I have only 4 months left to finish my lab work and I still have loads to do. I am terrified that I'm not going to get it all done and I will fail at the last stage. Anyone else having the same troubles? How do you know when you have done enough? Everyone keeps asking me about writing up but I haven't even finished the work yet and it just makes me feel awful and rubbish.

yes,yes and yes,i know exactly how you feel,its so scary!!Ive made a list of all the experiments i have left to do and started sorting figures for the bits i have done and this made me feel a bit better!Thing is when i panic i cant do anything so having a list to systematically go through somehow makes it a bit better,might help you?Other than that im sure we will be fine...........hopefully!

Is there anything that you could start to write up now? I'm in the same situation and I found the whole 'writing up' thing really daunting, so I'm trying to write little bits while I'm still in the lab (just making a graph or writing a paragraph here and there). That way when I come to sitting down to finish there won't just be blank white age in front of me. Even though the stuff I'm writing isn't axactly top-quality, it's still easier to change things than to start from scratch.

My supervisor recommends dividing each chapter up into subsections, then dividing each of those into paragraph that make one point, until what you have left is not an enormous piece of work but lots of little tasks. It also helps you get your head around what specific things need to be done before each section is complete. Have you spoken to your supervisor about how your work is going to be transformed into a thesis?

i write up the methods section while i'm doing the experiments. i find that really helps later on during writing-up as you already have a finished section

trillian,

"My supervisor recommends dividing each chapter up into subsections, then dividing each of those into paragraph that make one point, until what you have left is not an enormous piece of work but lots of little tasks."

that is EXCELLENT advice! i read about that in a book on how to write a phd thesis.

thanks for sharing that!

ignore the people that ask about how you're writing up is going...

concentrate on getting all your lab work done, and 4 months is plenty of time, to accomplish alot! and you wont fail. you can do it! we're all right behind ya!

and there are always more experiments you can do, but you finally have to draw a line. and can always put in the thesis, for future...so do your best and get as much lab work done as you can. and if you're not feeling too tired, try to spend a day or so a week, writing up what you have done, and reading a paper. it does add up!

i've read a thesis that passed, where the student said stuff like, experiment needs to be repeated to verify findings, etc etc. and he passed!