18 March it is then. Hurray! What a great date.
Will be from 10am - 12pm... So not too long and should whizz by. I am sure going into the room will be the worst possible bit, then once we get talking it will be ok, even if I don't like the questions.
I am starting to worry about it a lot now so have emailed Sup to see if he has any tips for preparing. As far as I know I will need to:
Doing all this should take about a week of proper work (ie if Bean is in childcare) or 10 days of bits of evenings and weekends here and there. we shall have to see how moving and nursery works out! I don't want to get into it too much but enough so I feel like I have prepared myself in some way. From what I read it seems that this is how everyone prepares but afterwards people tend to say that you couldn't have prepared really and to expect the unexpected!
Passing and awards etc are generally as thus:
1 - Straight pass, perfect thesis, no corrrections necessary.
2 - Pass but with minor corrections (grammar, spelling, refs) to be done within three months.
3 - Pass but with more corrections, bit of re-writing, to be done within six months.
4 - Pass but on condition of serious rewriting to be done within a year.
5 - MPhil-worthy but not-PhD worthy (my greatest fear as my thesis was quite short and now feels very simplistic!)
6 - Fail, fail, fail. Extremely unlikely, your sup would probably be in Big Trouble if you submitted and failed!
You go in, have the chat, they tell you to leave and chat about what to do with you and then most likely you will be congratulated and said you are a Dr BUT need to do some corrections. You would be told what these corrections are and then go off and do them. I am dreading this so much! I cannot face re-visiting the thesis to do anything serious. I see shoddy refs and that is fine. But rewriting. I am still paranoid about my crap lit review, intro and conclusion chapters. I suppose tho, if I re-write it will be to a template of sorts as they would have told me what to do, which would be ok (no it won't!). I will have a month before getting too preggo/popping to think so that is a good amount of time.
Unless you fail-fail you don't have another viva and one or both examiners will just check the corrections to make sure you addressed the issues ok. Then you get it bound proper and leave the begger forever!
Am worried about it but not as worried now I have resigned myself to having to work again soon, then again afterwards. It was a nasty shock to think I will have to go back to PhD-land to be honest but is not for long now. The viva itself I am feeling quite sorted about in a 'just let's get it over with' kind of way. Is not like a presentation or anything awful, I really have no idea what will happen.
I must be prepared:
So there we are for now.
x J
Will be from 10am - 12pm... So not too long and should whizz by. I am sure going into the room will be the worst possible bit, then once we get talking it will be ok, even if I don't like the questions.
I am starting to worry about it a lot now so have emailed Sup to see if he has any tips for preparing. As far as I know I will need to:
- re-read the thesis
- note weak points
- summarise the thesis and each chapter
- remember why I did the thesis: what my motivation was, where it fits into scholarship, how it is er, good and useful
- re-visit (possibly) major texts
- catch up on latest lit
- read up about examiners and latest papers
Doing all this should take about a week of proper work (ie if Bean is in childcare) or 10 days of bits of evenings and weekends here and there. we shall have to see how moving and nursery works out! I don't want to get into it too much but enough so I feel like I have prepared myself in some way. From what I read it seems that this is how everyone prepares but afterwards people tend to say that you couldn't have prepared really and to expect the unexpected!
Passing and awards etc are generally as thus:
1 - Straight pass, perfect thesis, no corrrections necessary.
2 - Pass but with minor corrections (grammar, spelling, refs) to be done within three months.
3 - Pass but with more corrections, bit of re-writing, to be done within six months.
4 - Pass but on condition of serious rewriting to be done within a year.
5 - MPhil-worthy but not-PhD worthy (my greatest fear as my thesis was quite short and now feels very simplistic!)
6 - Fail, fail, fail. Extremely unlikely, your sup would probably be in Big Trouble if you submitted and failed!
You go in, have the chat, they tell you to leave and chat about what to do with you and then most likely you will be congratulated and said you are a Dr BUT need to do some corrections. You would be told what these corrections are and then go off and do them. I am dreading this so much! I cannot face re-visiting the thesis to do anything serious. I see shoddy refs and that is fine. But rewriting. I am still paranoid about my crap lit review, intro and conclusion chapters. I suppose tho, if I re-write it will be to a template of sorts as they would have told me what to do, which would be ok (no it won't!). I will have a month before getting too preggo/popping to think so that is a good amount of time.
Unless you fail-fail you don't have another viva and one or both examiners will just check the corrections to make sure you addressed the issues ok. Then you get it bound proper and leave the begger forever!
Am worried about it but not as worried now I have resigned myself to having to work again soon, then again afterwards. It was a nasty shock to think I will have to go back to PhD-land to be honest but is not for long now. The viva itself I am feeling quite sorted about in a 'just let's get it over with' kind of way. Is not like a presentation or anything awful, I really have no idea what will happen.
I must be prepared:
- To be blindsided by questions I hadn't thought of and to take my time answering these! NO BLUFFING!
- For the examiners to come accross as unfriendly even if this is just an act (I had a job interview like this once - the interviewers were very rude but I got the job and apparently they loved me?!)
- For the examiners to want a good debate (I do not want a debate. I hate debating, it is too confrontational for me!)
- To be confident. I MUST act confidently.
- To be loyal to my thesis even if I do think it is a bag of shite. I am there to defend it not hang my head and say it is shite.
- To have a lunch thing afterwards :( I am truly more concerned about this shebang than I am the viva. I HATE lunch things. I cannot do small talk and will just want to run off to nandos with DB and relax!
So there we are for now.
x J
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