Hello,

According to recent discussions with members of my department, apparently my supervisors have selected 'very fair' examiners for my viva. My sups have also selected examiners who specialise in my thesis area(s) so they will have an understanding of some of the limitations, challenges and shortfalls within my thesis area. I know my internal examiner had the final say in upgrading me to PhD status and was otherwise very positive about my work and my abilities, so I'm hoping it's a good sign!

What does 'very fair' mean? I know what 'fair' means, but what does this mean in this examination process? Has anyone received similar feedback on their examiners prior to viva? Anyway, I appreciate that in person they may be viewed as 'very fair' and 'nice' in person, but they could very well turn into complete monsters and rip me to shreds! :-(

eeeeeeek 10 days left of viva prep to go!!!!! :$ Frantically trying to swot up on context, background and methodological issues surrounding my thesis!!!

I haven't been there myself. At my stage all I can offer you based on your post is that you should believe in yourself and everything is going to be alright.

Hi - I think very fair means that they are not the type of person to criticise your work just because you haven't used their own pet methodology / theoretical framework / cited everything they've ever written. In other words people known to be objective in their evaluations. It doesn't mean that they'll be pushovers more that your supervisors are confident that they will conduct the viva very professionally. Good luck and try not to panic!

Probably means there isn't going to be politics involved, or an axe to grind because you aren't using their pet theory. This is definitely a good thing.

I think your sup meant very fair in an academic way, it's a positive message i suppose. It's so different from "your external examiners will grind you to pieces" which was actually said to me by my sup. Goodluck!

I agree with the others - fair means that they'll give you a chance to get your point across and be objective so they won't be trying to just get their point across and not be open to new/different ideas.

That's great that they are nice but as already mentioned they won't necessary be a pushover! It'll just mean that they won't be aggressive or pushy but they can still be very analytical and critical of your work! Be ready for detailed questioning of your results, methodology and the idea/rationale underpinning of your project. Know why you did what you did and brush on any weak areas you may think there are incase you get an eagle eyed examiner! As long as you know your work you'll be fine and expect the unexpected as they will always find something you haven't thought about. I was advised not to blag it if I didn't know something so just say that you don't know it as it's ok not to know everything but be able to come with some alternate suggestions or something! I think you just need to show that you have done wider reading of your topic area.

Good luck (up)

Thanks everyone- very helpful :)

I'm not taking any chances with my thesis- there's no way I'm going into this thinking my examiners will be 'push-over'! I'm trying to focus on the positives of my thesis and currently working through and revising the wider context.

Knowing what I know about my internal examiner and feedback I've received from colleagues re external examiner is helping me keep calm. I'll also be working through their publications to gage their perspective on things.  Both of my examiners are academics within this field and have written publications on the two population groups I've focused on. My external has published work in this field and my findings partly support and extend her publications, so I suspect she will question me on specific parts of my thesis that relate to her publications. My internal marked me throughout my upgrade report and has given me lengthy feedback on what she would like to see for the final PhD draft, so again, I have some idea of what type of questions may come up. I'm aware that there probably will be unexpected questions thrown at me, but I'm hoping if I can nail my knowledge of my research aims, my methodology, my results, my limitations, my implications and conclusions as well as an appreciation of the wider context and how I would do this PhD differently in hindsight, then I should survive this.

Regardless of whether I've failed or not, I know I've tapped into a very under researched field, adopted a combination of approaches (almost everyone has used 'mono-methods'), reported on findings across the UK (every single study that I know of has researched one region), utilised a combination of perspectives-proxy, user, relatives (most studies only collect views from one perspective), reported on comparisons between two populations (every single study that I know of has researched one population, whereas I've looked at each population separately and drawn comparisons between the two) and developed new measures and sampling frames to encourage and stimulate future studies and increase awareness of services (governmental body simply does not have access to this level of data or number of services across the UK). Although on the surface I don't feel it at the moment, deep down, I know I've made a difference somewhere, or at least provided a voice for small populations who have received no real research attention, at least in terms of published research.  What will be will be I guess.

I have 9 days worth of viva prep ahead of me with nothing else to focus on other than my viva. Lets just hope I can pull myself together and do this.

Thanks for the support everyone :) I'm feeling a little more positive about my PhD today :)