Late Post Update: I survived my PhD Proposal Defense with Minor Correction!

Praise be to Allah The Almighty...

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This was a very late update about the Proposal Presentation I defended on 18th May, 2022 and ended up passing with a minor correction. Correction is inevitable for most  postgraduate students, just so you know. Although it happened almost two weeks ago, I only got the chance to update it here today. My supervisor alerted me that the usual approximate time for the proposal defense would last more than two hours, including 15 minutes of presentation. This reminder makes me go back to my experience during my Master's viva voce. It took about three hours and the fearful and nerve-wrecking feelings are there, still. And someone living deep inside me is fearful of this very occasion, which cost me lack of sleep for a week before the D-day as well as making me not in the mood for Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Praise be to Allah The Most Merciful...

Thankfully, my proposal defense lasted for an hour and 10 minutes, which was very unexpected, and I can say I was quite calm throughout the session. Before the presentation, I texted my supervisor and asked her, "What if I fail this session?" Do I need to do it again next semester? What will happen to me then? To her knowledge, it's uncommon for PhD candidates to repeat their proposal defense. So Maryam, just keep calm and do it just like we've rehearsed. Go, break a leg!

My supervisor told me today that there is a PhD candidate who failed the Proposal Defense and has to repeat. Even though it happens very rarely, it could happen to anyone. I hope and pray that the student keeps going and not feeling down because I believe once you get the offer letter, you're deserved and you can do it. It's actually stressful, especially if you're self-sponsored, because failing means repeating, repeating means extending, and extending means an extra semester, which means more tuition fees to pay. 

I tried to 'korek' a bit about the feedback on my defense session from my SV from the vision of the Chairperson (he is the Dean of the Postgraduate Department of my Kulliyyah) and the other two assessors. My SV told me that the chairperson thinks that I'm very calm and able to answer the question properly without simply replying with "I don't know." OK, enough with the self-bragging. The key points of the proposal defense are not only that the assesor wants to know whether we properly designed the research that fulfilled the requirement for PhD/Master but also to examine whether you understand what you're going to do throughout the whole three to five years of getting a Doctor of Philosophy. 

So, the journey as a researcher begins! I humbly ask all of you who read this post to pray for my PhD journey to the end. Insha-Allah. Amin...