hi academicadam47
your post today is similar to the first one you posted recently "accepted for a phd...."

From what I understand, your post today says that the Research Process module is getting you down. But you are doing extremely well for other assignments!

It feels to me that you are disappointed because you haven't been able to get an A for Research Process, you are a Perfectionist and you dislike not having everything right.

Learning research does take a lot of effort to understand and to apply what you learn. Because you haven't actually fully applied your research methodologies makes it more difficult to master them. Don't worry.

Just because you don't know Research Process like the back of your hand, doesn't mean you won't master it later.

Why don't you just relax and enjoy the rest of your MA? You have a PhD studentship waiting for you. Why don't you look forward to that instead of moaning about this module?

I promise you that you will eventually learn research methodologies, once you start your phd, you will love it. Don't worry be happy

love satchi

hi, can somebody help me access this paper?
thank you in advance
love satchi

Patient and Visit Characteristics Related to Physicians' Participatory Decision-Making Style: Results from the Medical Outcomes Study
Sherrie H. Kaplan, Barbara Gandek, Sheldon Greenfield, William Rogers and John E. Ware
Medical Care
Vol. 33, No. 12 (Dec., 1995), pp. 1176-1187

hi Heron welcome to the Forum, your questions:
Yes plenty of people have done phds. It is possible.

How many hours do I need to put?. I have NO IDEA of how to get a topic or anything as of now - if I were you, I wouldn't count hours to put in, I would look at whichever days I can work for the phd, and just do that step by step. If you count hours, you will find that your kids will get in the way, your husband will get in the way, everybody else will get in your way.

no you are not insane to think of doing a phd. The only downside about doing a phd (and it applies to EVERYONE) is that sometimes a phd can really take over our life. We live and breathe only the phd, and this affects people around us who are NOT doing the phd.

I think everybody needs to be sharp :-) but don't worry about deadlines, because most people do take longer than 3 years. If you want to do a phd, work towards achievable targets, don't look at 3 years to complete, it will drive you nuts. If it happens, then it happens.

To do a phd, will not be too different from when you did your masters.
Since your husband did help you a lot.

What you will need is loads of support from him (or your family), talk to your husband, make sure you still allocate time for him. Husbands are like "pets" (no offence intended), they need nurturing.

If you nurture your husband well, he will support you and he will do even more for you (without you having to ask!!!).

If you have parents, ask them to help you to babysit, and then start planning out family things -- like when you will go grocery-shopping, when you will clean the house etc.

everything starts with a dream, best of luck
love satchi

hi! welcome to the Forum
yes, if Allah wills it, you will find the right PHD!
I think you maybe need some time to make a decision, sorry I can't make helpful suggestions as mechanical engineering is not my area.

One thing I can share with you is -- to ask yourself what makes you tick???
What makes you feel most inspired and happy to work on?
If it is robotics, then go for it.

Don't think about money and jobs.

Look in your heart. Allah is all Merciful and Compassionate, Allah loves EVERYBODY
you will find the answer soon

love satchi

hi kelpie
after downloading the free version express scribe, now I don't have permission to install it! AAARH! so i have to contact the IT people to help me.

I have finished one transcription during the weekend, I was feeling so tired. And my elbow aches. Sorry for the rant...

I have asked my librarian to help me get the Creswell book! so that's at least some good news for today

thank you so much for talking to me
love satchi

Congratulations on finishing your bachelor degree!

see below:

lots of things you can do! either get a job, continue masters, get into phd, get married, colour your hair, go shopping, learn cooking, get a new pet, make new friends, go cycling, go running, make a meal for your mom, clean your mother's house.... etc

love satchi

hi Funtoink
guess what I have transcriptions to do today :-( boo hoo
haha, well boo-boos aside, I would like to share something with you -- I was working on something with my colleague, and there was a delete button which we pressed, and it cleared a lot of the previous actions that we did in our calculations, so much until we lost everything and because the files looked the same, we forgot which was which. My colleague panicked, and she said I'm scared now. I was annoyed at her because she said she was scared -- what is there to scared about?!

Because we pressed delete, we had to retrace our actions. In doing so, we actually learnt the probably hundredth time around this time to do things correctly! So that delete button was actually good for us.

Don't be afraid of making mistakes because mistakes teach us a lot of things. In fact, they help us grow as well.

Another thing is -- never mind if you don't know what your life purpose is (at this moment!). It is ok not to know :-)

May I recommend watching this video if you have time, Eckhart Tolle's writings have helped me a lot, especially through my phd.

love satchi

hi professor
welcome to the forum! It gets difficult to answer questions like yours because everyone is in different areas and everybody is usually too busy to search around specifically for members.

Anyway a good place to start is here below, findapostdoc.com
you need to look by yourself because only you can decide what is suitable for you, and you know where you are relocating etc.

best of luck
love satchi

hi AislingB, wowzers, kelpie, Pjlu
thank you so much for your helpful replies. I will look for the copy of the booy by Creswell. My university doesn't have a license for NVivo. Is the free copy of Express scribe enough? I will look at AltoEdge as well. I will have to do transcriptions this weekend -- because I am way behind time, it feels a lot harder because this is work-related. During my phd days I could work around myself, and now I have to meet deadlines for work :-(

one thing for sure I don't feel so isolated now about qualitative work. thank you for being there for me

love satchi

hi Pjlu
your post makes an excellent read for all of us on especially the realities of life and doing a phD. What is another 10 months to a year to finish the phd? It is perfectly fine to put it on hold whilst you get this other qualification which will help you down the line, it is a good decision.

I recently had a call from my previous university because I hadn't handed in a "school-leavers" survey form, it was asking what graduates were doing etc. One of the questions the lady asked me was whether my phd was needed for the work I was doing, to which I said yes and the other question whether my phd prepared me for work environment, this one I said no. My PhD did not really prepare me for work environment, it was more academic than ever, and I pretty much had to learn things on the job.

So if your other certificate will help you job-wise, yes do go for it.

51 is very young, it is nice that your children are older because now your life more or less belongs to you. I've seen friends having kids in their 30s (also late-30s) and now they are in their 40s and they feel so tired all the time. By the time they get to 50s, they will have to deal with teenage issues etc. I think it is not a bad idea to have children early.

thank you so much again for sharing, and best of luck with the certificate :-)
love satchi

hi everyone thank you so much for your replies!

No I haven't got transcription software. I didn't even know which one to get, at least now I have some direction where to look.

Kelpie it is a good idea to do the transcription on the same day. I think I will push myself to do this. It's just that I don't like doing them so I think I have been putting them off. I must discipline myself even more.

I am only familiar with thematic analysis.

Is there any quick reference or website I can learn about different types of qualitative analysis? One for dummies? Can somebody recommend something to me. So I have a better idea. I didn't even know that there was something called discourse analysis.

Thanks very much
love satchi

hi chickpea
yes we have silent study rooms we can use, only thing is I need to see if they are available. I think I will work from home when I need to do transcriptions, that will probably work out better for me.

Another thing, when we transcribe, do we actually have to write every single word out, like can I omit my own questions, and just shorten them instead of the whole question? When my subject keeps saying ..."and so" "errr...." I very often don't put that in, also I find after a few minutes my elbow starts to hurt.

It seems silly but I do feel a bit stressed when I start transcribing, and then after a few minutes when I've actually got something down on paper I start to feel better.

Thanks
love satchi

Are you looking for a funded masters in Italy?
May I suggest contacting the universities directly in Italy, go to their website and see if they offer scholarships, and then apply directly. Alternatively go to findamasters.com and look for Italy.

You may not need to go through an agent after all.

I have had a friend who was granted a PHD scholarship in Italy, unfortunately for him the funding was not enough to survive, he was given something like 800 euros per month which couldn't cover transport costs from his rented room to the lab etc. and he told me he had a very "stingy" supervisor who would not support him for further training or conference etc. until today I don't know what happened to my friend, I have not heard from him or seen him online since. I also don't know whether he is staying away from us (online) because most of our cohort who have gone on to phds have already completed our phd or maybe he is too busy having already completed his phd and already moved on with his life.

Anyway, I am sure you will find something good, and please continue searching.
best of luck
love satchi

hi awsoci and chickpea thank you so much for talking to me!! I feel like going crazy doing transcriptions. Unfortunately there is no funding to pay for professional transcription so I have to do it myself! I feel so miserable when I start to do it, especially when I have to stop, rewind back to where it was that I heard gibberish!

I have a colleague who does not do transcriptions, he says he has no time, I don't know how he works without transcriptions?! I guess there is no correct or incorrect way about doing qualitative research then? I was thinking abut my colleague, but I can't do it his way because I can't remember what people have said to me. In the end, I think I still have to transcribe which is a real pain.

Also, how do you cope with doing transcriptions -- I share my work space with people, and sometimes they are making phone calls, talking, laughing, or discussing research etc. It's such a pain I wish they would all just stop talking, stop making all that noise.

So in the end I go away somewhere with my headphones with my little notepad and scribble whatever I can decipher.

where is the best working space for transcriptions???
thanks
love satchi

Hi there iamminime
Welcome to the forum! What is T^T? Oh yes your score of 3.3 is a good achievement well done!

Since you have missed the deadline how about focusing yourself to apply for the next deadline instead of looking around in a rush? There may be universities looking for students all year round but people here may be too busy with their own stuff to actually point them out to you. It's not that they don't care. Maths is not my area so I haven't a clue where to look.

My best advice to you is to keep looking and go for the next deadline. You still have time. Some people do their phd at a very late age, it really doesn't matter if you lose a couple of months applying for your masters scholarship. In fact if you are applying as a foreign student it could even take longer due to visa applications etc.

Well done again on your 3.3 don't give up, keep looking!
Love satchi