First of all apologies, i haven’t been updating this site as much as I hoped to have done over the past couple of months. Theres no excuse for this, I was just really busy writing my thesis.
Finishing your thesis
I found it quite difficult to put my thesis together, at times it felt like it was beyond me. I found myself being distracted by anything and everything, especially the swiftly approaching point where I would reach the end of my studentship, without a job to keep an income coming in. Due to that final factor, i found a lot of the time I was applying for jobs to keep myself from really trying to hard with my thesis. The whole process felt quite disconnected and surreal.
Despite using time management skills and attending writing workshops throughout my studies, these were all forgotten at the time when the were most needed. Thankfully, I had an epiphany during this time. I stopped procrastinating and began managing my days, setting myself small goals to reach towards each day. When I felt that I couldn’t work on one section anymore (this happened quite a lot!), I would move on to work on a different section.
Slowly but surely, it began to come together and after what seemed like forever, I submitted my thesis on the 30th September 2015.
Preparing for your viva
Even on the day I submitted my thesis, the thought of the viva-voca exam scared the hell out of me. The expectation is that you should be able to answer any question the examiners might have about your thesis and after working non-stop to finish the thesis, my head was a mess. Key facts and references kept join out of my head, and I felt i would never be prepared for the viva. I decided to take a few weeks off. This could have positive and negative effects but I felt it was needed at the time. After the break, I began to prepare. Firstly, I re-read my thesis (A harrowing experience, you notice all the mistakes after it has been submitted!). I then began to question every point in my thesis, and write down any possible questions I could think of. I then sought out answers for the questions and wrote these down on a rough copy of my thesis to take on the day. Some questions your examiners could ask will have answers in the text and they may have missed it, others, you should know the answer for on the day.
My mock viva with my supervisors was a very positive experience and it gave me chance to think of answers to some questions that they had thought about but I might not have. They also gave me a great idea to add post it notes to important points or chapters in the thesis so that you can quickly access these on the day.
After this, I panicked until the day. I know I was prepared, but I think its only natural and human to be a bit scared of this. It is a big deal.
Undertaking the Viva
My Viva was on the 8th December 2015 at 10am. I left my house to arrive early to prepare. A lot of preparing for your viva articles suggest not looking at your thesis on the day, but i am a worrier and felt I needed to. As I arrived at the venue, I got out my viva to prepare. It was at this moment that the fire alarm chose to go off. At this point I felt sick. Thankfully this stopped in time for me to get a bit of a look before hand and arrived at the viva room 15 minutes early. My examiners were inside and I was scared.
Thankfully, my examiners were extremely nice people who helped me to relax and take a drink and some deep breaths before they began the viva process. The actual questions asked in the viva will differ between each thesis, so I won’t go into these. However, I will tell you that the viva lasted about 2 and a half hours and at the end I was told to leave the room whilst they came to their decision. I went to see my supervisor as she was in her office. I felt fairly confident, I felt as though I answered the questions well, but at the same time, there was a section they wanted me to remove from my thesis. I felt it could go either way.
My supervisor followed me back into the room with my examiners to take notes on any points made. As she correctly pointed out, my head was all over the place, and I would need to know these points.
I passed with minor corrections and I am currently making these small changes.
The whole process has been very surreal and reaching the end, I felt like I didn’t know where to go or what to do but I was relieved and very proud of myself, as were my friends and family
Alex's Psychology Blog 