It is a massive learning curve, I've got a rather severe supervisor and I haven't really been able to get to grips with the material - or, wierdly, convince him that I'm not getting to grips with the material.

I'm about half way in, six weeks from submitting an interim dissertation, four weeks from a presentation and even as I post I'm sitting in front of a blank document and a bunch of papers, notes and textbooks with the honest sense that despite putting in what seems like hours and hours of reading, approaching problems etc., I know no more about it than when I started. If you put me in front of a blackboard right now I'd just clam up and, quite possibly, start crying.

So...I took a wild, mid-life career break to pursue what I thought would might a life-changing switch to pure maths. Finished an OU degree, got myself on a Masters and now...I'm falling over. Can't get my head round stuff, spending hours on the simplest problems, suffering from a constant sense of panic and fear. It's to a certain extent my own fault - I went in gung ho on a difficult topic and got stubborn with it, and I don't think I've approached it in the most effective way, but here we are.

I'm trying to figure out whether I struggle through, and potentially fail (this is a real option - everyone's saying 'stick with it' but I'm honestly nowhere and about 80% sure it's going to be a disaster), or gently back down and return to 'real life'. I've a decent CV in my original career and even a bit of freelance experience, it's not like I'm doomed I think. Just wondering what's going to look worse, ultimately...