisor and this examiner apparently have a fraught relationship.

Surrounding the administration of the examination, there were a couple of things that went amiss. My supervisor has been a terrible administrator and I have suffered at every turn because of it. This is perhaps why I am in the muddle I find myself now. I would like to be protected by someone going forward and it can't get worse than it already is.

As no timeframe is ticking away yet as such, I feel I do have time to change supervisors?