My viva was on Tuesday 26 July 2005 at 9:30am. The week before my viva I was working like mad. Trying to cram in as much information as I could and finishing some work that I knew would be questioned by the examiners. I was very nervous the day before and on the day itself. Luckily I had Shah, my family and Shah's family praying for my success. I'm not sure how it would have been if they were not there fr me. Especially my husband who is ever by my side helping me all the time. He accompanied me to the room where the viva was held and he gave lots of reassuring words and advice for me.
As soon as I stepped into the room, the external examiner was already there. I was introduced to him by my supervisors and, as soon as we were all seated, the viva proceeded. The external examiner, a professor from Durham University, was very nice and he assured me that he will try and make the viva as enjoyable for me as possible. He asked me about my name and after that he asked me to give a summary of my thesis. From then on came question after question on my thesis. Alhamdulillah, the questions weren't intimidating and whenever I was stuck in answering the exmaminers were helpful and were not angry or anything like that. I was very lucky to have very nice examiners. Time went on without me even realising it. Around 2 and 1/2 hours later one of my supervisors (who sat thru the viva) and I were told to leave the room. The wait between leaving and being called back for the result was nail biting. Luckily Shah was there to soothe me.
About 20 minutes later we were called back for the results. Alhamdulillah, I passed. As usual there are some minor corrections but I was so relieved that it was over. I can't begin to describe how I was feeling. It was very surreal. Even 2 hours after the end of the viva, I was still questioning myself on whether I had actually passed and if I had heard the examiners correctly. Later on in the day I went to see my supervisors, and when they congratulated me was I really sure that I had passed.
But I could not have passed without all the support and du'as from my ever so loving Shah, my family and Shah's family. I am forever grateful to them and I will always remember what they have done for me. I truly appreciate everything and I am very thankful to have such a loving family.
To my Shah, thank you so much for every thing. Nothing I say will be enough to express how grateful I am to have you. You have been very patient with me throughout my sturggle to finish my studies and I am so very touched by what you have done for me. I will do everything I can to show you how I feel. I love you so much!
I would also like to express my thanks to all of you out there who wished me luck and prayed for my success in the viva. I really appreciate it.
Finally, to anyone else out there who are on the journey towards attaining a PhD...just hang in there. Don't give up even though the obstacles keep on coming. God knows I wanted to give up too (I'll probably blog about this in another post) but if you keep striving insyaAllah you'll be rewarded with success.
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