My subject area is microbiology. There were some general questions such as:
What did you learn from your research.
What were the main limitations of your research.
What would you have done differently if you started again?

I was mainly asked questions specifically on my research.

It was not that bad, its just that my nerves got the better of me and coming away from it, I felt I could have answered some of the questions a little better.

I am off to get a very large drink now.

I found the viva quite stressful. It took a long three hours. I am so happy its over with (almost-got some minor ammendments).

I passed! Wohoo!

..wish me luck!

YAY! I finally submitted my thesis yesterday. Dont know what to do with myself now, so I thought id announce it to world (well, the PhD forum world anyway!).

:-)

Ok, Its time to create my bibliography chapter from all my references stored in endnote. Anyone know how to do it? I have not used all of the my references in endnote in my thesis, so do I have to manually go through them at see which ones I have used to sort them out, or can Endnote do that for me???

piglet: my intro is a few pages long briefly exploring the disease i am looking at and touching on the objectives of my lit review and experimental work. I therefore have a combined chapter of intro and lit review. my lit review does include recent studies. I suppose this is topic dependant.

Ok my results chapter is now 95 (i have done alot of experimental work) pages long and only includes a brief description of the tables and figures. I just cannnot see how i can write a 6 page discussion on all of that! Sometimes I think my supervisor is crazy!

is anyone else writing a phd in classic science chapters (intro, lit review, results, discussion and conclusion)? if yes, how long are your chapters. im working in my overall discussion and my supervisor has advised that it only has to be 6 pages long (my results chapter is 90 pages) which I think is really short! i would like to know what everyone thinks of this and how long your chapters are looking?

I have not seen my supervisor for ages. I was supposed to meet her on wednesday (which was planned 6 weeks in advance) and she canceled. Then I was told she will meet me today at 3:30 and again she didnt turn up.

I am doomed!

erm.. im right at the end! i couldnt analyse before because of clinical trial guidelines, so i didnt have a clue what my results looked like till the end. im soo depressed. i cant do anymore work on it. i have spent 3 years working my butt off for my phd and now it looks like im not going to get it.

im meeting to discuss it today. my worry is that if i blag on about limitations to my methods, will my work be worth a phd?

none of my results are statistically significant. what can i do? im begining to panic. will i still get my phd? what do i talk about in my discussion?

I cannot stand being in a lab without the radio on (especially if i am by myself). You need a radio when you are doing repetative, mindless lab work.

i have worked in both a small and a large department. i prefere the large. doing a phd can be a very isolating experience and being around other phd students can be a great help for both companioniship and for motivation.