Having been inspired by the prospect of my first BBQ of the year I decided to set myeslf the task of completing it by saturday afternoon! I got it done by 2pm, went to the BBQ, and of course felt obliged to celebrate and got exceptionally drunk and went out dancing. And as a complete bonus I woke up without a hangover!!
Good luck all those of you who are writing at the moment.... I know that I'm going to have some revisions etc so it's not over but at the mooment Im just enjoying the fact that I actually have a thesis written! :-)

Well I'm due to submit my first full complete start to finish draft of my thesis to my supervisor on Monday....and over the last couple of weeks I've managed to re-do a substantial part of the analaysis for my main study (1 of 3) and write it's discussion. I never thought I was going to do it and had absolutley no idea what to write....and suddenly after a lot of late nights I had 3000 words. on the page.
Now its just the summary/conclusion chapter to do....and boy Im finding that hard. And only have the weekend left - eek!
Good luck to all those writing!

So, in the midst of writing up hell I find that a glass of wine on the go seems to help matters....this dooesn't seem to be having too much of a severe impact on the quality. Well not so far.
Have just about finished bar a bit of tidying up here and there and a final summary chapter but wondering if now would be the time to stop filling the glass?!

Anyone else have a drink while you work appraoch?! :-)

Hi all,
Wondering if anyone can throw a few statistical pearls of wisdom my way!! I thought I had worked out what to do with my data....but having just read Andy Fields stats book (my bible!) I think I might have a problem....

I'll provide an example. If we were to categorise individuals by their stats knowledge.

1 - low (me!)
2 - medium
3 - high (hopefully you!)

then give a 6 month stats course to all individuals.
To see if there are significant changes in the level of knowledge I thought I could could categorise my time points (1=pre course, 2=post course), categorise my knowledge level (1=low, 2=medium, 3=high). Then run a Chi-square to see if there is a significant difference in category distribution from pre to post.
However....I've read that you can't use a Chi square for repeated measures?? I don't relaly understand why? I guess that each individuals score will be effected by their baseline score...but if Im literally interested in if there is a significant change from the number of people in a category from time x to time y is this really a problem? If so what's the alternative???????

Thanks inadvance if theres any one that can help!

:-)

Thanks for the tips guys! Now have USB attached to my house keys......so come to think of it if i do it again Ill not only lose my work I wont be able to get in my house either! lol but that wont happen. Never lose my keys!
And no there were no pics on there! lol

OMG I cant tell you how relieved I am!
I foolishly left my USB stick (with my entire phd on!) in one of the public access computers in one of my university buildings!! Was having a major panic but one of the security men just let me in and it was stilll there.....so relieved!!
I of course do back up but must admit havent done so for about a week or two and have written loads so would have been absolutely gutted! Phew.
Note to self (and everyone else!)......attach USB to self at all times!!!!

Thanks for the support everyone.
I have had some counselling in the past to try and deal with my supervision issues/situation etc but didnt find it particularly helpful as I kind of felt like I could talk about it til the cows come home but it doesnt actually change the situation. Really in the grand scheme of things I have to spend very little time with this supervisor now so its not the end of the world, but its just the fact that they are there and around. I have a panic attack almst every time I see them. It just feels so unjust. My other supervisor has been quite supportive and I suppose coming this far it would be so silly to quit. Suppose I just have to let it go and know that at the end of the day although the situation Im in is wrong and unfair, I'll have my PhD and then I can just walk away. Thanks for listening to my rant. Was feeling veeeery down about it last night but I suppose a good nights sleep (well, even a poor nights sleep) gives you a bit of perspective, thanks again.

Thanks for the reply. I know so close to the end it would be silly. Datas all collected (and was pretty extensive!) and thesis is almost written in draft form bar a discussion for one study. So would be stupid to quit now. Just feel like after all the hassle Ive had and wanting to quit at various time points people have constantly told me to carry on and that it will get better etc. But every time I find myself in a worse situation than the last time.

I know this place is anonymous I just feel if I give too many specifics smeone will know how I am. But basically for various reasons there has been a breakdown in my supervisory relationship but I am stuck working with this person who has serious issues and seems to have a vendetta against me to stop me finishing my phd. Just wont leave me alone. As soon as I think its sorted and Im getting on something else happens, like getting hit with a complaint. This was thrown out by School as false but still its just hassle I could do without. I dont even go into the School anymore and have moved home because I dont feel comfortable being there. I knoow its only a couple of months but its just making me miserable and although friends/family/fellow researchers etc are supportive I dont think anyone really has any idea how much its actually effecting me.

Hello everyone
Im only 4 months from submitting my thesis but Im ready to quit. I cant even go into why and the reasons behind it all because Im so scared my supervisor will somehow read this and make things even worse for me. I know it seems silly to come so far and give up now but is it really worth all the hassle and stress? Its making me ill.

Sorry, just needed a rant!

I got slightly excited when the calculator told me I had a whopping great 1460 days left to complete. Obviously just backdates it to your start date as opposed to telling you what you actually have left. In reality I need to knock a 1000 days off that first estimate...... *sighs*

I made myself a huge timetable in excel of my whole thesis outline and when I propose to have each section started/completed. My supervisors already gone through it and changed half the plans! lol Good to have feedback though and now know what to work on. Theres a LOT to do though. And not much time to do it in! :-/

Hi guys,
Ive decided that I need to make better use of my time because I have become the worlds greatest procrastinator. So I thought that bearing in mind I plan to submit October 09, I should start making a plan of what I need to do and set myself some (realisitc) deadlines.
Just wondered if anyone had any advice/tips on where to start, how to break things down, or if there any websitres/templates that I could use to get started? It all just seems to big at the moment to even know where to start!

Sorry! MEant to post this in the other forum!

Hi guys,
Ive decided that I need to make better use of my time because I have become the worlds greatest procrastinator. So I thought that bearing in mind I plan to submit October 09, I should start making a plan of what I need to do and set myself some (realisitc) deadlines.
Just wondered if anyone had any advice/tips on where to start, how to break things down, or if there any websitres/templates that I could use to get started? It all just seems to big at the moment to even know where to start!

Thanks Studentken. I cant say that it was a positive experience but thankfully I have 'passed' so to speak and can now progress. You are right the process has given me a firm basis for lit review and methodolgy sections so can expand on those and start getting things written up. And I suppose being ripped apart now will be good preparation for the real thing!
Thanks for your support