I think it should be minor. I had the same issues very recently and had posted a similar question. I passed with minor corrections.

Good luck :)

Thank you!!

In the interest of future lurkers, I thought i'd update this post by confirming that the viva in fact went really well and I passed with minor corrections!

Thank you for your replies :)

I hope everything goes well!

BTW, I would like to believe that I know my area and thesis quite well. I have gone through my entire thesis several times and I have tried to cover all the possible questions relevant to the work that I may be asked. In my opinion there are some things they could raise regarding alternative methodologies or approaches for purposes of robustness and although I will defend my approach I have already done what they may ask in advance in case I am asked to include them in the thesis (the conclusions of my work doesn't change). I think at most it would take a week or so to make those amendments if they ask for them.

The thing that is actually making me super worried is that if they base their decision on purely whats in the thesis and how long it would take for those changes to be completed assuming I start from scratch. I know that sounds irrational but just say hypothetically those changes were worth major corrections (my supervisor completely disagrees that they are) and I tell them I have already done them and could add easily make those amendments in a week then could they change their decision from major to minor? Again I know it may be a stupid question but with the viva a week away and given that this means so much to me I am experiencing severe anxiety.

Hi,

I have my viva in just over a weeks time. I have three independent chapters/papers. The problem is that after having read my third chapter, I don't think I have clearly explained/justified my novelty and contribution to the literature. The contribution is pretty significant (my supervisor agrees and she is a co-author) and I can explain this in person very easily. However, my university gave me a deadline by which I had to submit or else they would have charged me fees for the fourth year etc. plus due to personal reasons I kind of rushed the write-up at the end. I have no problem amending the write-up if I am given minor corrections but I am very worried because I read online that the examiners write their reports beforehand and so I will be at a disadvantage at the start of the viva. It's only a matter of one or two paragraphs to properly justify and explain my contribution and why it is important plus elaborating a bit more in the results section which is not a problem for me to write about.... Can they recommend major corrections or even a fail for this?

Also in my first chapter/paper, I haven't included some statistical analysis/tests that they could bring up. However, I received a R&R from a peer-reviewed journal for that chapter and I have made those amendments based on the feedback I received but its not in the submitted version of the thesis. Would this count as a minor or major correction?

Please advise as I am panicking :'((

Hey!

Yes, I think it's a good idea. I am in the same situation as you are. I submitted in September and the viva is set for November. I have started to prepare and I think it's useful to do a little every day firstly to ensure that you keep everything fresh in your mind and secondly, after having read my externals work I found a few relevant issues that she may raise in my viva that I have no prepared for (I may not have picked up on those issues and been able to adequately prepare myself for them had I not started to prepare this early (also prevents you panicking at the last minute)).

I love the academic and graduate school community so much. I am the first in my family to have ever gone to university let alone pursue a PhD. I was raised in a council estate under pretty deprived conditions but luckily I was able to receive scholarships for my Masters and PhD (before SFE were giving out loans for these). Now I am back home and honestly miss the academic environment so~~ much :'(

Its not so much about the research environment per se but being around enlightened, educated and open minded folk.. Since I have been back home all I hear is trivial gossip. The people here are so close minded and completely lack ambition.

Sorry for the random comment, I just wanted to state my feelings somewhere.

Thank you for your comments! They really help :)

Thank you! Yeah, there are so many lists of potential questions on the internet but having read through the forums it seems as though most of those questions don't actually get asked! I will take your advice and just mostly focus on my thesis :)

Sorry just two more...

5) What surprised you the most? My research wasn't really surprising at all. What I was surprised about is academia itself. Prior to the PhD I had thought that academics would always be engaged in conversations regarding exciting cutting-edge research and general ideas etc. However, I was later surprised by finding out that there are academics who treat their work as a publication factory. Moreover, they have very little knowledge/insight outside their very particular specialty. For instance, general philosophical discussions etc. Is this answer OK?

6) If you started this study again, what would you do differently? How do I answer this? I would honestly have done everything exactly the same way... I planned and managed my time relatively well (stayed in my dorm for 80% of my 3 years) working on my research and thus finished on time.. Yes, If I had more funding I would have extended my research but that's an answer to another question...

Please help!

Hey All!

I have my viva in exactly one month and one days time. My supervisors seem to be quite happy with my work and I believe that I should be able to defend any potential questions regarding my research. However, I have obviously been going through all the general questions available on the internet and I am finding some of them quite difficult to be honest.

For those that have had their viva, and I know the answer to this question is going to vary from person to person, what percentage of the questions would you say were general and what percentage were specific?

Some of the questions that I am struggling with are like:

1) Did your research questions change over the course of the project? (What if the research question didn't change? If I tell them that the questions were well thought-out and fill a particular gap in the literature hence didn't require any changing (although I could have extended the work but funding constraints prevented this) would that be ok? Or do I have to make something up so as to show them that I was able to adapt and make changes as I went on?

2) What problems did you have in the analysis? (I didn't have any problems.... I found three areas where I could fill a gap in the literature and devised a plan on how I would go about testing my hypotheses. The analysis was very straightforward and the results supported my predictions). If I say there were no problems in carrying out the analysis would that make me seem as being unable to be reflective?

3) How has your view of the area changed as you progressed through your research? I don't know what to say about this? That its very broad and interdisciplinary? I already knew that though...

4) How have you changed as a result of undertaking this project? I have become more efficient as a researcher, learned new methodologies etc. and I can no longer tolerate trivial/petty conversations. Is that ok?

I spoke with my second supervisor and she said that its fine to have 2 papers related to one particular branch of Economics and the other to be related to another branch. She said that apparently its not unusual to have a thesis title like "Two Essays on Financial Macro and One Essay on Financial Econometrics." I'm not 100% sure still as I am one of her first PhD students so she doesn't have much experience. I'll probably wait for my main supervisor to return from study leave and ask him.

Hello Everyone,

So in my original proposal I had three chapters which were around the same topic. However, due to data related issues I had to drop one of my proposed chapters and think of something else. The issue is that I am interested in something that isn't really linked to the other two chapters. The three chapters will be published as individual papers hopefully but I was wondering if it is generally acceptable for the thesis to consist of chapters/papers which are pretty much very unrelated? They are all of-course related to Economics but the topics are very different. Please advise.

Hello All,

From September I have been teaching as part of my scholarship. I am required to teach for five hours a week. However, this is my first time teaching and I am teaching quite a difficult course. Although I understand the material I am a bit rusty because its quite technical and not directly related to my area of research. I have found that I am spending way too much time preparing for classes and this is really taking away from my research time but I can't afford to go infront of a class unprepared. There are also no solutions provided to the classes so I have to go through and verify everything myself. Is this normal for first-time teachers?