I was worried about all the things that I should be doing as a PhD student but I have found now in my second year that things seem to fall into place naturally. For example last year I went to a couple of conferences just to listen and learn and met some fellow postgrads. This year conferences seem more relevant to my topic and I feel I have done enough research now to be able to present it at conferences. No way would I have been ready last year. Re publishing, I am not worrying at the moment but will wait to see how the conferences go. Also I would never have dared say anything to 'proper' academic last year but I know there are going to be some interesting people at some of these conferences whose work I am looking at and I think/hope I would now feel confident with my research to at least talk to them.

Thanks Shani,
I know there is a marking criteria sheet of which the convener didn't have any but I have been in touch with the assessment office and they have furnished me with copies.

I posted a while ago when I was about to start graduate teaching and was concerned that I didn't know much about the topic. I have managed to muddle through so far by reading the set texts to be discussed in the seminar. However, I have just found out I have to mark their essays - maybe I'm niaive not realising this but I was never given a job description. The course convener is very dismissive of my concerns and wasn't helpful at all when I asked what the procedure was for marking. He also dismissed my concerns when I said todays seminar was particularly difficult especially because none of the lectures on the subject are actually before the seminars so both me and the students have to discuss things we know nothing about beforehand. The other teaching assistant told me that the previous year the course was run by somebody else and she thinks the chap running it this year is doing an apalling job. I said I was going to complain about the lack of support and she said she would back me up.
What are other people's experiences and do you think I have grounds for complaint?

I should have guessed from the title -'going crazy'
If you haven't already seen this post I'd advise you to read it.
http://www.postgraduateforum.com/showmessage.asp?thread=8831&cat=4&threadpage=1&newview=1

I'm not saying it will happen to you but I think eddi's experience shows that we need to stop and assess what we are doing sometimes for the sake of our health.

Wow, how do you manage to do everything that you do?! Having written your first chapter, and having papers ready for publication as well as writing a novel would be no mean feat for anybody in their first year, but working full time in the City as well makes you superhuman!!What is your secret?

Rosy, was the fact your supervisor didn't have a PhD the only reason you had to change them. Was this something your institution decided or your funding body or just you.
Does anybody else know whether supervisors need to have a PhD. My first year supervisor hasn'y even got a masters but was an expert in her subject. I felt she wasn't very good at supervising academically and didn't even know I had to have a literature review. I basically found out all the stuff I needed to do myself and told her.
At my first year panel my lit review was criticised and I was annoyed as she had seen a number of drafts and said it was fine.
Luckily she was a replacement as my main supervisor was on leave and is now back thank goodness. However I have just seen the AHRC report from the project I am part of and they say there are concerns that I am getting the correct supervision and training considering the supervisor was a replacement.

Congratulations Rookie. It's good to think back to that feeling when you get accepted to do a PhD and remember why we are all doing it in the first place.

I have just started my second year and I think I managed to get quite a bit done in the first year, considering I had a lot of personal trauma to cope with. I did a lot of reading and collected a lot of data which involved travelling round the country.
But now I suddenly seem to have loads and loads of things to do. Maybe it's because I actually have an idea of what I am doing so am working on specifics rather than general things I might have been doing last year. I know the second and third years are tougher but just wondered how anyone else in second year (or third)is dealing with it.

Olivia, I don't know if either of these are of any use. The first is a consumer group and the second is the regulator for the rail industry but I don't know if ticket agents would come under that. Good luck. I get very annoyed when organisations screw up and then won't listen to or deal with complaints.

http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk/
http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/

I managed to get last night's work done after getting up at 7am this morning. I decided I needed a day off today and like jouri decided to stock up with food. I spent loads but bought healthy stuff as I had been eating rubbish for the past few days.
Re work, I wasn't going to do anything but I thought I would just update my bibliography and I now find myself an hour and a half later still working. I don't need to do anything tonight but I can't help myself. I have a fridge full of delicious food and a chilled bottle of wine. I must stop and relax......

I have a deadline of tomorrow morning at 9am for a section of lit review to send to my supervisor. I don't envisage being up all night but I will probably be working till after midnight and maybe get up early tomorrow to finish off. I keep telling myself it's only a draft but I still want it to be perfect. I should accept it will need to be re-written and just hand in what I have done without agonising over it.
I think we all have something to learn following Eddi's recent experience.

They are just jealous that you are organised!

No, I think you are approaching this in a very methodical way and I wished I had done that. I wrote my lit review for my year panel in Jan and had it ripped to shreds (not literally but I felt like doing that afterwards!. I am now re-writing it from a different angle and using themes and notes addressing a list of questions about each work but I wish I had been that organised in the first place. It would have saved a lot of time and hassle. So, I think your way of working is very sensible.

I can't even spell either!!!

I maent to say 'planning to change the actual paper in parts' but seemed to stop in mid-sentence. I've only just started writing today and have a big section of my lit review to e-mail to my supervisor. If I can't finish sentences properly now I dread to think what I'll be doing at midnight when I'm desperately trying to finish stuff!