Heya,
I have my viva in the coming week. As you can imagine I am dreading it. I know nothing. I am going through my thesis and I have realised that within my results section most of the percentages I calculated are incorrect. Although it states the numbers of participnats, the actual percentages are wrongly calculated. I am now going through trying to correct them all. I would not pass my thesis - whats the point in me turning up to my viva? I just feel so crap and if i fail i can think of doing nothing but dying ,. I was severly depressed when i submitted so i know thats why its poor but hte examiners won't knwo that and my mistakes are inexcusable. It shows how sloppy my work is. I don,t want to die but if i fail i see no other option. I just do not know what to do.

Hi negativepinklady. I know how you felt, I have been in a similar situation before my viva and I found a few mistakes which seemed like the end of the world. I had my viva and it was so much better than I expected. The examiner did notice a few mistakes but I took the corrected pages and they were happy I went through the thesis again and saw it. I know the days leading upto the viva are filled with anxiety but the best advice I can give you are know your subject and question aims and the shortcommings of the thesis and be able to explain them (remember most thesis are not perfect- but they do pass which is the important thing!)Your supervisor would not have let you sumitt if it was not ok aswell. All the best and try not to get too anxious.

You are really sweet. Did you take the corrected errors with you? These aren't a few. Its the majority of my results.... AGRH. xx

yeah i took them with me ;)

Did your supervisor check over the results? Had he/she given you the green light to submit? xx

Yeh she did. But i added these results after she saw it. I must have been feeling so low to have got them so bloody wrong.

I would say that you might have good grounds for re-submission and the viva postponed. Depression is an illness and would certainly result in your work not being 100%. I used to suffer from bouts of depressions, once during important exams, and I know what it is like - Your concentration just leaves and any task (academic or otherwise) seems impossible and is half-hearted. If I was you, I would sit down together with your supervisor, HOD and postgraduate dean (if your university has one) and explain the situation. No one could expect you to submit a perfect thesis when you are you suffering mentally.

Good luck my dear xx

my viva is early this week. its too late .

I like just keep thinking about dying. Dying would be better than finding out I have failed. Die after i have find out i have failed. I don't like it all

Hey chick, I really feel for you. I am only in my second year PhD so am not at the submission stage or viva stage, but I do have bipolar disorder and have suffered with the depression for about 10 years now. It's a horrible horrible feeling. The first thing you need to do is to talk to someone about this and get help- it sounds like you are absolutely at the end of your tether with this. Can you talk to your supervisor and ask for advice on what to do about the mistakes? It doesn't sound as though you are in a good way to sit the viva- can you be honest with your supervisor about how things are for you at the moment? Depression is an illness and if a person had some sort of severe physical illness then they would not be expected to submit their thesis and sit their viva. I guess the alternative is to sit it anyway and see what happens, but I'm not sure that's the best way forwards. The other thing that is surely even more important than your PhD is that you get some help with how you are feeling. Have you been getting any help with the depression? If not, see your GP straight away and also see if your university has a counselling service- I'm sure all universities have some sort of support like this. You can and you will beat the depression, but you need to get help- there comes a stage when you simply can't do it on your own any more. It's hard to ask for help- I hated doing it years ago and I still find it really hard. I am on medication for life now and have been seeing a university counsellor for 6 years, but accepting that sort of help was the best thing I ever did....it probably saved my life. Please get some help, and if you can, let someone at the university know what is happening so that they can support you in the best way they can. I really hope things pick up for you. Best wishes, KB

Pinklady you need to relax and concentrate on preparing for your viva. People normally make mistakes in their thesis and are allowed to correct these after submission. It's very common. As long as your viva goes well, they'll see you simply made mistakes and might allow you to correct. Good luck and let us know how it went please. :-)

After all of that... my viva had to get postponed a couple weeks ago because of the ghastly weather as the examiner could not make it to campus. The examiner in an email that she enjoyed reading mt thesis and that she could tell I had done soem really interesting work. A collegue of mine siad that all examiners say that to put the student at ease - its just added to my paranoia.

yes all examiners say that when they already decided to pass them :)8-)

No examiner would say that if they didn't intend to pass the person. Secondly, your viva is a discussion of the thesis, not the final word. Very often people are given minor or major corrections or sometimes even other work has been published which now has to be taken into account in the thesis. I hope you've made the most of the time to get your own health back on track and are taking good care of yourself.

I think that is a very positive message from the examiner. She would not say that if she intended to fail you, I'm sure, as that would be the pinnacle of cruelty. Accept that your thesis isn't perfect, but whose is at this stage? That's why they have various options to provide you time to tweak and alter your work after the viva.

The very best of luck.