Signup date: 20 Oct 2005 at 5:31pm
Last login: 30 Jan 2021 at 1:10am
Post count: 5282
A-level tution can pay quite well - I think I was getting 35-40 an hour + travel costs. I had students come round to my place too. Very rewarding too, one of my students went from a B to an A in a particular subject and got their place at cambridge.
Just find a tution company and join up. Helps develop good communication skills - explaining ideas etc to people.
I basically read through my thesis, carefully annotating with either typos or where I felt I might have to clarify and what I could say.
I also was told to read recent papers of the external examiner and any related papers to my thesis subject.
I reread key papers.
My viva was quite long 3 hours (my thesis was very long though), I found it extremely boring and I was very tired from lack of sleep. The external kept making points that I though were only slightly related to my subject. Most of my corrections (minor) were due to gaps from literature dated 50's 60's - I wasn't impressed but was glad it was over and done with and fell asleep on the way home.
I wouldn't worry about not having a job yet, it's not that great. It took me so much longer to submit etc because I basically had a job before I had even finished writing up.
Good luck!
I'm guessing this is the same as a journal club?
I had to attend two. The first one took place every few weeks and one person from the rota had to find an "interesting" paper and create a powerpoint presentation to discuss the paper:aims, methods, discoveries, results, conclusions, crapness of methods etc. The person had to talk for an hour (including questions) - it's flipping hard to talk about someone else's work for an hour.
The other one was every few weeks too but about 6 people would find an "interesting" paper from the field and were limited to 5 slides and about 10 mins to discuss the paper - crapness or fantasticness of methods.
Things to organise (that I can think of): You need a room with a projector and a computer booked at a particular time slot (fortnightly/monthly).
You need willing participents (postgrads/postdocs) who are in the same field (or similar field) to both attend and also to present (possibly have a presentation rota too)
Set rules - similar to the 10 mins, 5 slides only.
Goodluck
:-)(up)
Can I recommend an A-level (+) textbook - my bible for A-level and for tutoring chemistry:
Chemistry in Context by Graham Hill and John Holman (if you aren't already using it)
I would start by looking up a particular topic in this book and then moving up to the more complex literature.
Hang in there, you will get there with a little hard work. If you get desperate, consider private tuition from one of the chemistry postdocs/phd students.
Toshiba is the way to go, I've had a couple of them and they are extremely reliable and VERY durable. I've stomped, kicked, dropped etc and they have always survived. One died because I left some used waxing strips on it and the wax seeped it. The second one I had to get rid of for my new work laptop.
You also need to consider desktop replacement vs lightweight. Desktop replacement = heavy but useful if you are not going to lugg it around, can have high specs, dvd drive, large screen etc.
If you want to get a mac, there are various pieces of software that allow you to simulate different OS but this might be a faff for you.
Dell is ok, good after-sales services.
Sony laptop's are stunning but you pay a not-so pretty price for the brand.
HP or Compaq are about the same price as Toshiba's but not as good (IMO)
ACER are good for the price.
fujitsu siemens - absolute crap, stay away.
If you know anyone with a Costco card and you can get to a Costco, they do excellent prices on some of these laptops.
PostgraduateForum Is a trading name of FindAUniversity Ltd
FindAUniversity Ltd, 77 Sidney St, Sheffield, S1 4RG, UK. Tel +44 (0) 114 268 4940 Fax: +44 (0) 114 268 5766
An active and supportive community.
Support and advice from your peers.
Your postgraduate questions answered.
Use your experience to help others.
Enter your email address below to get started with your forum account
Enter your username below to login to your account
An email has been sent to your email account along with instructions on how to reset your password. If you do not recieve your email, or have any futher problems accessing your account, then please contact our customer support.
or continue as guest
To ensure all features on our website work properly, your computer, tablet or mobile needs to accept cookies. Our cookies don’t store your personal information, but provide us with anonymous information about use of the website and help us recognise you so we can offer you services more relevant to you. For more information please read our privacy policy
Agree Agree