Thesis Defended: A Tale of Our Determination Concluding into Success.

Hi fellow Hivey! I'm back again with a new blog. Based upon the title, you already have a gist of what this blog is all about. Last January 12, 2024, we had our oral examination for our thesis, this will determine whether the panelists approve or reject our paper and may put on hold our time to graduate (since deferred studies may need to start again). We all know that one of the requirements to finish college is publishing or completing our thesis papers. It is one of the hurdles college students must face in order to graduate. In this blog, I will show you glimpses of how my groupmate and I struggled and eventually passed our very own thesis paper!! so let's get on with the rollercoaster ride.

The Groupings
In our school, our thesis professor will be the one choosing our groupmates. This is practice so that no classmate will be left behind (no one might choose them) and no biases with regards to the groupmate. So, luck must be on my side since I got to be with people who I am already friends with and who are very hardworking and self-driven individuals. Two of my groupmates are also in the hive community, @digdeeper2 and @gracialicious.

I remember the first meeting we had, we were undecided about who would be the leader of the group. No one would really want to step up (since it's a very heavy responsibility) and we already have a lot on our plates to deal with. After some deliberation, we thought that I should be the one leading the team and it was indeed a full ride of building my leadership in this newfound challenge.

The Process
Thankfully, making a research paper is already a familiar field to tackle with business research, or research-related subjects prior to the thesis, we are already familiar with the flow of the paper. However, the hardest part is still choosing the topic or the problem that we wish to address since It is an important decision given that your whole paper will revolve around that topic (and our thesis consists of 2 semesters which is almost a year of trying to understand the problem and making a solution out of it). We were required to come up with a title that must be in line with our course, and since I am a marketing major, our study must be business-related. After so many sessions with our adviser and with the help of our professor, we were able to come up with a topic that is very relevant to our field, and timely to the industry.

Design Hearing (September 23, 2023)
After accomplishing the first two chapters, we need to defend it during the design hearing. It was a very dreading day for me, given that deferred paper would automatically lose your chance in the Latin honors and you will be making the thesis paper from scratch. With my groupmate, we prepared a lot, searched possible questions, prepared answers beforehand, and practiced the flow so that we would be prepared for the design hearing day. Also, being prepared makes you more confident that you will get a job well which is what happened to us. We were able to get the approval of our study and they also gave us a go signal to continue with the 3 remaining chapters that we must finish.

Data gathering
Since our respondents are the students of Cebu Technological University-Main Campus (which is also my school), my groupmate and I thought that we should gather the data during our intramural. So that is what we did in the last year of our intramurals😅, we spent the whole week gathering, entertaining, and doing whatever we could to get the data that we needed for our thesis. Some refused, and some were not qualified to be our respondents (since they never tried out the product which was what our questionnaire is all about) but thankfully, a lot also participated so we got to finish the data gathering after intramural and proceeded on accomplishing the 2 more chapters.

The Oral Examination (January 12, 2024)
What I would consider one of the highlights in college will be this memory. We did all the preparation and prayed so hard that we would not be rejected on that day. I still remember the trembling of my whole body, and the sweating of my hands as we waited for our turn outside the room where we would be defending our study. And then it was our turn.

We explained the flow and told the panelist the result, its indication, our output based upon the result, and the solution that will address the problem. We were in the room for almost an hour trying our best to answer all their inquiries and showing them the perspective of why our study is relevant and timely. Finally, after it felt like a portion of my lifespan was removed, we got out to meet the angel (charr) we got the approval that we needed and although there were a lot of revisions, still we were not deferred😭.

Thesis Finally Over
We incorporated all the suggestions that the panelists wrote (in our manuscript during the defense) and we then one by one went to the panelists to once again get their approval with the changes we incorporated. After so many days, we all had their go signal to finally book bind our thesis paper that finalized our long journey, from coming up with a title, spending our summer finding related studies for the review of related literature, dedicating our time and money to gather data, waiting for professors to check with our results, etc. We passed our book-bound study last January 22, 2024, which closed the chapter of my thesis journey.

Looking back I can still remember the terror we (my groupmate and I) felt during the defense and all the consultations we had with our statistician, professors, and panelists. It was indeed a long journey, and we are beyond grateful for all the help we received both financially and emotionally. We reached what we have now because of them. And of course, for the Almighty, for strengthening our belief and being with us spiritually. All our hard work paid off and we can say that we are indeed one step closer to achieving our dreams.

That is all for this blog. It was a long journey, right? Anyway for those incoming college, just enjoy your stay and cherish your not busy moment because you will eventually get busy over time😅 hahaha

Adios

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