Hi Sneaks,

I usually jump right in too. I just pick up random ones, mark them with feedback, but only pencil in their grade. Then when I've finished the pile, I organise them in mark order and go through a few with the same grade to make sure one doesn't deserve a better grade then the other. I think it's impossible not to compare really - but this way I'm only comparing to make sure the grades are consistent rather than comparing marking.

Good luck! :)

Thank you Sneaks. I'm sorry about all your wasted hours, but I feel comforted to know I'm not the only one. I'm actually in the process of designing the online one now so thanks for confirming its a good idea! :-) Just got to make sure I catch up on all that wasted time now!

Sorry Rick, just saw your reply. Thank you also. Honestly, you guys have really cheered me up! :-)

Thank you keenbean. I've calmed down a little now (slightly!). Unfortunately I can't ask the participants to come back as I have already anonymised results (it's quite a sensitive topic so part of the ethical clearance was to be vigilant on anonymity). But thank you so much for assuring me that I'm not the only one. My supervisor's on leave at the moment, but I will fess up when they get back. I feel still like some day soon they'll realise how bad I am and boot me out, but I guess I'll just keep trying my best until then. :-)

Thank you so much DT for your reply. I'm just so worried about how I'm going to make this time back up again. Our uni keeps on drumming the three year deadline into us - but I don't think I'm going to make the four years at this rate. :(

Hi all,

I've lurked for a while but need some support. Has anyone ever made a big mistake in their work? I'm about half way into my second year and feel like it's all been a waste of time. My first study didn't get off the ground which wasted three months or so, and now I've just realised I've done something completely stupid with my next study. It's a questionnaire study and I haven't been giving my participants one of the sections, so am missing all data from that one page. :( I can't believe I've been so stupid. I'm so scared to tell my supervisor. And to top everything off I did a presentation two weeks ago on some of my results so far and now I've looked further into the stats I don' think my assumptions were very valid. Am I just in too deep with all this?! I feel like the world's biggest fraud, and maybe I should just give up. I'm so so stupid!! :(

Sorry for such a negative first post.