I am currently waiting for my viva date to be confirmed and I am so, so sick of waiting. It has been 12 weeks now and I still just have a tentative date of the 25th of October which I am told will be confirmed if the final examiner report is sent in by Friday. I am going crazy waiting and don't feel I can do any prep until the date is actually confirmed. I am not really sure why I am posting this - I guess I just need to moan to some people who can relate to the situation. I've had enough limbo and I don't even really care what the result is now I just want an outcome of some sort so I can move forward in either making the required revisions or getting it into the library and being done with it.

My thesis was of normal length and all of the examiners agreed to do it two months before I submitted and said they would have no problems getting it done. It's driving me crazy knowing that there are two reports sitting in an office that would give me an indication and I can't see them until the final one comes in. I really hope this happens soon. I have contacted the examinations coordinator a couple of times in the past month or so for updates and I feel like a stalker/neurotic pain in the backside but I can't help it (sigh).

Thanks to anyone who can tolerate reading this rant!

I'm in a similar limbo land, except I've only been here four days instead of 12 weeks! Out of interest what have you been doing? I've been so looking forward to getting to this point and now I'm here I feel a bit lost. I've spent the last two days at home and am bored already! Doesn't help that I've not found a job yet so am broke too.

All I know at the moment is my viva will be sometime after the middle of November. I partly want it over and done with as soon as possible, and partly as so scared I of the viva I just want to put it off!
Hopefully they'll get back to you soon so you can move on.

Congrats on submitting :-)

In all honestly - not a huge amount. I can't believe it has been 12 weeks in some ways because really I have done very little other than recover. I have been applying for jobs and haven't had a huge amount of luck. I did go to a conference last week which was great for getting me back into it. I had all these grand plans to write papers and a book proposal between submission and viva but that hasn't happened. I haven't wanted to think about my thesis at all. I have started a new relationship though which has made the time pass a bit quicker :-) Now i'm basically just starting to go a bit mental. I just want to know the initial outcome so I can either get back into it or finish off final changes and have the external validation to know it's worth trying to publish some of it. It feels like such a long wait and an anti climax after such a slog at the end. I know what you mean. I expected to feel amazing when I submitted but I just felt exhausted, numb and a bit relieved.

Cheers for the congrats :-) I am happy it's done, especially as I handed it in on my 4 year deadline (was causing panic in the postgrad office apparently as there are so few PhDers at my institution that if I'd not submitted they'd not have a sufficient number getting to completion and would have lost out on research council funding!)

But exhausted, numb and reieved sums it up!

I have grand pland for writing publications but we'll see how that goes. I'm scared to open my copy of the thesis as I know I'll find loads of errors :$ . It all seemed so rushed at the end.

Hi Slowmo, I can totally empathise with your feelings. I too went through all of these emotions while waiting for my viva date. It was likened to being in limbo, nothing moving or happening, but I felt unable to be productive if I had no date to aim for. It is very easy for other close friends/family to suggest taking a break, but I found I really could not switch off. I also regularly phoned the academic office and I could imagine the sigh on the receiving end when I announced my name lol. So I hope you get some good news about a viva date very soon. You are on the final road of your PhD (regardless of the viva outcome), so take some comfort from this.

Saw my internal examiner in the pub last night and he hinted about the middle of november. That seems so soon! Eek!

Thanks for your reply, Dunni. This is exactly what I am experiencing. I don't feel like I can relax until I know the outcome although I know that stressing out and letting it play on my mind is totally pointless! Thanks for reminding me that regardless of the outcome this is the final stretch (and hopefully the shortest!). Sometimes I forget how far i've come to get to this point.

I hope you get a date soon Catlin!

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Minor revisions! My viva is in two weeks! I am so, so, so happy! :-)

Congrats!!

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