I passed ...with major correction

Alhamdulillah..I went through the experience of having the viva on 26 March. I thank Allah for the process was smooth. I learnt a lot from the the oral examination. The committee of examiners gave me two mths to do the correction. I mistakenly thought it was three mths. I only realised that i had to do the corrections in two mths when i was reminded by one of my supervisors. I was a little panic..due to this i applied for a mth extension in submitting the correction to the internal examiners. For those who are reading, check carefully when you need to submit the corrections. Back in the viva session, I perceived that my external examiner (he was not present- a native speaker) throughly checked my thesis. He actually requested from my supervisor the soft copy of my thesis before the viva date. He ran again the analysis of the scores that I attached in the appendix. And of course changes needed to be made due to this. Concerning the item analysis especially for MCQ, he commented that the stems I wrote was too close. In fact, he required me to withdraw 2 items from the study. Concerning testing instrument in my thesis, I could say he was not satisfied with it as there was a lot of comments as far as this part is concerned. On the other hand, my internal examiners commented that my conceptual framework was too simple- a consequence that required me to change the title of my thesis... learning vs retention (drop the word learn and replace with retention). One of the examiners required me to withdraw one part of the literature review and replaced it with another heading. They also commented on my chapter 3. One of them told me that the elaboration on validity of the instruments were to shallow. She told me that I needed to respond to the comments made by the persons who checked the testing instruments. In short, the viva session was more of a discussion kind of thing. They were there to improvise my writing. I was really thankful to them. I was nervous before, during and after the viva session. But what I learnt was that you needed to respond to their questions... You might not have the answer which they wanted to listen, what was important was explaining to them of what you did, what made you did as such, your limitation and etc. Above all, always remember, it is your thesis that they are examining. Last but not least, remember that Allah is with you.. Don't be scared and never have the feeling that they are there to condemn you (motivational purpose). Good luck to those who are waiting for your vivas. You can do it! Imagine yourselves successfully underwent this examination...just picture it!

26.3.2012

That's the date for my viva. It'll be at 9am. I couldn't tell how I feel at the moment. So nervous. I hope things will be alright on that day. One of my supervisory committe members asked me to look at threats to internal validity. He also asked me to read the thesis for twice and practice the presentation infront of my collegues. InshaAllah, will be able to do it with few friends tomorrow since there were not many around last week.

Ya Rabb... ease me in the exam. Hope that I will be able to be fluent in giving my presentation and able to provide answers which satisfy the examiners. Not to mention, they will also be confident with my answers.

Reading notes as suggested to be prepared by Rowena in her book. However, will be postponing this reading task since at 4pm I have class...4-6pm class. Still feeling nervous but always remind myself no matter what happens Allah knows best and He'll always be by my side..

After practicing with friends..

I did few few practice with my colleagues. They made some comments. There was a question my friend asked... and she said I was repeating the same thing. So, I gave it another try in answering the question. After that she told me you supposedly you should not use this word, bla bla bla..you should be using other words..again bla bla bla. But one thing for sure I learnt from the presentations was that I need to make things clear of what I mean. Another colleague told me, you present as if we don't know anything. Is that true? In this situation, it was the first time they listened to my presentation. Yet, the panel of examiners have already gone through the thesis. Nevertheless, she had a point there. I need to clarify things.. make it clear to the examiners what I did, wrote...