yeah i was left to muddle on aswell, even when i did cry out for help, some supervisors just arent interested if your not going to bring them worthy papers. well done for pushing on globe_trotter
, its what i am trying to do aswell i refuse to give up!
with regards to securing an extra year,i am not sure thats possible and i wouldnt rely on it,its usually set in stone that you have a year from your funding ending to get written up and submitted, only an extreme circumstance will get you extra time if its caused you leave during your research. for your own personal well being a shorter term goal might be better, as you dont want to drag it out and be too relaxed and think you have plenty of time becasue the days pass quickly!

i am in the same boat,not with the perfectionism but i have had a very unsuccessful project, i almost left at the end of year 1 and decided to battle it out, things seemed to get better but i had to throw months of work away because things werent quite right, now i have half a project, i am just aiming to secure enough data for a masters and trying still with not great success to get the other half working. i too am anxious about having a 3 year gap in my cv. i dont think you will get another year as you will have a set date to be written up by, but you could maybe use a few months of your write up period to accumulate data? you should seek an advisors advice about what they think your volume of data will achieve asap

for some time now my phd has not been going well,i am struggling to come to terms with all the theoretical work,as much as i am enjoying the experiments i just feel constantly drained and unhappy.I had trouble making constructs so i could explore the more novel side of my project,and todayi spoke to my supervisor and i asked him what should happen if he thinks the phd is not going to work out. He tells me that he doesnt feel i have enough data at this point to write up for a masters,particularly as there is no novel data results, and id only have until 1st october to do so and leave, failing that i then have to carry on into my 2nd year as an official phd student with no option of then leaving with a masters,only to leave or carry on and make up a lot of lost ground in the hope that it comes together and i can pass.could you tell me if there are any other options open to me such as even writing up and getting a diploma? my friend suggested this to me, i just feel like im in a catch 22 where either way what i do the outcome may not be good.