Will James get his PhD? - VIVA

right now I'm just sort of eating to get on with it and an incredibly nervous because I don't know what they're going to ask me and I just can't wait to get in there and answer the first question I think probably we should start the night before I was completely wired from you know bedtime the night before didn't sleep you know lying in bed staring at the ceiling wrapping my fingers just so excited I thinking what thinking about well dread absolute dread I had it in my mind that this Russian professor was going to come and ask me implausibly difficult maths questions I've spoken to a few people about their virus and everybody's had a different experience so who knows if you uninitiated the by ver is the exam at the end right now I wanted to film this interview sitting at this desk because seven and a half years ago I came to university to do a degree in physics I left my job a good job gave up on all of that and I sat right here and a big grin on my face and then I did a PhD and at the end of the PhD maybe we are seven and a half years later there's one exam right huge amounts of pressure and people talk about the pressure on a level students if you move the exams at the end of the two-year period you say oh well you're putting a lot of eggs in one basket there everything is on this one exam and so I mean to to not be nervous is just implausible the certain is a few things that Roger and might think I should talk about and so we've just been what's that rehearsing but but in a very informal way I've just been chatting saying I could say this no and it's it's an oral exam so essentially there's one guy from the University of the internal examiner and an external guy who's invited in and they read your your thesis the 200 page document that you've written up to describe then my new TI of everything you've done for less as it turns out for years I've been nervous before I as a younger man I did some stand-up comedy in Glasgow as a younger and an English man that was that was very nerve-wracking experience and I know before I went on stage I would run backwards and forwards through the toilet Shyam must need another PE / it was I got the worst stage fright actually is why I stopped doing do I just I just couldn't handle the stage fright it was outrageous and I feel a bit like that now so I've been three times it's nothing left so so we're just sort of jiggling about than thinking oh yes you can fail but people don't talk about the occasions on which people do fail because it's embarrassing so it's just like killing for a roller face tour you know I've got metaphors coming on my husband got up got suited and booted best plates now normally I'm I'm not a smartly dressed in the ridge always not always just most of the time I I think it would have been disrespectful to my examiner to turn up dressed like this so I wanted to I wanted to look smart I wanted to show him that I was taking the day seriously and so best suit good you know I came in dressed him in my best and it's not very often I do that every couple of years now so I enjoyed that went up there we all sat down in in this in professor beacons office it's a lot like an interview I mean if you've ever had a job interview for a job you really deeply want you know then that's that's what it was and I sat down with these two guys one of whom I've never met before and they asked me an opening question which is it's a gentle starter right it's there to get you warmed up to get you talking about anything at all just in you know just to break the silence I suppose and I fumbled it in truth I really fumbled it I knew I knew what they were gonna ask because there's only a certain number of ways you can start a conversation about a thesis and sure enough they asked me what the main points of of my thesis were and I had it prepared I had a list of certain things that I wanted to say and it's like I dropped the ball so it that probably took about ten minutes for me to answer that question I guess I'm quite loquacious at the best of times but you know I really wanted to make a good impression and I went on a bit let's this be honest I want to tell you what happened next but I cannot be the life of me remember I know that we went through my thesis one chapter at a time and that Professor brilliant off in particular had post-it notes through my thesis a lot of post-it notes through my thesis with questions on each one and so we're turning from page to page and he's just asking me the question on the post-it note and I was expecting that I was expecting something like that but to see this this body of work with just question after question after question in it was was just eye watering and I think oh no and that's it that's that's all I remember because it was so intense so people were extremely concerned that putting a camera in the Bible was going to in some way affect the outcome whether it affected my performance added to my nerves for the reality of it is I didn't think about it once I walked in oh there's the camera didn't think about it again I was so it would have been ridiculous to think about the camera I was there to do a fiver for something I've been working towards for seven years I'm not going to suddenly stop and go her camera hi you know feel like it would be like the winner of the grand national stopping and posing for the photo finish just wasn't going to happen I wasn't torn apart no I went in there I knew my stuff I have prepared really hard for this I'd read my thesis through I had anticipated what I might be asked I picked out a few weak spots in my thesis and had prepared defenses for those and and and I did the work right I mean if I came and asked you about being a cameraman you'd be able to talk to me about that for hours on end right pretty much non-stop and that's basically the truth of it somebody comes and asked me about being a physicist I just talk about my work for hours on it and so because it's my work because I did the work it was a very comfortable actually in the end really very enjoyable experience it was something that in in hindsight I'd do it again though I don't think I don't think I'll get the opportunity but I would do it again for sure be great essentially I didn't move I mean it three hours went by in such a blink of an eye it's ridiculous I thought it was about an hour with we've gone into the detail of so many times as we as we went through the thesis that that there was nothing left to discuss at the end and so that was just the stop and they say we you can go and I was shocked because I really thought first of all I thought I'd been in there just a few minutes and second of all I was braced at that point for for the hard stuff it was going to come next I left the room and went for a glass of water and I literally had time to pour myself a drink and professor Beaton appeared at the door and said you'd come back and he had his best poker face on and I went weak at the knees I thought I was going to fall down I was so relieved and that's that's the sad truth of it actually is that I felt relief it was it was some time before I felt joy what I felt was just often thank heavens for that it's done I walked out the door and Roger was standing there and he just had the biggest grin on his face so he's obviously been listening at the door I don't yeah I wasn't really prepared for how I was I felt so dazed afterwards and confused and just like first free free in the quarter it took me about 45 minutes before I called Joe and told her I didn't have to say very much I just said I passed what else was I going to say I passed she was ecstatic and I think probably because she was so joyous about the whole thing that helped me to move past the relief and actually start to really enjoy the moment and I made just so many phone calls in the evening and if my dad first and he said you know just really proud of you son and that was nice you know that was me and my sister yeah I just mean jumping up and down ever since she's so excited about it it's like she got it you know so yeah my family are really pleased because I think that they have been going through this experience with me and it has been a really intense period in our lives and so just to share in the excitement of some really positive news that's been it's been great so well I think I get to be doctor in about July but I filled in some form I can't even and what it was it was some inconsequential form I think it was a sort of we'll call you back form for the council because my bin didn't get collected the other day or something stupid like that and it said you know title and I put doctor and ah that felt good

Channel: nottinghamscience

Views: 274,814

Rating: 4.9724212 out of 5

Keywords: james clewett, viva, PhD, dr, doctor, physics, Doctor Of Philosophy (Degree)

Id: S7ihcJk2sKY

Length: 10min 35sec (635 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 08 2013