I failed the first two progression assessments because I was unwell - I then had a lot of time off. I returned to try my progression assessment again and really thought I'd get through this time.

The reasons for failure were that I had made insufficient progress and that I didn't know enough background information about my field and that I had insufficient data for publication in a journal. The last point is not correct because we are submitting an article to a journal.

One of the examiners, I've had for each of my 3 assessments and we don't get on, her pre-viva report was critical but the other examiner, actually said the work was acceptable in his pre-viva report. The viva let me down quite a lot though - my examiners don't work in my field and they asked a lot of fringe questions which I was unsure about. I'm going for an appeal and it seems likely I'll be able to redo the assessment but I'm really struggling to see how I can learn enough to ever get through. I'm torn between going over hundreds of journal articles or just continuing with my research as normal.

I just failed my PhD progression assessment for the third time!! I was ill when I did the first two; I thought the third one was really going to be it. I'm really disappointed, I was wondering if anyone had similar experiences? My university is going to help me put together an appeal so that I can try again, it feels really hopeless. Has anyone had similar problems but been successful in the end?