Hi everyone. Hope you all having a good week churning out the goods.

I am struggling this week with SPSS trying to make head or tail of my data. Because I'm not writing and just repeatedly trying to get to grips with cross-tabs, descriptives, etc I feel I'm not producing any words. I know I have to do the analysis in order to write about it but it soooo tedious.
I wish I could just pay a statistician to do this for me. It would be so much quicker. I don't really know why we can't - I'm not going to be examined on how good a statisitician I am, but on how good my interpretation of the data is.

Plodding on....

Hi,
At my university in the Midlands you can get a distinction at masters level if you average 70% in all of your marks and a merit if you get over 60%.
At Phd level you just pass with no, major or minor corrections, or fail, or are given a MPhil.

Six at mine too unless you've got real reasons like an illness or baby.

Dunni you seem so organised and prepared. I'm sure you'll make the summer deadline.
I'm not that far ahead. I've finished my data collection and spent a month inputting a massive amount of data into SPSS and I now am trying to make sense out of what I've got. I'm well ahead on things like my lit review and early chapters but the next few months will just be hard graft. If I submit in August/September I'll be so relieved. But post-docs all seem to think that 3 years is a pipe-dream and 4 is the norm so perhaps this last hurdle will be harder than we think.

Dunni, I know several post-docs who still doubt their ability to make an 'original contribution' and they've already passed! One of them still thinks an examiner will change their mind and find out she did something wrong even though it was four years ago.
I think this 'contribution' bit is what worries me most. I'm happy with my data collection and analysis but what is it really telling us and how is it improving our knowledge? Is it just really worth a Mphil and not a phd? How can we tell?

Someone told me that what you really need for a phd is dogged perseverance rather than intelligence but I think you also need self-faith, which I'm lacking a bit at the moment. It worries me that my supervisor has never supervised a phd student before and has only coped with masters students until now.

Ady, your post is spooky because your history is exactly the same as mine.

Thats really helpful Ady, a great post. I can see where I've been going wrong now in applications.
I think it may be difficult for some people to get a good reference from someone outside their institution - finding someone who knows your work thoroughly, particularly if their ext. examiner has not been appointed yet.

I think the biggest distraction is the internet.
I have to stay online to actually work and it is so tempting to access all sorts of sites - from shopping to entertainment to sites like this.
Sometimes I use my laptop in front of the tv in the evenings and do even less work. If I''m doing something a bit boring I will definitely go on the internet instead of carrying on.

Hi everyone. My phd is on a legal problem and my structure is similar to Ady's. I have:

Chapter 1 lit review
Chapter 2 what I think the problem is
Chapter 3 methodology
Chapter 4 data collection and findings
Chapter 5 data analysis 1
Chapter 6 data analysis 2
Chapter 7 conclusions and recommendations

When I'm in wrting mode I don't let myself stop each day until I have done 500 words. It does'nt matter if it is 500 words of rubbish, because I can always cut it out, but at least it makes me feel I have done something.

I find sitting in the car on the school run a good time to think about things - although one person told me when I began that it was important to have 'reflection' time and so I don't feel guilty now when I just sit!

Like some of the others, I am a 'mature' student who was offered funding to complete a phd and as there was nothing better to do I took up the offer. However I am really looking forward to finishing it and the sense of acheivement (I hope) I get.

Yes, its this 'level of abstraction' that worries me. My thesis has qualitative and quantitative elements - the quantitative element is straightforward and just has to be worked through, but finding the right interpretative approach will be key for all of us I suppose. Over the next few months we will have to start firming up our ideas so that when the summer comes we won't be panicking.

Hi, this is my first post here. I too am hoping to finish this summer (wishful thinking!)
I have some chapters written - literature review, methodology etc. but still have some data analysis to do. I get hardly any supervision but just plough on regardless. Someone told me perseverance was the main thing needed for a phd and they were right. Just reading about someone who has been given an Mphil instead at their viva gives me the shivers because I think it is how we write up that will make the difference.