I've recently received a scholarship to study History, and it was a fairly difficult ride if I am being brutally honest. Out of the six scholarships I applied for I only got one offered, which was smaller by about 4000 but still enough to live on and do it, granted by all means I appreciate I am in a minority to have even been offered that one so I am very grateful for the chance.

I received no feedback sadly, however, and this isn't meant to make you feel downhearted, I had a 2:1 at undergrad too, but even with a distinction in a research masters it was still very tricky for me to get onto my PhD this October. From what I gather doing a research masters helped as it proved I could do research and pass a viva, which are obviously pretty important so helped put me ahead of candidates with firsts at undergrad but who only did taught masters and sort of filled the gap my 2:1 gave me.

Honestly, it's a tough one, it seemed to me to be a combination of past work AND picking a subject which was right place, right time, I was incredibly lucky the FIFA scandal broke around decision time for instance based on my proposal.

Good luck, keep going, it can be very disheartening to go through the process (oh believe me, it has been a horrible six months!) but if you're determined to do this, do everything you can!

Thank you everyone for the congratulations, I am very proud to have achieved something I thought beyond me. I am glad this has been helpful for a few of you, honestly I am the King of doom mongering and stressing myself out (perfectionism I think drives me to good results, but the path to them is wrought with a lot of unpleasant experiences and feelings!). I really convinced myself everything was going to collapse around me because I couldn't anticipate every question and so on and it fogged up my mind. In the end, nothing I research even came up and because I wrote the thesis for so long it was all lock up in there somewhere and flowed, I think you'll all have similar experiences. I am not sure how much my viva being for a Master's made much of a difference (it was only really in terms of length I believe, format, level of importance etc was the same as a PhD) but I would recommend that if you can do yourself any favour, let it be to be kind to yourself even when it feels impossible, take that time to relax and refresh your mind and do not let negativity take over, you'll be doing yourselves a great service!

Good to luck to everyone with their future vivas :)

I just wanted to share my experience with my Viva, just to give people who are feeling nervous before theirs something to think about amidst the overly negative feedback you can find on the end of a Google search (and boy did I find them!)

Yesterday I had my viva for my Masters by Research in History and I passed with a distinction. In the entire build up I was convinced I would fail, nothing seemed to stick in my head, every question I tried to ask myself became fuzzy and the whole period of preperation was a stress fuelled nightmare. I had images in my head of a trial by fire, where I would be probed viciously and attacked and that I would stumble over my words and completely ruin all my hard work for the past year and a half.

The moral of the story?

Believe in yourselves. My viva was actually a pleasant experience, aided by the choice in examiners I feel (pick wisely! The more knowledgable they are, the better, it felt like a really discussion and debate rather than an interrogation, I think it also helps cover gaps when you fumble words a little as they are more likely to understand where you're going with it). I dreaded that time would stand still, but when you're in there it goes really quickly, if you relax and take your time with your answers (if you fumble, just calm yourself and then move back towards your poin) you'll be ok. Also, never take criticisms as personal ones, if you show that you appreciate the help and that you're interested in their improvements, it will work in your favour.

All in all, my examiners worked to put me at ease, they were polite and friendly (this image of them as ogres I got from searching online was far removed from the truth).

I hope that people in future can take this from this post: viva's can be a pleasant experience. Don't sweat it, focus on your thesis.

Hey everyone, new MRes student here.

I recently (end of March after an extension due to extenuating circumstances surrounding caring for my unwell mother) submitted my MRes thesis to the university for distribution to the internal and external marker, there was a slight mix up with a form surrounding my intention to submit which I was informed would delay that process, which I accepted would be the case, taking a well earned break following the stress and strain of write ups and submission and so on.

However, today I received an e-mail requesting another soft bound copy of my thesis and was informed there would now be two internal markers and one external, instead of the one internal and one external. This has completely and utterly thrown me off balance and I am so paranoid and anxious right now as to why there is a sudden change.

Is there something terribly wrong with what I have submitted? I was informed prior to hand in that there were perhaps some areas I could touch up on but in no way was I given an indication that the structure, narrative of thrust of the overall work was severely flawed in a way that it was under severe thread of a failure. After all, they would have simply never let me submit it in the first place if this was the case or at least raised major concerns.

I will of course go and get another copy and submit it but I am now completely petrified as to why the sudden change, it's completely thrown me and it wasn't really explained why.

any help would be great.