Sunday, May 10, 2009

One down, one to go!

My mock viva went quite well on Friday, it seems. It lasted about 2 hours, had some rather difficult questions, but my supervisors said I addressed them well. I found I had a tendency to forget what I was saying when I started answering odd questions, especially after a long intro to the question, so my mind went blank. I'll have to try to write down keywords while they're speaking to stop me rambling inanely in my replies.

To be honest, I was a bit gobsmacked by the good feedback I got, both supervisors were so enthusiastic about my work that I was a bit taken aback. Both said it had been useful to have a break from it and both hadn't touched it for months, so came to it fresh. Apparently it's really good, interesting, enjoyable to read, well written and I should be proud of it. And it would make a great book. And they loved my idea about a curatorial project and suggested one of the major London museums, which I had in mind anyway, though I didn't want to seem too big for my boots by suggesting it myself before I've actually got the whole thing wrapped up. Blimey!!!! :-)

So there we go, one exam done and the real thing next week. It's done my confidence a lot of good, so now I can just get on with revising as I have been and stop agonising quite as much. I'm not so naive that I think the viva's going to go as smoothly as the mock, I think it's wrong to take anything for granted, but it's been a really useful experience. I'm so lucky I've got good supervisors, it makes a hell of a difference.

So... I'll see what happens on Thursday.

6 comments:

Mathias Klang said...

Good work! KNow that you will impress them even more the second time!

Claire said...

Thanks! There's nothing like a bit of decent feedback at the last minute to motivate you. Though I am still procrastinating on here!

Gorilla Bananas said...

It looks like you'll soon have to get used to being called "doctor". It's nice to come across a modest PhD student.

Claire said...

Thank you Gorilla. There are some unnecessarily over-inflated egos in this part of academia, and I hope I never become like that.

deb said...

Never a doubt that you would excel!

The real thing should bowl 'em over!

(and I'm going to try to be patient about waiting for the book...a marvelous idea)

Claire said...

Thanks Deb! Fingers crossed for today....