Best of luck. You might end up enjoying the Viva, some people do.

?

Presumably this is good news as you’re not sober enough to operate a keyboard??

Well? How did it go then?

So, long story short.

I have corrections to do (unexpected), I just don’t know how much I have to do as the intern and extern appear to not agree on it. Thus, I get a list next Monday, I have 3 months to get them done. Then I get to be called PhD.

Short story long.

Study done by 10pm then night before, went to the pub for two pints with my mate as I just needed to turn off my brain. Slept ok, woke up, read through presentation again then went into the university. Extern was a bit late so we started maybe 10mins late.
Presentation went well, very well. Took questions from the audience afterwards (we do an open viva, there was maybe 20 people there and examiners) so was very happy with that. Got kicked out for 15mins and just took some down time, food and coffee in. Then called back in.
The first hour of the viva went fast, very fast. We ignored the lit review and went straight for the experimental chapters, one by one they were shredded, I had to talk/defend/fight as expected. After about 2.5hours I took a break to go to the toilet. At this point my brain was fried. Came back in and it started again. Got thrown a massive currveball…massive one… something I’d not noticed, and a mistake at that. Not a massive one, but big enough that I couldn’t let go of it and I froze mentally, then broke. The next 30mins was me watching my lst 4.5 years of work melt away before my eyes, i probably was not very useful at this point and I know that I was saying less and less to each answer, shutting back inside my head. The not fun, depressed side of my brain took over, after 30mins they called it as I think they realised they had broken me.
45 minutes waiting to be called back in for the ‘decision’ that was given to me. The extern was explaining to me their choice, that the work was good, the data solid, that I’d not need to repeat either the viva – data collection – presentation, i’d just need to do an amount of corrections that they had chosen in three months. My brain heard – you need to re-write all of this in 3 months.
In the 15 minutes I was back in I said 3 words, then excused myself from the proffered lunch and left after thanking them. My supervisor tried to explain to me that it was all actually ok, I have a PhD once corrections are done… I didn’t see it like that. I’m not sure that I do as of yet.

The last 3 days have been hard. Thankfully I had to get back to the UK the evening of the viva (I did my studies in Ireland) so was driving and ferrying so not drinking. The two days after similar as I was on driving duties supporting my partner at the 3 Peaks fell race. I’d not like to think what would have happened otherwise, I’ve a history there that I don’t like seeing again.

I’ve taken some time and thought a bit logically about this. Thought about it, but not really acted on it, I cant until I see the level of edits I have to do. At this point, coping mechanisms are in full flight. Deal with what I can, ignore the rest, push it back, break it down when it comes.

Logically I know its not the end of the world. The part of me that contributed to Toms depression article ‘Vicious Cycle’ in issue 78 has risen to the front, the root cause once again _that_ document. At the moment I don’t know what I am going to do with it.

I do know, that I am going to ride my bike this afternoon. Thats a good start anyway.

Put through the wringer there Greg but honestly corrections in 3 months is nothing to worry about. Seen this many times (often with strong theses). If there was a real problem with the thesis you would need to go back and get more / different data. A 45 minute deliberation does sound like the corrections might be on the substantial side (assuming that’s what the examiners were doing, they might have been just chinwagging), I guess you’ll see. Well done for getting through it in any case.

Listen, you had to put up with what amounts to four hours of interrogation by the academic equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition. You held up under it and have to do a bit of editing. You don’t need to do the viva again, nor any more research, or gather any data. You have three months to do the edits.

You’re just about done. Nearly there, just one final little bit of work. You _CAN_ do this and you wil. After that you’ll have a doctorate to your name and you can do what you want. Just keep going.

Try and stay positive – you don’t need to do the viva again. Corrections may take time, but obviously they thought the fundamental basis, core content and presentation was good.

Wishing you all the best – I am sure you will be able to digest and see this in the appropriate perspective soon.

As above. No new data required and no new viva. You will basically have a check list to work through to get a PhD. It will be miserable but worth it.

Corrections is the pretty standard outcome, my viva was a month ago and I was grilled and taken to pieces throughout to the point that I nearly broke down in tears but got through it and was given minor corrections which I had 3 months to do in but only took me in reality a day.

Just sounds like you have minor corrections, it wont be a full re-write but they will provide a list in a week or so with what they would like changed. The question is usually whether the internal examiner or the external examiner needs to take a look and accept them, if its just the internal examiner then that’s the best outcome that can be expected. No corrections is reserved generally for when the examiners don’t want to do any work and don’t take an interest.

Just read this thread. Wish I’d been able to post pre-viva.

Greg, I’ve been exactly where you are now. Utterly utterly fed up with the whole research thing (and in my case absolutely certain that a career in research wasn’t for me) and then facing minor-corrections in order to be done with something I had simply had enough of.

Although it was 12 years ago now some of the most vivid memories I have of my entire Uni career are of that 2 month period in the summer of 2003 when I just wanted desperately to be finished and be able to move on with the next phase of life.

I can only reiterate what others have written, that minor corrections, and 3 months to do them, are really par for the course and not an reflection on your work and effort. Just keep going, make a list of all the minor things and chip away at it every day. I did 6 hours a day, every day for a month and it was done. You may find that minor corrections only need to be approved by your internal and they will be keen to pass them off.

I look back now (from the perspective of being in a different career) and am convinced that it was worth it. I understand your concerns regarding potential a dip into depression and would only advise that you use every support network you have for this final push (and, if you can afford it, buy yourself a plane ticket for a weeks riding in the alps for when you do finish – worked for me!). You can do it and it is worth it.

Good luck!

ps I do use my Dr occasionally, but only on my CV or when I need to borrow money from the bank 🙂 It power has been to always get me an interview when I’ve applied for jobs, to get an enhanced salary when I did start, and a degree of professional kudos that is difficult to quantify (and probably totally unjustified).

You have done the hard part now. I know how it feels, was absolutely gutted when I was given some corrections to do, at the time it felt as if my world had collapsed. The feeling of not wanting to touch the thesis again after spending all the time on it. Just take a few days out, clear your head then try to focus on getting it out of the way, easier said than done I know.

Congratulations on getting through! A pass is a pass.

Sounds like a similar situation to me – I got an unexpected kicking, and three month corrections – which I needed everyday of. I also got some fairly sharp comments from the external.

I know how you feel. The first weeks after the viva were hard and it certainly didn’t feel like I had a PhD. It wasn’t so much the work, but my pride had taken such a knock.

The only advice I can give is dig in, don’t give up.

I think you need to chill out dude! What you describe is pretty normal for a viva and virtually everyone has to do corrections, often quite a few – just like when you’ve submitted papers for review or talked at conferences.
You did fine 🙂

Congratulations!

What you have described sounds like the viva and outcome of everyone I know who did a scientific PhD.

If they say you don’t have to re-viva then you essentially have typos, phrasing or missing references to sort out which your internal will check over (probably briefly – mine was essentially “have you done the correctins?”, “yes”, “well go and get it bound then”, the internal didn’t even bother reading it to check). Any new data would require a re-viva. So chill, ride your bike, do the corrections over a few evenings and bask in the glow of a job well done!

If it reassures you to know where my information comes from, I am a biology lecturer and have worked at 5 institutions all of which have the same policy on what constitutes minor corrections vs major (i.e: re-viva vs not).