My original viva got cancelled 2 weeks ago because the examiner could not make it in due to to the snow. Its now scheduled for a day next week. Wonderful I hear you all say. More time to prepare. I just want to know if I have passed or failed though. more likely failed. My supervisor was talking to another PhD student today saying that its important that they learn from my PhD and that they must not repeat the same mistakes. Apparently my data collection was wonderful but my analysis was awful. She said that it will let me down in a big way - during my PhD I emphasised that it was important that I analysed my data properly with the help of a social scientist... i dont know why I didnt - i was looking at my time plan and thats when I became depressed. Not an excuse but an explanation. But now this PhD student has told everyone (well people) that my thesis is not very good. This phd student said to me that my thesis was not a very good thesis. I knew this but to have this told to another student who had not completed her MPhil ... I just feel humiliated. I do not need this the week before my viva. I am tempted to email my supervisor to ask why she had to say this before my viva and why its ok to tell another student in this way who would come and tell me what was said. I am not impressed and now feeling the worst. I don't know how to handle this. Is this normal? Is it normal for supervisors to talk about their other students in this way? The PhD student said that she will come to me for help with data collection techniques but not for analysis help. I don't know what to feel or how to react. Sorry for the random rant. I just didn't know where to go.

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Hey! Rants are what we are here for! What your supervisor did sounds completely unprofessional really- it's not good to go slating another person's PhD the week before their viva, or at all for that matter. Pointing out limitations of people's work is one thing, but what your supervisor did sounds particularly insensitive. Personally, I would be tempted to just try to ignore it and concentrate on your viva- if you were going to say anything you would need to know for sure exactly what was said, and whether this other PhD student had exaggerated it in any way and so on. I think the last thing you need this week is a major row over it, so I would try to let it pass. The other question would appear to be- if the data analysis is so awful, why would your supervisor let you submit it? So either your data analysis really isn't that bad, or your supervisor didn't know any better anyway- if it was so bad your supervisor thought you would fail, then I'm sure he/she wouldn't have let you handed it in to start with. Sounds like the PhD student is also crassly insensitive- why would anyone say that to you a week before your viva? I'm not surprised you are pissed off- you have every right to be. Personally, my supervisor has made bitchy comments to me about another PhD student of hers who she didn't get on well with, and it's just really awkward and none of my business either. And of course it makes you wonder what they're saying behind your back too... Try to focus on the important things for now, not the tittle tattle- you can have that one out next week if you need to, i.e. after your viva! Hope it goes well- it never seems to be as bad as people think so I'm sure you will be fine! KB

======= Date Modified 26 Jan 2010 09:43:22 =======
============= Edited by a Moderator =============
I'm sorry (this will probably get modded anyway tomorrow), but what a sh***y way of your supervisor to act. It's not only grossly unprofessional but also demeaning and dispiriting. I think that keenbean puts it well when she says that a week before your viva is totally the wrong time to make any negative comments about your work. And the PhD student can shut the hell up - has she read your work, does she know what it's all about, just she have the skills to even appraise it? Nope. She's just a brown-nosing parrot screeching on about what your supervisor has very unprofessionally opined.
I'm not in your position yet (still quite a few months to go) but I'd be willing to bet that even if my thesis does turn out to be reasonable quality, I'm definitely going to be thinking the worse like you. On the subject of data analysis quality, I've made a couple of mistakes myself, but it's too late to do anything about them now. That's what happens when you do sequential research like me. The train to viva hell moves on and there's no putting it in reverse. What I'm going to do is accept that it is all part of training to be a researcher - I've spotted my mistakes and know what to do about it in future (I'll still defend my results to the best of my ability).
Just remember that you know you know your research better than anyone else, including your supervisor and her little underling. You also know it's strengths and weaknesses, which you are prepared to discuss objectively during the viva. Remember that the external examiner (in conjunction with your viva examining regulations) looks at the whole package - intro, data collection and analysis, discussion and the lot. No research is perfect and all research has limitations.

Good luck :-)(up)

I'd go and see your supervisor, tell her exactly what this other student said and ask outright what the likely issues are to come up on this in the viva and if she can help you prepare a decent defence.
Obviously I don't know the personalities involved but I'd be a bit wary of believing this other PhD student about what was or wasn't said. It sounds from your account like the other student is deliberately trying to upset you. There was a girl who did this a lot on my PhD programme - turned out most of this so-called staff comment was made up.

Hi negativepinklady, let me reiterate what has been said by others, this is a horrible situation, and your supervisor (if they are guilty) should be ashamed of themselves. Why did you sup allow you to submit if they thought your analysis wasnt up to scratch? We all have to take responsibility for our own work, but the fact that he/she had to sign a form (I assume) in order for you to submit means that they are partially responsible for the thesis too. Also- I hope you told the student where to go saying she would come for help on the collection but not on the analysis.

As for the viva - I havent finished yet so maybe I'm in no position to comment, but here I go anyway - maybe you can sit and work out the limitations of your approach and highlight the things you would do differently. Is there any way you could argue that more analysis is planned future work for your data set? I have exluded lots of data (and certain types of analysis) from my thesis because I plan to work on it for publications in the future.

Good luck!

Hi there,

I don't know if you've had your viva yet, or if you are still reading this thread, but i want to say to not panic!(easier said than done i know! -i had mine 10 days ago)
I find it unlikely that your supervisor said that your analysis was awful, more likely that it was the weakest part of the thesis -you even say that yourself. The way you suggest that they said data collection was wonderful, that is more than a lot of people get! This also may suggest you supervior percieves things (or speaks)in extremes (either brilliant or awful) rather than in a more naunced way.

Also I always mistrust people (like the other PhD student) who like to tell people (i.e. you)when others have said negative things about them -why would they tell you that , the only purpose is some warped feeling of superiority and wanting to put you down. So my best advice is to ignore them.

In terms of failing, that is very unlikley, it also reflects very badly on your supervisor, so as others have said why would they have let you submit? My supervisors got me to submit when i was not sure it was finished, because they said it can never be perfect, leave something for the examiners to do.I got minor corrections,and in fact they were mostly things that i had not anticipated (although in one case something my supervisor suggested i leave out!) and there were errors in the thesis that i noticed not picked up by the examiners. So i would say do not focus too much on one area - i went in expecting to talk about one area and they focused on completely different things!

Good luck