I got my corrections today. There is nothing on there I wasn't expecting (bar one thing, which I can't decipher, and will have to ask the internal examiner what on earth he means). However, I have ended up in tears over it and feel completely stressed out about getting it all done in time. I do have other work commitments in the department I am in, with deadlines to meet too, though in fairness I guess it is down to me how I manage my time.

I think I've got burn out. I'm terrified of the internal examiner NOT agreeing my corrections. My internal was tougher on me than my external and I can't face him turning round and saying "no, that's not enough, that's not good enough, I still don't understand". My corrections consist of (amongst others) some "tightening up" of descriptions, including more precise mathematical definitions and descriptions of how one or to things are calculated. Fair enough. However these aren't black and white answers and I've already clashed with him my Viva over mathematical methods and had to defend my position elsewhere, so what is to say when I've written these he disagrees with them too?

Please can someone tell me that my fears I am experiencing at the moment are pretty standard and that fear alone will help me get them in on time?

I'd really rather NOT talk to my supervisor about it as he almost certainly would only add to the workload (as he had no issues with the particular descriptions that the internal examiner had and I think he'd only provide a layer of confusion) and not necessarily be that helpful.

Hello Cplusplusgirl,

I think that your feelings are perfectly normal. Many people consider the writing up period as the most stressful in their PhDs, but the post-submission/ post-viva period may be more stressful.

I had minor corrections with a 3-months deadline too, and my internal examiner's corrections were written more in the form of comments - thus subject to interpretation - than as corrections. He didn't seem particularly interested in discussing any of the amendments, so I did them as I thought it was appropriate and I sent them to him along with a rationale.

I actually managed to complete them in two weeks, although at the first glance it looked like it would take forever. There were two or three amendments that I would have prefer not to insert, and I don't think that my thesis is any better with them, but this is what it was required to get through, and so I did it.

In the end I got the confirmation letter that my corrections had been accepted straight from Registry, rather than from the internal, which says enough about his personality. It was very stressful, but I was also confident that I would pull it through. Both examiners had given me their reports on my thesis after the viva, and their comments were more than positive, so although annoying it was the last effort before completion.

So, what it looks like an elephant now, may turn into a mouse once you tackle it. I would try to do it as quickly as possible, and then send your revised copy to the internal along with a rationale were you explain what you have been doing and why. If there is anything that requires further polishing is in his interest and also in the interest of the department that it is tackled properly, and you will have time to do it.

Be positive, you are very, very close to the light!
(up)

I agree with what DrCorrine says - the corrections always look so much harder than it actually is. I was scared that I wasn't going to have time to do my corrections and that I was going to have to work day and night (in between normal work) to get it done. In the end, I managed to do all correction in two half-day sittings.

Do your minor corrections such as typos first, then tackle each item on the correction list that are the easiest to do. If you are going to have 3 very difficult tasks to deal with in your corrections, it's emotionally a lot easier to have just 3 difficult items at the end rather than 3 very difficult items plus 20 other issues that you have to deal with.

Good luck with your corrections, you've come this far, you're only a step away from the end!

I am pre, not post viva so can't offer any concrete advice save to say there have been a number of posts from people recently who are worried about their viva corrections so it does seem par for the course. I would take Pink_Numbers and Dr. Corinne's advice given that they have both been through it particularly in relation to doing the corrections and including a rationale for why you have done certain things. Congrats again on successfully completing your viva; my own viva will be over the next few months.

@Pink - did I miss a post from you about your own viva? Huge congratulations on successfully passing - you kept that quiet or was it me who missed it? Glad to see you have exchanged your ear muffs for a mortar board, I'm really pleased for you.:-)

@Ady, no you didn't miss it, I haven't posted about it. Things got crazy at work straight after my viva and so I didn't get the chance to post about it, and then it felt a bit weird to say 'hey, I passed my viva three weeks ago'. I only managed to log in to here yesterday - felt great to swap my ear muffs for the proper motar board :D Thank you for congratulating me, you're the first :)

(sorry OP for highjacking your thread....)

I'm the same as Ady, I thought I'd overlooked your viva story. I did think about you a few weeks ago and so it's great to know you passed. Many congratulations!!!

In my experience, I felt very emotional after being awarded minor corrections! I was elated at getting minors rather than majors or a resubmit but the last few months had been stressful and this was finally let out post viva (blub). I felt completely rung out and the list of minors appeared quite a lot for the time span (3 months shortened to 2 months for graduation).  I was upset about one or two of my minor corrections as I felt that the examiner hadn't quite grasped the idea. I didn't agree with one of the suggested changes as it contradicted my data (including significant stats) in a later chapter so had to 'correct' the lit review in a slightly different way! The corrections list took a week or two to arrive and most were easy changes done within a day, but a couple were vaguely described. This took me another few days to consider the most appropriate changes to fulfil their requirements. I was concerned that my interpretation of these may not be accepted and I would fail. The internal examiner was very good in communicating with me about finding some of the corrections (as the pagination changed with extra inserted text lol) however, it took a while to get them signed off. This was quite a stressful time of waiting but as Bilbobaggins said 'you have passed so they will not want to fail your corrections'.

Dr Pink Numbers - I am so pleased you have passed your viva! Well done and many congratulations. I was wondering how our summer submitters were going and I might have to dig out the thread :-)

Dear C++girl,

I realize it must be very tough and things might not look rosy but you need to remember the examiners want to pass you! So, if you basically satisfy them on the main points, they probably will not be very picky choosy about the fine ones. In addition, one thing I would advise is to reconsider getting your supervisor's opinion and help. Remember you sup can unofficially get reviews/feedback on your next submission but you probably may not be able to get that (it depends on the examiners). In my case, the examiners wanted to get only the final version. So, I had to request (or rather force :-s my supervisor) to coordinate with the examiners before I submitted the final version. It was definitely not pleasant since he added more corrections etc. but in the end, I am happy since as they say, "All is well that ends well". And while the examiners can ask you for anything, as long as you can prove in the thesis otherwise and clearly mention it in the list of corrections letter (it is an optional letter but helped in my case), the examiners can actually be convinced otherwise. In my case, the internal was the main problem and really had some bias against me (at least that is how it felt). Still she was unable to finally do anything other than pass me (after the corrections). Her final words were "I don't agree with this but I understand what you are saying". :p

Anyways, best of luck.


Cheers

THIS..........exactly this. I'm hoping that this is what will happen. To defend myself in my Viva I had to show why my internal examiner wasn't necessarily correct with his critique of a key part of my thesis. I'd used "newer" maths essentially and had the journal publications regarding it with me at the time. Unfortunately he had published a conference publication stating that what I had done wasn't possible and purely by chance I'd found it just before my viva so I KNEW he was going to try and hammer me for it. As it turned out I defended my position well in the viva regarding it, but he still didn't sit very comfortably with it (though my external thought my explanation and defense was great).

I've got to include a section that discusses in far more detail this "newer" stuff....even though I did briefly explain it and gave thorough references to it within my thesis. I know I am only doing it to keep him happy......but I'm not 100% convinced he won't come up with some other argument against it, once he's had another read. :-(. I think he's P*ssed off with me about how I managed to defend myself infront of the external to be honest as he kept looking to him for backup and reassurance. :-( (but I was right!)

Since receiving my corrections there was one item on there that didn't come up in the viva that the internal examiner has added (and I had to email him to clarify exactly what it was he wanted), which includes a whole lot of extra work that NO-ONE in my field does, or has needed for journal publication or other! I've spoken to colleagues about it and they do think it is a bit petty minded that he has requested it. I am so worried that he is p*ssed at me and trying to make my life difficult.

Sorry, needed to offload. Just feels like I've been waved a carrot infront of my face at the end of the viva, and now it's been taken away.

I think I need to hang on to this.

I can't really add anything but just to say I hope you're feeling less stressed and remember the worst of it is over (the PhD and viva). I'm sure you'll do fine with the corrections. Just hang on in there for a bit...

Ohhh. That is ok. I can relate to what you are saying! Looks like you are in a very similar situation as I had to face! Well, judging by your experience in publications (as you had mentioned), I am sure, technically, you will do just fine. But the only thing that I would advice other than what you have already been advised is, not to burn out:

Please (try to) keep your calm. Basically by being so annoying, the examiners probably expect you to loose it. But you need to win here and not let them win. So, please try to relax and don't worry. Do the corrections in chunks. Maybe do the easier one first and keep taking lot of breaks (I now realize that I ended up watching the maximum number of seasons of every show that I could find while doing my corrections, basically anything that would distract me from the painstaking corrections and edits. . . . :p)

For the part which you are mentioning here, don't try to do it all at once (unlike the other corrections). Do this one in short iterations because it can become very depressing and painful to do some ridiculous analysis which otherwise does not make sense. (I had to do something similar just because the internal did not understand what I was trying to do basically and my thesis size grew enormously just because I was giving extraordinary levels of details of things, which would have been fine as simple citations otherwise). Anyways remember this is the last part of the race and afterwards you will be done forever and you will feel like, as someone once told me, as follows:
"It will feel like gravity has reduced its effect in half on you when you submit the final corrected version of the thesis."

Trust me on this one. . . This (secret) :p Newton's law of corrected PhD thesis submission is universal and does work! :p

All the best then! (up)

This is an old post, but this post contains some very useful tips in helping me cope following my minor corrections submission. Yet, more waiting around! I can only hope I've done enough and my internal is happy with my corrections. To fail after all this will be absolutely devastating...... . Anyway, trying to stay positive.....