Scared to submit thesis

[tintint]

Hello,

I guess am just looking for some reassurance before I submit. I finished just now and am going to give it one more read tomorrow before submitting this week hopefully. Am terrified about submitting and then realising something is wrong. A silly question - if I realise there are mistakes between now and the viva, can I bring them up in the viva? If I get no corrections (though I'm sure I will get them!) is this my last chance before it goes on a repository forever?

Has your supervisor not explained this to you? I've never heard of anyone not getting corrections- a list of things to change, which will include presentational and typographical errors. But those kinds of errors are pretty minor. At worst you'll be told it needs a proper proofread before it is printed and submitted to the archive

@RubyRoss

Yes of course I'm expecting to get corrections from examiners (at least) I mean, if I myself notice errors

I noticed a few (minor) errors in mine, between submission and viva. I just noted them on post it notes, so I was prepared when the examiners raised them. The examiners didn’t actually notice them all, but obv I corrected them regardless prior to final submission

Honestly, just submit it :)

Just submit. I was up against my final deadline ( uni had a 4 year rule from start date) so suitted with stuff missing from my intro. Nothing major but knew I'd be pulled up on it.

Also found loads of typos, errors in graphs ect. Just got told to fix on corrections.

I have only come across 2 people in 15 years of academia who passed with no corrections. One of those got told there were a few typos in there but nor to bother correcting as no one ever reads theses 🤣

You've got this hand it in and get yourself a beverage of choice and treat yourself to a srress free weekend

Just submit it! And bloody well done from me

you can definitely correct typos at a later stage, and no one cares about typos anyway.

submit the thing, turn off your computer and gather some nice drinks and friends to celebrate 'I have submitted a whole damn thesis' day

You could run it through chatGPT to look for errors as a final check?

@tintint have you bit the bullet yet?

Whatever you do don't go pointing out mistakes. This was the best advice my friend gave me and she is a professor. There will be some corrections of course but don't point out corrections they may potentially miss!

@Coffeaddict

Yes I did it!

@Addicted2LoveIsland

Really because I googled and some said to bring corrections of any mistakes you have made! Maybe this is a US thing?

(Like your name btw, I had love island on in the background of my tedious editing to drown out my negative inner monologue....this could be why I'm nervous about my final version :p )

Maybe it is an American thing that you read. She is a very clever woman this friend of mine and is not just a professor but also a Doctor and has had several medical journals out.
The thesis gets checked by several people anyway, so they should find mistakes or errors themselves. She said do not go pointing mistakes out - I was in the same position as you but had already submitted when I found a few mistakes, then I asked for her advice.
I ended up getting a first on my actual thesis and a 2:1 overall. When I spoke to my tutor after getting results, she explained to me that ultimately, mistakes would happen, but they were really looking for content, organisation, research and analysis; these were what our marks were based on. In my case, I did a science degree. I'm not sure what yours is. I'm sure you did brilliantly.

I went in with my own list of corrections of small mistakes like typos I'd noticed after submission 😂 I fixed them alongside the examiners corrections, all fine!

When I had my viva I discovered that an important diagram had Simply not been printed in the examiners’ copies. Once I explained it to them, and gave them my copy, everything was fine. Also, they opened by saying that they thought chapters 2 and 3 were in the wrong order and I had already noticed that and agreed with them. HOWEVER, you are meant to defend your thesis. do not simply agree with all their criticism. I had a student who did that and it didn’t go down well. They will find things to critic just to get a discussion going.