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<\/p>\nRegular readers will be aware that I’ve gone through the doctoral thesis-writing journey over the past few years, and that I submitted and passed my oral exam recently. It was a long road. From enrolment to submission it took five years (juggling work, family, and research) – then it took months on top of that to get through examinations and make it to graduation.<\/p>\n
Last week, I finally got to don my academic robes, march in the parade, and cross the stage to receive my PhD.<\/p>\n
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Ah, the long-awaited floppy hat!<\/p>\n
As I prepared to graduate, I reflected on the long road to graduation. There are many things I would do differently, if I were to do this again. But one mistake stands out in my mind.<\/p>\n
I let the PhD seem impossibly hard.<\/p>\n
I figured that anyone with Dr. in front of their name must be some kind of Mensa-leading mastermind, and that earning the title must require a rare and prodigious intellect. I thought that a thesis needed to contain zero errors, zero vulnerabilities, and zero ambiguities. I thought that my writing must be so careful that no-one could ever question it, debate it, or make a point against it. I thought that I needed to have read every book on every topic that was even tangentially related to mine. I thought that, come my oral exam, I would need to have memorised every fact, theorist, and quote about which I could be questioned.<\/p>\n
In short, the project of earning a PhD seemed unfinishable. If I hadn’t had extenuating circumstances (a baby on the way) I’d probably still be working on it. In the end, what I submitted felt rushed and imperfect. I thought I would fail.<\/p>\n
But you know what? My examiners’ reports were positive. I passed the oral exam without memorising anything at all, and I graduated.<\/p>\n
Now I’m no genius – sometimes I forget who the Prime Minister is, and last week I found my earrings in the fridge. But I earned my doctorate because I put in enough<\/em> work. Not as much as I thought I should, but enough. I wonder how much stress and time I could have saved if I’d realised that a thesis isn’t required to be the final word on a given topic?<\/p>\n My favourite piece of advice comes from an anonymous thesis examiner who was interviewed for some research on the examination process:<\/p>\n