Hi
Can anyone help me please. I am reading divided opinion on whether my questionnaires should go in or not. My prof. said it is up to me!! If they are not ones I have designed, e.g., MMSE, what is humble opinion?
Many thanks, submitting next Friday...
PN

I am also submitting on the 27th :) I keep looking at the Olympic Clock, it is counting down for me....a small problem is that my uni. is in London and I am worried about getting in and out in one piece, not good planning! I am trying to persuade my Prof. that I ought to submit on the 20th instead. I can't believe it is so close, it feels surreal after 4.5 years (had to take 1.5 Years out due to illness and family matters). Good Luck all of you on here, we are nearly there, how exciting :-)

Well one consolation is that ours is similar!!! I have loads of Appendices too. By the way, I recognise your name when I logged in many moons ago, we are nearly there :)

Hi
I am submitting in 21 days and it is all looking good after an abominable 18 month delay due to illness and family matters.
I am concerned about the length of my thesis. It is a European style thesis with 5 separate studies, each in publishable format with a general intro. and discussion which are quite brief (5000) each.
My entire thesis is around 60 000 words, my supervisor is a guru in our field and 'knows' this is fine. I am the worried one.
It is very stats intensive with structural equation modelling and hierarchical regression analysis for every study and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) for one, which apparently is why it is brief. It is in the field of cognitive neuropsychology/neuroscience. Can anyone reassure me about the length of my thesis?
Many thanks
PN

Hi Sue
Lol!! Don't worry, I will stay here too, less pressure :)
Just got a presentation back from my Prof. He phoned me, well, there was not much I did right, it seems!
Basically have to re-do it all.
Once this conference is over on Wed. I am tackling the analysis and starting writing, yes, starting, so I have a lot to do....!
We shall keep each other company and not beat ourselves up!
Keep in touch
PN

Oh,wow, well done, Bilbo, you must be so proud....I am green with envy!!!
Hi CakeGirl.
I am still out here, I just don't even get time to post on here, so mad it is!
I am heading for mid July but no idea now how I will do it. I am up to my eyes in Real Life dramas and PhD ones too.
I will check out the 6 month forum!
All the very best,
PN

PS

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Helloooooooo! I am here....!! Fresh from the 10 months into link.....!!

Yes, I am aiming now for 6 months but my Prof reckons 8!! Only because I have such a complicated analysis to complete and I am waiting for a script to be written for me (brain scan analysis - MATLAB).
But, I need to aim for 6 months, for sanity purposes....
Came into this fair New Year's Day with great trepidation, knowing at 24.00 hrs, I could officially say I was finishing my doctorate this year....
Come on, we can do it....:-)(up)(mince)(robin)(turkey)

I was devastated to let go of my May deadline. I had my heart set on the whole summer off with my children and the big party I would have in June etc. etc. I was quite depressed when my Prof. said, no way would I finish by then as my analysis is going to be huge, I was very demotivated. But, I soon came around and realized the time would fly if I just set myself this timetable, which I did. I am now working flat out to even achieve an August finish. I have an abstract due by tomorrow but can not go forward until I hear from my Prof. and he has gone 'quiet', not a good time to go quiet on me. I have only just woken up to the fact that I have not thought about Christmas. Did some furious online shopping yesterday for my children!
Yes, a virtual party, will be good....:-)(robin):-)

Hi Everyone. I thought about posting just yesterday to see how everyone was doing!
My news is that I was sent away to do more data collection, in spite of my upgrade examiners who said I had enough, my study is huge, will cover post doc too. So, my finish date has been moved from May to August. I was so upset at first but now I am just going to make most of the time. Busy putting together the study for presenting in USA in April but it will form one of my chapters, so it is not wasted. I haven't started writing yet, that starts in January in earnest. It is funny that at this late stage, I am having wobblies about ever getting this PhD, but it sounds like I am not alone. I just need to keep my head down and stop thinking.....I am self funded so can not afford to go into a 4th write-up year, I have to finish and start earning. Ok, onwards and upwards, very best wishes to you all. PN.

Hi All
Glad to hear we are all on track. Good Luck Bilbo, wow, that is a blow, a month being sick. Glad you are better now.
8 months to go for me now, almost. We have got our conference next week and I finished the analysis, took 5 weeks, loads and loads and loads. Brain totally fried. Tried to carry on testing more people so I could 'just re-analyze' later. No way, I am doing all this again. The few I managed to carry on testing will have to stay as back up. Now trying to get my structural equation model to fit the data by mmmm, actually today! So my Prof can put together the presentation for me to view over the weekend. He is presenting, I have provided the donkey work, this time.
Struggling financially too now, no idea where I am going to get my final fees from and trying to tutor for the OU at the same time as all this :p
Let's hope I find a post-doc to pay back the debts which I think I will have by this time next year.
I start writing right after the conference. I hope I have enough time left. I also have to finish my sub-study to present it next April in the USA. I don't think there will be much Christmas this year!
We can do it (up).
All the very best, keep in touch...
PN

Thanks for the replies. It really does help to know you are not alone out in the finishing off wilderness. You all sound much further than I am but I guess our projects are probably so different from each other's too!. I am glad for the deadlines of conferences. I actually booked and paid for my hotel next April to keep me going! My analysis is HUGE, I am using two stats packages right now that I have never used before and two that I have, scrolling down 22000 lines of data to trim just seems so mind numbing at times and I have to do this 9 times but I am on number 6!. I have started to do chunks, walk away, entertain and feed the children (who are on holiday but wondering why Mum is cramming over the laptop muttering sweet nothings most of the time). I keep thinking about the great holiday I will have next July/August before I start my postdoc on my project.
Ok, I can do this. Good Luck everyone, stay in touch.......we can do this.

I have never felt so tired in my whole life and I am a sportswoman. I am analysing day in and day out, preparing for a presentation on the 1st/9th. Then, it is onto re-analyzing as I am still collecting data, then onto the write-up, preparing for another presentation in the USA in April, then finishing off by 31/05. This is a crazy, manic workload and I can see the end of the tunnel but what a ride still to go. Who is also here now or has been here, what helps keep you going? I have thought of buying something online and registering as 'Dr' PinkNeuron just to see it in print and then framing it to keep me going these last 10 months!

Sorry for the misunderstanding. My whole research is a big study, out of which, 5 research studies are formulated. The first will be presented in September but the others will just form the basis of my thesis. So, my thesis is 5 studies extracted out of my data collection. The thesis basically will be standard PhD length so I really wanted to know if it is unreasonable to complete a write up in 8 months? I am not planning to publish until post-doc, which will be the studies themselves.
PN

Apparantly, yes. Perhaps some Endnote specialists can answer this. The two examiners said it was the easiest referencing software to use with Word etc. and this is the software my Uni supplies free for PhD students.
PN