Sent it to you just now, hopefully at least some of it will be of some use :-)

Firstly - Sacha, thanks for the URL, tips are ACE. The 25 minute rule is working a dream...am using an alarm...though finding it hard to switch the internet off!

Secondly, I'm firmly back in head-in-sand panic mode (after about a week of feeling great about the damn thing)! But cannot get enough time to write the phd. i am re-writing a 'revise and resubmit' paper, i have to drum up funding to renew my work contract, and that small matter of a wedding means even most of my weekends are gone.

My July deadline is looking increasingly unobtainable :-(

BUT if I don't finish this PhD this summer, I probably will quit (need to find a job will mean i can no longer sustain a part-time phd), and there's no way i am going to let that happen, having got this far.

SOOO: big gulps, only a few months to go: we can do it!!

:p

hey, how is everyone getting on this week?

Last week was very slow going, I had to take numerous days off from being so tired and battle a bad cold :( So I only wrote a very short chapter (abour 14 pages). I still have half of my 1st lit review chapter and the final data analysis chapter to write (plus intro and conclusion...) ARGH! How will it ever get done?

I'm hoping this lit review chapter will be done this week, plus a section that I need to add to another chapter. Goodness knows if it will ever happen.

JulyHereWeCome - how much of your thesis is done already? How much more have you got to do? I've been writing out how much more to do on this thread, and it has really helped me keep my head cool(ish).

How did you go with writing up your pilot study PinkNumbers? Don't stress out, you seem to work hard and do so consistently so I am sure you will get there.

I am having a fairly good week after a positive meeting with my sup last week. He has now read 2 of my analytic chapters and rather than suggesting drastic rewrites he pretty much only suggested a few stylistic changes. So for the first time since I started my PhD I am feeling in control. I have a deadline for my fourth and final analytic chapter at the end of next month but I am trying to blast it and get it done by the end of March.

Keep plodding on, people!

Hi all, good to see that everyone is plodding on! Slowly but surely is good. I have been lurking but not really feeling a part of this thread as I am not really doing much at all, how awful that sounds lol. Still waiting for sups and am wondering whether they will ever get back to me. Meanwhile, I have several queries that may come up in the viva but to be honest my motivation has gone :$ I should deal with these to keep doing something or maybe address the paper for publication that I have in the background or read a few more articles for extra background. I think that i should go back to listing the jobs and assigning time to acheive them as 'structure' is what I am lacking.

Well done everyone for keeping going (up)

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Hey all! I am just plodding along...had a couple of days off to go to far-away hospital appointments so feel like I'm running a bit behind this week! Have been distracted as well- I am going to a conference in Boston at the end of the year (well, providing my abstracts are accepted) and my sup was supposed to be helping me organise a symposium based around my topic. Then she disappeared off to America or somewhere and emailed me and said I needed to organise it as she didn't have time! So have had to email loads of professors to see if they will present with me, which is pretty tough when you haven't even got 'dr' in front of your name :( But I've got there in the end, although I had to do a lot of name-dropping! Now just trying to finish off my second results paper...but got some strange results so it's proving hard to make sense of!

Don't worry Pink- I think my sup would have a fit if I came off my meds so won't be doing it any time soon lol!

Have a good rest of the week everyone! KB

Hi all,

Phewwww!!!!!, I managed to solve the problem with my code which has been haunting me for almost a month and as expected it was something silly!! I hope I wouldn't have to encounter any more of these issues. It is good to see that everyone is getting on well with writing up and I sort of stopped writing for the last two weeks as I had to concentrate on solving this issue. Also I have moved into the staff accommodation which is hardly two minutes walk from my work place (earlier I was travelling 40 min - 1 hr) which means I have handful of extra hours to work. Now that everything seems to be in place, I am going to restart writing up in full swing.

I am aiming to finish the first six chapters by the end of May:
1. Introduction
2. Literature review
3. Algorithms
4. Models
5. Validation
6. Study I

Concurrently I will be working on Study II and Study III, and hopefully if I managed to finish these by the end of May I can carry on writing the rest of the four chapters,

7. Study II
8. Study III
9. Conclusions
10. Future Work

I am keeping my fingers crossed to submit my thesis in the first week of October!!

All the very best to all of you!!! (up)

hi peeps. I've done no work in the last two days. All my family are in Japan, and been spending the last two days watching Japanese TV online and crying. Don't think I will be working for a few days, I am finding it impossible to even read anything at the mo.

I think under the circumstances Pink Numbers, you should take a break from your studies to concentrate on your family. It is bound to be very emotional watching the broadcasts as they are familiar for you. It is an awful natural catastrophe that will take a long time to recover. I sincerely hope your family are ok.

Dunni is right Pink - concentrate on finding out about your family, the PhD can wait. I really hope as well that everything is okay - it must be tough being so far away.


Take it easy

Ax

Hi, Im joining in the discussion having been made aware of this thread. First I hope your peeps back home in Japan are alright pinknumbers. PhD can wait. Families are most important.

I have till end of June to finish my thesis. I have 5 chapters in a science PhD. So far.

1) Intro
2) More lit review+ introducing my work and initial/small results
3) My model, results. Fittings, and then compare with others results to support my model.
4) Extending my model, more results.
5)
6) Conclusions

Chapter 3 and 4 are the meat of the thesis. Im on my second draft and having to redo all my results again. Chapter 5 is blank and I need to do this before end of June! It needs to be a new chapter of work. I don't know how the hell Im gonna finish. It feels absolutely impossible. Current thesis needs more time to finish and then I need to get cracking on the new chapter.

Having bad experiences that resaerch takes so long, I have lost confidence in finishing off anything so quickly. Do any of you have similiar experiences? Each day goes so quickly. I seem to be only able to do so much each day. And this is already middle of March. Im so stressed that Im working 7 days a week. Life is crap. Be good to know what other people's "To Do" list is. How much is done, how many chapters left, how much work is finished, how much work is still new left to do.

It feels like Im doing half of my Phd in this last 3 months.

Hi Globetrotter, I am also in science so my thesis is very similar in structure to yours:

1. Combined intro and lit review
2. Data Handling (Hills plots and Stats)
3. Validation of Model: set-up, methodology, battery test results, discussion and suitability
4. Model use in experiment 1
5. Model use in experiment 2
6. Model use in experiment 3
7. Overriding discussion
Conclusions (very concise)

Each of the chapters on model experiments (1-3) uses the device to test other 'new' theories and as such the results of the first leads into the second and ultimately the third.

Do you know what work needs to be done to complete your 'experimental' chapter?  The hypothesis for this needs to be decided upon asap so that you can set aside time to run those experiments. I would device a time plan of what needs to be done and what time is allocated to each part.  I would analyse the experimental data when it is collected and insert the data and graphs/tables into that chapter (to save time of repeating yourself by going back and re-analysing etc). Set up a chapter structure once the data is achieved so that the frame for writing it is there, again to maintain focus.  Perhaps allocate most of your time to getting the experiments done and have a smaller amount of time set aside to complete the existing chapters initially. Once the data is complete then allocate more time for the whole write-up.  I would think that for ch 5 you need to have adequate data for conclusive stats but don't aim to do too much if this is not the 'meaty' part of the thesis.

It may seem overwhelming currently especially with the June deadline approaching fast.  It can be done if you are organised and structure your time accordingly. So plan out what time you have til submission and start allocating your activities.  Have you spoken to your supervisor about this? There may be allowances to extend but you may need the paperwork in now rather than in June.

Hey Dunni,

Thanks for your input. It is comforting to know that someone elses thesis is very like mine. I have had a look at others people's thesis and they had different chapter stutures and more chapters. Most likely because I dont know their work.

Yes, for my last chapter I know roughly what I need to write. Its complicated because it is something that i did when I first started my PhD and later came my current work. It is a bit tricky because it is linked to my current work. We didnt finish it because we had some difficulties. I just want to finish it off, and write up what I learnt. My sup had other ideas last time I spoke to him. He wanted to tie them together which will take longer.

How long do you think it will take you to finish one of your experimental chapters? It looks like yours is very similiar to mine. Is it the same experimental set up for all 3 chapters or do you need to do something more different for each one? How much new thinking is involved in each?

thanks

Hi Globetrotter, I also feel comforted by the fact that your thesis structure is very similar to mine as I have not really read any other related theses.  I found the worst chapter to write was by far the model set-up, methodology and battery of tests that I did to validate the design as there is so much data and validation in that chapter. The easiest was the three experimental chapters as they were all very similar.  The format of these chapters was exactly the same, just different data presented i.e. I used the same model and tested say one product effect in it, then followed on with a similar (slightly varied) product for the same effects. So essentially the work was the same but the tested product was the variant.  The discussion led from the first through to the last chapter, just applying it to each product tested and getting deeper into the discussion, so that really worked well too. I think it took me about two weeks to produce each of the experimental chapters working part-time for about 15 hours a week.  Assuming your thesis is similar, you have probably broken through the worst part of the thesis write-up.

For your next experimental work it is good that you know what needs to be done. Can you overcome the difficulties you experienced previously?  If so, is it good practice to tie these results together if the methodology is slightly varied? You could perhaps put them as two variations in the same chapter and compare/contrast the results. This could be a nice area of reflective work of 'what you would have done differently'!  Obviously, it would be useful to agree with your supervisor of the best course of action, but given the time I would do the experiments that would give you data that you can present in the thesis and then if time allows continue the work to gain extra data to tie them together. Maybe it is worth rechecking with your sup the reasons for his suggestion, ie if it is a critical consideration for the standard of the thesis then he could win lol!  While you are conducting the experimental work, I would also start writing that chapter so that the data just needs to be inserted as you get it. Write-up and data collection can be done in parallel so keeping your focus on the thesis still.