i can really recommend "statistics for business and economics" by mcclave, benson and sincich which i found very helpful even though i'm a linguist :-)

1. don't yell at the boss.
2. learn to be civil to people you don't like.

hiya guys - i'm BACK!!!
i had no internet since i moved to london, that's thankfully been sorted out now :-) since i moved here 3 weeks ago i have resisted severe temptation in the form of pork pies, pasties, christmas pudding, apple/mince pies, cheddar, chocolate oranges etc and also have been walking around london for hours each day. i've lost 3 kilos in three weeks - only 6 more kilos to go now! am very pleased... it is totally doable till christmas if i keep away from the english culinary delights i haven't had for so long and keep up with the sight-seeing/walking around london.

ps: got a distinction in my MA - very pleased! have been slumming around since my last exam on 11th september, but now have to start work on the new MA again...

in the end it's your life, not your parents' or grandparents'. you've got to be happy with your decisions, that's the most important thing of all. your parents will get over it after a while. you don't want to be kicking yourself in 10 years time because you conformed to your relatives' wishes and demands on how you are supposed to live your life. my parents had 3 daughters in 3 different countries and used their "homes away from home" regularly. they're quite dissappointed i've moved away from the netherlands to england because now they can't stay there any more... now 2 of us girls are living in england and that's way more boring!

i just wear what i always wear to conferences. jeans and a top (and maybe a cardie too if its cold).

yay!
just spent a few hours printing out the thesis and sending it off to people who asked for it...puh! knackered.

rubyw: i did want to start a phd now, but for funding reasons i first need to do a research master (1 year), then i can start on the phd (3 years). my MA isn't ESRC-approved (well, it's german, so that's not surprising) and so it would have been very hard to get +3 funding without having done an ESRC-approved MA first. so this way i get 1+3 funding.

contact the supervisors you're interested in abroad and ask.

I AM DONE!!!
after reading for about 8 hours/day since sunday i had my final oral exam today - and just breezed through the 40 minutes! i knew every study mentioned, every theory and hypothesis and mentioned the newest research in the area - yay!!!!! i got a distinction in my MA thesis from my one examiner (the second one - grrrrr, not) and distinctions in the oral and written exams!

i fulfilled my conditional offer for UCL (thank goodness), leaving for holland in half an hour, then on the ferry on sunday!!! then i will start on my second MA... (have to to get ESRC funding)

tomorrow i've got a farewell cake party at work, then will spend hours printing and binding my thesis and sending it to interested people (while i can still do that for free, haha), backing up my data onto external hard drives. saturday me and my parents are going to amsterdam (*sniff* farewell holland) for a day out.

yay, after so many years: i have finally gotten my first degree!!!8-)

i would go see a counsellor if i were you, OP. it sounds like you might have a problem which should be addressed professionally. extreme anxiety could ruin a lot of things for you (not just your phd).

mwahahaaahaaa! (laughs maniacally)

hey sabrina, chin up!!!
what you're feeling is totally normal (!), i'm pretty sure everyone on this forum has felt like that from time to time and what's more, i'm sure that almost every postgrad student has felt like this before. you're not only not alone, you're NORMAL :-)
sometimes it just all gets to be a bit too much!

i suggest you contact your unis counseling service TOMORROW and make an appointment straight away. that way you can talk, face to face, with someone who understands your issues (and has heard them a million times before), who can make good and helpful suggestions and who won't tell anyone else about it. best idea, really. i've been there (pssst!)...
in fact, we were probably both crying at the same time last night... 8-)

i use silicon earplugs (like play-dough) because one of my flatmates gets up at 6 everyday :-( now i can sleep again!

don't you have computer clusters in your uni? until i got my first computer/laptop (6 years ago!) i wrote all my theses/papers at the uni computer cluster, that's 6 years spent in the uni computer cluster... it's open 24/7, met some very strange people there. alternatively, maybe a friend isn't using their laptop that much and can lend you one?

why don't you copy/scan the texts? i haven't bought a uni book since my first year, just copied/scanned them all. way cheaper.

hiya everyone, had a bit of a lazy day today so far, got up (very) late after sleeping for about 12 hours, then went into town and treated myself to a bit of retail therapy as i currently only have two tops that fit me and my jeans are very baggy now. want to look good during the exam on thursday... got 1 top and 1 pair of jeans, very pleased. will start reading and taking notes in a bit, when i've finished procrastinating on the net :p
wow, i felt ALIVE today, sleep really helps.

======= Date Modified 06 Sep 2008 00:07:38 =======
thanks everyone! was walking around today with a big smile on my face after sending it in. was in the uni library for an hour (then i fell asleep so i decided to call it a day), preparing the exam. i haven't actually ever done anything in the topic, so technically, it's not revising, it's new acquisition :p thankfully it's a relatively new field, so not MASSIVE.

hope you all do well tonight, i'm off to bed "early" today, trying to get back into normal sleep pattern again and VERY TIRED. haven't slept more than max 5 hours/night for the last week because of panic situation and computer problems.

Ok everyone, sit down, hang on to your chairs and brace yourself for a major shock: My MA thesis is finally finished!!! (drumroll)

After several nervous breakdowns (which thankfully no-one witnessed) at a time when sensible people should definitely be asleep in bed I managed (after a further nervous breakdown at the computer) to send my thesis to my supervisors as a PDF attachment this afternoon. After arriving in Bielefeld at about 1am yesterday I was determined to FINISH THAT THING OFF. Unfortunately, the iMac I was using had totally different ideas about the whole matter. Major problems ensued. My iBook had already given up on the idea of Endnote 7 and Endnote X which was the referencing software I used for the thesis and which contained all my 120 references. Ok, so my iBook is elderly and sadly lacking in RAM. Plus, I should never have installed the newest Mac system software on it (bad mistake). Understandable.

So I took the Endnote 7, X and Adobe PDF making software with me and installed it onto my parents iMac. No go. After several hours of total horror and desperation I finally managed to get the referencing software to work with Word and format all my references. By this time it was about 6 o'clock in the morning. After this, rewriting the last parts of the thesis was a doddle. I was ready by 9am and fell into bed. In the afternoon I checked stuff like page breaks and made everything into a PDF.

However, trying to actually SEND the PDF as a mail attachment to my supervisors proved almost too difficult. Again, major drama (imagine tears, cursing etc) ensued. I was already wondering whose computer at uni I could hijack for a quick mailing session and failing that, where the nearest internet-cafe was. But, after trying out each of my three email addresses I finally found one which would upload the PDF (after waiting for ages) and send it (less than 1MB - what WAS the problem???) to my supervisors.

Done. One last exam next week Thursday at 11.00 and I am a free woman.

And what have I learned from this whole story? Don't move your thesis from one computer to another, even if everything is SUPPOSED to be compatible.