R&R Has Made Me Crazy. Anyone Fancy Talking Some Sanity Into Me? :-)
So... Just about this time last year, I got Revise and Resubmit. I've completed all my revisions and I have just under a month left until my resubmission deadline and was feeling pretty YAY about finally getting the work done. Then I was annotating my examiners' notes, to indicate where in the thesis I'd addressed their concerns, and I suddenly started to completely freak out that I actually HAVEN'T addressed their concerns (sometimes I feel like I haven't addressed them at all, sometimes I feel like I haven't addressed them enough. The level of self-torture varies). Now, there's a tiny little rational spark in me that says, "This feeling is almost certainly perfectly normal. Surely everyone feels like this prior to resubmission?" However, it's TINY tiny. Mostly my brain is a big screaming panic of "OMG OMG OMG OMG I AM ABSOLUTELY GOING TO FAIL AT THIS AND NOW I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME LEFT TO REWRITE EVERYTHING AND I WON'T GET A SECOND CHANCE IT'S JUST GOING TO FAIL AND THAT WILL BE FOUR WASTED YEARS AND I'M A COMPLETE FAILURE." It's not fun in my head at the moment. Anyone fancy sharing a success story or even just telling me this anxiety is normal? Surely the nerves are to be expected and aren't some kind of ominous sign that all is lost?
Seriously, I HATE revise and resubmit... :-)
PS - my supervisor has okayed all the corrections and thinks it's time to resubmit. But I have a couple of trust issues with her, which doesn't help my peace of mind.
First of all - DEEP BREATHS! :)
Now, regarding your anxiety with regard to dealing with the corrections - do you have a friend in your department/group who could look over a sample of them with you to see if they think that you've addressed them correctly? It sounds like you could do with the reassurance of a second opinion.
Oh Lordy, deep breaths aren't even in it anymore! :-) I'm being hideously high maintenance about the whole thing...
I've asked my former first supervisor to have a glance at it and I hope she'll be able to (she is the absolute BEST supervisor in history and I was gutted when she had to leave halfway through my PhD) but truthfully? I don't know that anyone can convince me that it's okay right now. I swear this whole R&R has destroyed my sense of perspective! :-)
It is absolutely normal, considering the fear that we have received after r&r. Surely though, your revised thesis would be better than your first submitted thesis. Chances are that the examiners will be perfectly happy with it; and if not, minor corrections will do the trick.
I HATE r&r too
Ooooh dear. Well. My original first supervisor has okayed everything. So has my current first (again, but, like I say: trust issues. I know she hasn't read the full thing, because she said so, and she also said she doesn't intend to). EVERYONE says it's time to submit. But then my original first started pointing out how unfair she thought some of the examiners' comments were (I concur, and have been trying to get someone else to listen to me on this for a year now), and now I'm back to panicking that this is an exercise in futility and NOTHING I do will please the examiners.
I know, I know. I'm irritating MYSELF at this point. Imagine how much fun I am to live with... :-)
Fantastic! Congratulations and thanks to for posting your final story. It is incredibly helpful to hear about how people surmount some of the hurdles.
Hope you do something awesome to celebrate.(up)
[quote]Quote From eimeo:
Very, very late addition to say: I PASSED!!! I heard today. Unbelievable relief. So it IS possible, after all, to get R&R and still get a PhD at the end of it. Thanks to everyone for the kind words and support :-)[/quote
Great news Dr Elmeo!! Congratulations! 9 months until I resubmit and I only hope I get the same result!!! Thank you for inspiring me.
