I looked at your survey, but the front page asks for 'name' and 'date' but with no way to complete these, as you cannot click on the spaces or type on them. Is this information required? Also, is there a guide on how long the survey takes to complete?

They are indeed irritating.

As others have said, it really does depend on your department, whether your work is lab-based and so on. My commute would cost the same as yours, Kitten, if I went there every day (not to mention the 4.5 hour commute each time) so I tend just to go when I have a reason to, and work from home the rest of the time. The classes I've had in my first year have been voluntary, although I did sign up for most of them because I thought I might learn something as well as meeting other students. I've also done some teaching and invigilating work, as well as going for meetings with my supervisor. I'd say I was there 2-3 days a week in term-time, and now over the summer I'm rarely there at all, and just keep in contact with my supervisor by email (you'll also have to work out what level of contact you and your supervisor need to have).

Regarding what you are expected to do each day, you will probably get a certain amount of guidance from your supervisor on which tasks to focus on in the early days, but your day-to-day goals are your own. I have found it important to set myself reading and writing goals so that I keep on track.

If you are in the UK and travelling by train, don't forget that as a full-time student you can apply for a railcard which gets you discount on your train fares. They issue you with an 18-25 railcard if you're a student of whatever age (I'm in my 40s so it is slightly embarrassing producing a young person's railcard, but it has saved me a fortune!)

Minimum wage equates to about £12k a year, which would be a joint income of £24k. By your figures, your joint income with your partner would be £41500.

Leaving the figures aside, I've worked for minimum wage and I'm now on a PhD stipend, and I can tell you which option feels more privileged and comes with more opportunities and rewards. I can also tell you that being on minimum wage did not involve any lack of effort as your post implies - minimum wage is the reality for a lot of hard working and motivated people.

I would personally give it a chance. It might not be as bad as you think and anyway, your options for fixing it ahead of September are very limited - if you do want to move later, you'll be in a much better position after getting to know the city, rather than trying to make decisions based on what you can read online.

It depends on what you mean by 'failed'. If something has gone wrong technically with your experiment then yes, that would be deeply frustrating and you are right just to do something enjoyable before having another go. If you mean you got the opposite results to the ones you hoped for, then maybe you have a valid set of results that shed new light on something?

I don't know how you get on with techniques/programs to help you focus, frequentflyer, but this is something I've been trying recently as I found I was just reading more and more and not writing anything down. I downloaded a program called Focus Booster (which uses the pomodoro technique - there are other sites and programs out there that do much the same thing). It gives you a small bar across your screen which counts down time in 25-minute chunks and it gradually changes colour too, so you can tell at a glance how far you are through the 25 minutes. I'm using it to make myself write for 25 minutes at a time, and so far it is working quite well. I would also say try to focus on one of your documents at a time and you will get there - once you have something written down you will see how and where the next bit can fit in, rather than trying to hold it all in your head.

It sounds like there needs to be more clarification between the roles of your first and second supervisors. In my case, I haven't ever had any input from my second supervisor and she is just there as a back-up - I know this is one extreme - but in your case it sounds like they may be pulling in different directions, and this would be very confusing. I would try to have a good chat with your first supervisor about it, and see if you can reach any agreement about how the three of you are going to work together. It may be that your second supervisor sees it as his role to question things, or to try to make you look at things from another angle - I know academics sometimes do this just to help you consider other possibilities, but maybe he's doing it in a way that isn't helpful.

Another thing I would add, Dolly, is pay attention to all the little details when handing in your work - the presentation style that's required, the referencing, check that you've ironed out any little errors etc. I know that might just seem like common sense, but the feedback I got during my Masters had a surprising amount of focus on my actual writing, and I also know from my own marking experience that it is much easier and more pleasant to mark when students have double-checked everything themselves! (There are exceptions, of course, for students who have conditions which make written work more challenging, as long as the marker knows in advance not to subtract marks on this issue).

I got a distinction in my MSc - not the same as English Lit, but in general I'd say don't skimp on anything, put the hours in and make sure you really have a knowledge of the material. When it comes to your research project, pay attention to anything your supervisor thinks should be improved on, since he or she is going to grade it. I'm a mature student too, and I think that helped as I certainly took it all more seriously than I did my undergraduate degree!

It may help if you focus on making or seeing friends who are not connected with your PhD or the university. That is what I am doing, since I haven't really become friends with anyone at all at my university (because I live too far away to be there all the time, and because I am older than the other students and they really don't see me as part of their group). I don't think my experience is unusual for a PhD - it would be nice if it led to a close group, but I think it very often doesn't, so you may need to concentrate on having friends outside of the university.

Put it this way, if a big part of your motivation to change university is to get a close group of colleagues, then this is not a guarantee with any PhD - I think it is more common to feel isolated. I only started to feel better when I realised this and started making more of an effort with my social life away from my PhD.

Thanks both. CR1980 - yes, I am going to be collecting data from groups of people and running some workshops with them. I am at the stage where I can run the first study as soon as I have participants signed up - I think what is panicking my supervisor is that participation has not happened as easily or instantly as he would like (it's a very specific group of people I need as my participants, and there is a bit of relationship-building needed to gain access to these people via services they use).

I do think, from having watched my supervisor deal with his own research, that his style is to panic when things aren't straightforward, and to relax when they seem to be sorting themselves out again. This is very different from my own reaction, which is to keep an eye on deadlines but not to panic. I think I'm going to have to find a way of always having some 'progress' to show him, to keep him from expressing anxiety every time we talk!

Just wondered what major milestones people here got to in the first years of their PhDs? I know everyone's different, but the reason I'm asking is that my supervisor seems to get more and more anxious every time I see him, and he's just told me it's 'nearly time to worry'.

I'm eight months into mine. I'm currently working on my lit review and methodology chapters, have piloted my study materials and am in the middle of trying to recruit people for my study (the source of supervisor's anxiety). I had my first-year review a few weeks back, with positive feedback and was told I was on course.

By contrast, my supervisor is telling me that study results are 'a must by the end of first year'. I don't wish to disregard his expertise, but I feel as if he's seeing my PhD as a sprint rather than a marathon. I have heard that universities are getting more and more inclined to see PhDs as 'three years and not a minute more' and I wonder if this is where he's coming from. Thing is, I would very much like to complete before my funding runs out as well, but I'm not exactly in agreement with him that I need to be panicking yet.

To add to the others' good advice here, one useful tip I got was to complete a horrible or unpleasant job, if you've got one lingering on a list or at the back of your mind. It's amazing the energy you can eat up trying to avoid one particular job, when you could just get it out of the way.

I think perspective has a lot to do with it. As Tree says, a lot of PhD students don't have anything other than previous studying to compare the PhD to. I did my Masters by part-time distance learning while also working a night shift job, and I can tell you that by comparison I definitely have time for a social life now (and time for my partner and the six cats and my family!). Yes, there will be times when it is crazily busy, but I am also pacing myself and taking breaks. I don't really agree with the people who will tell you you need to work 12 hour days, 7 days a week - I couldn't spend three years living like that, and I have been told I am on track with my PhD without working myself into a miserable frenzy :-)