Hiya- I just wanted to say that I'm in a similar boat. My funding/registration period ends in September and I'm worried about the write up!

Even though I've written a substantial amount (80,000+ word upgrade report), only have a tiny amount of fieldwork still to do, have completed reliability anaylses, but my supervisors feel that I need to submit at the very latest by September 2010. It doesn't look like they have much faith in me to get it all ready to submit, but I'm going to try and get as much as I can done before September 09 comes. Anyway, I must remain positive!

My supervisors have already said that I'll need to get a job to support myself whilst writing up. I figured they might want to keep me on to help with the bigger project, but it doesn't look that way! :( I too am worried about the likelihood of getting a job and I'm going try and save as much of my studentship as a I can!

I'm trying to keep as calm as possible and take it all very slowly and trying not to panic about the end product. I'm in the middle of planning my result chapters, so I'm not really writing now, I'm just planning and designing what my tables will look like.

Hi Forum,

I'm really having a bad day today! :(

I'm feeling the pressure- it's March already and crossing out another month on my white board seems to have made me all anxious, scared and panicky about the end of my registration. In terms of offical time left, I have till September to submit which leaves me 7 months (well I'm counting it as 6 months!) to go! Although my supervisors have already said that it won't be submitting by September, but I would like to submit as close to Sept as possible so that I can start thinking about applying for the doctorate in clinical psychology for 2010 entry.

My supervisors have given me the end of March to carry out two more focus groups. Both of my set up groups have cancelled on me and I really don't know how I'm going to meet their deadline! They've set the end of March as a cut off point to collect all data.

As I've previously said on this forum, I've written 5 chapters (90,000 words) which I know need to cut down massively and I'm working through the reliability of my quantitative observational measure (so far with low reliability). But I still need to revisit my chapters (dreading it!!), sort through and analyse the qualitative focus groups data as well as set up two new focus groups AND start thinking about analysis for my quantitative sections, and put my index of analysis into place.

I have supervison in a few weeks time and I feel like bursting into tears!

Time really seems to be racing ahead and I'm starting to panic! I'm doing all I can at the moment to keep myself calm!

Any tips/comments etc would be gratefully appreciated!

:-(:$

I LOVE this! great metaphor for everything PhD related! lol :D

I have to say, that I have exactly the same issue with my old school friends. I frequently question about what I'm doing! At 28, some of my school friends have 2 kids, most are married, some are divorced! On the other hand, I'm 28, single, no kids but with approaching four degrees under my belt! (and I'm looking at a fifth degree- clinical psychology training! eeeek). It's very interesting to see how our lives are very different. I do wonder whether it's a case of is the grass greener, but I would like to get all of my selfish urges with regards to my education and career out of the way before embarking on marriage and kids! Although I spoil my partner rotton when I see him! From my own experiences I would like to give my children (if I ever have them!) the kind of start in life I never had, and I see the eventual career I've laid out for myself important in meeting that objective.

Having said that, the old biological clock seems to be ticking, I can get very broody some days and the thought of approaching 30 is a VERY scary thought indeed!

Hi all, another ranting session so bear with me!

My PhD is relatively simiar to another PhD students. I'm in my final year and she's in the second year. It really bugs me that one of the first things she says to me (ie after hello) when I see her is how many contacts she's got hold off and how well she things she is doing! Perhaps she's really proud of her acheivements, but it's coming off as 'I've got more contacts than you so there!'. (It's completely relative to the actual PhD I guess and area of interest!- but still it was like she wanted me to give her praise for it or perhaps to make me feel uncomfortable!?!). I could have turned round and said well I've done this and I actually have more than contacts/participants than you but I didn't ,) lol. It's interesting that I helped her massively in sending her loads of my material (our projects are very similar) and I seriously suspect that she has being using my material and 'borrowing' my questions for her methodological toolkit. grrrrrrrrrrrrr (perhaps I should have known better!).

How do other people deal with seemingly competitive PhD students?

:-(

I got into UCL with a 2.2. I did an MSc in the psychology department. I was in the minority however! Everyone else had 1sts and 2.1s. Most people had 2.1s. My MSc at UCL was my second MSc though- so I guess that helped me obtain a place there!

Sounds like you have a good chance in getting into UCL. I wish I was back there. It's such a great place to be!

x

======= Date Modified 15 Feb 2009 10:20:47 =======
I was feeling very low yesterday. I always do when valentine's day is upon us! I haven't received any thing to do with v day for about 3 years now (and that's not because I haven't been in a relationship!).

My boyfriend did NOTHING for v day, no card nothing. He didn't even bother to send a text or a phone call and he hasn't called in about a week. I was quite jealous with couples and seemingly smug females clutching their roses and gazing into each others eyes within restaurants!

To make myself feel better, I brought myself some very fattening stuff- I scoffed on 2 cream slices, a large packet of Kettle crisps (sweet chilli) and I brought myself a box of Thornton's chocolate and considered watching something like Kill Bill! This morning, I feel ill and I feel very guilty! I completely undid all of my exercise at the gym I've been doing to pull myself into shape and to escape these PhD blues!

Maybe I should consider my options regarding the boyfriend! :(

I also did my laundry, walked into town, came into the office and did a few hours work. :-(

======= Date Modified 05 30 2009 14:30:29 =======
Just wanted to rant really- apologies in advance!

I found out (through a copy of an email on the units printer) that my supervisors and managers have decided not to include me in any of the wider projects emails. I did wonder as I hardly get any emails at all from the team about the bigger project.

I feel a little sad and deflated as my PhD is intergrated into our wider project and I started off the bigger project nearly 3 years ago. My colleagues also have not copied me into meeting notes and have missed my name of the bigger projects publications despite copying chunks of my work word for word into various publications (which I subsequently complained about).

I think they feel that I should concentrate fully on my PhD, but it doesn't help that I just feel completely out of the loop and quite frankly, unimportant and insignificant in their eyes.

Feeling glum :( Has anyone experienced anything similar? My funding runs out in September, and it's hard enough keeping myself motivated, let alone dealing with seemingly insensitive work colleagues!

The amount of time I spend working really varies depending on how much I need to do. This morning for example, I started just after 7am (eeeek!). (as I've got the horrible task of transcribing my focus groups and its soooo time consuming!!)

Usually, I work from 8am (or just after) to 5-6ish. If I've got something to do I tend to be in the office before 8am, leave around 4pm, then after 6pm, I'll start work again for a few hours. This year I've decided to take an hour power walk during my lunch break to try and loose some weight (I've gone up to a dress size 14- and i hate it! :( )

I think as other people have said, as long as you get your work done, that's the main thing! I tend to work better early in the morning, but I know friends of mine don't really start working till the late afternoon!

I tend to leave the weekends to relax (and sleep!)

======= Date Modified 15 02 2009 14:02:53 =======
Hello-

A quick question about qualitative analysis- could anyone recommend any good books, particuarly for NVivo? Also does anyone know whether NVivo is different from qualitative packages such as ATLAS.TI?. I know how to use ATLAS.TI quite well. I'm transcribing my focus groups at the mo (oh joy!) and need to start thinking about analysis.

Any help/comments much appreciated!

Thanks for your message Ruby!

I know I tend to view things rather negatively- but this whole PhD process has really knocked my confidence! Hopefully I can start thinking my positively soon! lol. I think your right, it might be to do with previous students of theirs (and their very experienced!) could also be to do with the fact that the project is quite complex with many hundreds of variables!

Well I've got to get all of my data collection by March. I would like to to get everything analysed by the end of May at the latest (if not April). Four months to write up a thesis doesn't seem long at all! I'm currently juggling about 5 things at once at the moment, but I would like to start revisiting my chapters asap (cutting them down massively) and start writing up the results/discussions chapters as I conduct analysis etc (not sure whether that will be do-able but I'll see!). Maybe get to first draft by end of July?? or am I being stupidly optimistic!! lol My supervisors are quite good in getting things back to me and are quick to point out problems etc so that I can work on them- I'm hoping that will be a good thing. My supervisors are setting me tight deadlines to get information to them in order to meet the September deadline which seems to be keeping me motivated.

I'm just going to see how it goes. I don't think I'm going to kill myself trying to get it all done by September- although it would be nice! I'm taking next year off I think to do as much relaxation as I can before thinking about applying for the clinical doctorate (that's another story!) :)

A complete full draft at the moment does seem to be such a distant occurance! but no doubt, the next few months are simply going to fly by :( I never thought I would be here working towards the final stretch!

Hello!

I'm a fellow third year person, and my funding finishes in Sept 09, so I'm kind of in the same boat! I've been worried about the lack of time and simply feeling like screaming! The prospect of 9 months to go is a very scary thought indeed! Personally, I really did not think I would get this far at all (what with upgrade nightmares!).

My supervisors have given me strict deadlines to be able to collect everything by- so I'm feeling the pressure in getting things into them. I have till March to carry out a few more focus groups (eeeek!) then from March onwards basically write the thesis. I guess these deadlines are good in a way as it enables me to focus on small tasks rather than getting all stressed and worried about everything!

I too have the same thoughts about wanting to produce a good thesis, not something that is a half arsed attempt- but knowing my picky supervisors, there's no way they would let me submit something that wasn't going to pass. On my white board, I have a numbered list of the months left to go as well as a cut off point where everything has to be completed (ie end of March). This seems to be keeping me motivated. I've haven't as of yet, but I've been advised to look at compeleted theses just to get an idea of what the overall picture will look like. Right now, I'm struggling to see what my remaining chapters will look like!

So far, I've written 5 chapters and completed 95% of fieldwork and am about to start my qualitiative analysis and begin eyeballing some the first few parts of my quantitative data (remaining data sets I'll be receiving in early March). I've written over 90,000 in total so I already know that I'll have to cut these chapters down massively to include my results and discussions chapters.

What's a little annoying is that my supervisors seem to have this negative view of what I can do which isn't nice at all. They don't think I'll be ready to submit by September with a strong likelihood of extension year, but I'll try my best to do as much as I can by then. Little bit of motivation and general belief from them that I can do it isn't much to ask I guess!

I'm going to keep plodding on, it's all I can do I guess! Hopefully we will all get there in the end!

xx

Hi all, just wanted to have a bit of a rant really!

I'm in my 'final' year now and am starting to see the finish line- or at least when my funding runs out end of Sept- and have got myself into a panic! I've recently had supervison and I'm terrified now! I'm hoping to collect all my qualitative data by the end of March and make a start on my analysis as soon as I start getting data back (all of my quantitiative data will be finished and collected by end of December).

The thought of going into an extension year- year 4 is not an appealing thought at all! :( Although I am taking a year out before I start thinking about clinical training. Six months doesn't sound much at all! I'm trying to be positive that I've written over 80,000 words already- but from what my supervisors were saying, most of it will be cut, deleted and reduced and changed in line of new thoughts and developments. A soul destroying thought!!

I have to admit, I didn't think I'll get this far, and the thought of this all ending is a very very scary thought!

Arrrrgggghhhhh!!!

======= Date Modified 30 Oct 2008 13:24:47 =======
I've PMed you :)

======= Date Modified 23 Oct 2008 16:48:31 =======

Hi Joanne,



If you have a look at my previous posts you will see that I've had some problems with my transfer/upgrade report! I'm pretty bitter about the whole thing actually, but I passed eventually!

Make sure you obtain clear guidance about your department and/or university policies regarding the upgrade report. My department does not have clear guidance and I think I suffered as a result (I failed first time round, simply because I did not have a clue of how to write the report/or what was required!). What complicates it more is that different departments have different policies and guidelines for the upgrade.

I was given no concrete written guidance about the report. Other universities and departments do :(

My upgrade/transfer report was far too long ( report was over 80,000, excluding references, tables, figures and appendicies)- and I've been blasted for producing such a large report (although they did think that some of it was excellent- at last something positive!). I was not given a word count limit, but hopefully I've given myself a headstart when it comes to my thesis chapters.

My upgrade report consisted of an intro, 2 large literature review chapters, a research question chapter (my design models and a methods chapter (detailed overview of my measures, anticipated problems and meeting ethical considerations) . I failed to include a progress to date section ( i wasn't told this had to be added) which is something that they would have liked to have seen. Maybe you could integrate your presentations into the 'progress' section!

It might be an idea to see if you can view previous upgrade reports within your department which have passed.

Good luck with it!