Thanks Rogue. You are right. I won't let this bad experience from stopping me doing a PhD. I had a bad feeling about this guy at the interview, but because I was accepted for the project and I liked the project itself I picked it.

Yes, now I understand the importance of seeing the labs, meeting the people etc before choosing a PhD. I won't let it deter me.

Thanks so much everyone.

Lamp: you are right, all my colleagues said exactly the same thing to me, and they could not believe what was happening to me. They thought it was insane to be harrassed and criticised so harshly within the first three months. When I got the letter threatening me in January they were like "your supervisor is mad". Yes, I went to the college tutors and they urged me to write a report, stating facts, which I did. They said they would take it up with the head of the department and I'm waiting to find out what happens next.

I would add that this supervisor is young (29) and I was his first PhD student.

It culminated with an exam in which they asked me really easy questions and made it look like I didn't know the answers (he even said to me "you know all the answers to the difficult questions, but you can't answer the easy ones"....

They forced me to quit.

I was really depressed for a while. The college moved me onto another project, but I declined.

One of my friends from another college also had the same problem and his supervisor forced him to quit.

For the next four months I was working under the threat of being forced to quit (with a black mark on my college record), he set me exams, he made me do a mock viva without telling me that is what is was and he examined me on tests which I was about to do (as opposed to examining me on something I had done). Under their threats of forcing me to quit I had to sit this exam for the sole purpose that my supervisor could prove to his colleagues how useless I was. He aliented me from some of my colleagues. He gave the MSc students help and I was forced to ask them to help me, because he gave me no guidance. He told me that I should be able to do this work (it happened to be sophisticated simulated computer design, which at the beginning of the PhD he told me I would get help with) on my own and that the MSc students received no help....

I started my PhD in October. It was a different topic from that of my degree, yet my supervisor still picked me and he told me that the reason he picked me was because I was the best at the technical in the interview and I had the best credentials.

So I started out, completely not having a clue about what a PhD entailed other than the words of my colleagues, who were a year ahead of me. My supervisor wanted my literature review to be in after 3 months of starting, along with full characterisation of my materials and most of my tests underway. There was nobody to help me in the labs and when I made a mistake he heavily criticised me. He never encouraged me once; I did not hear the words "thank you" or "well done" for anything I did - only every single thing I did criticised.

By January I had a letter telling me that he did not think I would get through the PhD and I should think about resigning. I was totally distraught, because I was doing my best.