I know others love Field I just happen to have bought a different SPSS guide (Pallant - has been fine for me). Tabachnick and Fidell and similar are good as occaisional references but you might not get your money's worth from buying copies - wait and see if you need them that much. I have Cohen et al Applied multile regression/correlation for behavioural sciences which is very thorough and it saves me the trouble of trekking to the library as I work mainly from home. Depends what you are doing (how advanced is advanced?). I find if you have very specific isues you can usually find resources/papers online to help. The further you get into the math the less likely any one or even two texts are to deal with your issues as advanced stats is an area of math with many differences of opinion. I would try out other books from the library first as they are quite an expensive investment and I have bought a couple I really don't that find useful. I've found some really useful advice in this hefty text though: Handbook of Psychology volume 2 Research methods in psychology, Schinka and Velieer.

Cassy I don't really understand your situation - what exactly DOES your husband do?? I totally don't see why he is not taking AT LEAST 50% of the household chores and childcare. I think you could do with more time and I would suggest your husband gets your daughter fromr school and looks after her for at least 2 days /week. I think that's really very little to ask in the circumstances.

It's just supply and demand I'm afraid. The grade thresholds are a way of weeding down the numbers of applicants when there are too many for one post. If you want to get past that (and cancer research is pretty competitive - perhpas not the best choice) I would start making personal contact with key potential superviors in the field. Find out where seminars are being held that are relevant and go to them. Basically, try to make a personal one-on-one impresssion to support your application.

Well if you've got your AHRC funding personally I would totally let it go. Extenuating circumstances are not uncommon, unfortunately, and there has to be some kind of boundary, as Stressed mentions.

Just word your letter carefully. I suspect you need to do this for some sense of closure if nothing else. I don't think it's likely they will overturn policy right away but you never know.

There is a general problem with this type of marking system and in my dept they have got around it by doing away with 'distinctions' altogether and letting people figure out the marks for themselves. I suppose you are worried about funding for a PhD since social sciences usually require a distinction. But your marks and references will be part of that application process so it should come out in the wash.

Is there any chance you could get some afterschool care? I know that's difficult with an 11 year-old. If your husband has just retired - couldn't he look after her after school for a while? My husband looks after my daughter on Saturdays while I workl. My daughter has a childminder 3 full days/week. I would find mornings only after the school run a pretty short time to get much done.

I was hoping to submit by Xmas but that is impossible. We moved house this year too - it does generate a lot of time-consuming tasks.

There are quite a few of us about. I work mainly from home but the downside of that is the isolation and lack of adult interaction. Also, when otherwise I might have taken a tea break and had a chat, at home, my 'break' is doing the dishes, laundry etc. How old is your child/children? My daughter is 3 and I'm hoping to submit in March.

My funding was suspended and I got no maternity allowance. In the end, I had it supended for 2 years (which is the maximum allowed here). I get child benefit, which is not much but very useful. I just had my last funded year so we are back to paying childcare with no grant so I can submit this year. Fortunately my husband can support us but I do feel very guilty at the fact that he is basically paying for me to work :p

Indeed I did and it is a very sore point. I then went on to pay for the main recruitment (just don't ask....). I just tried to save it out of my grant. I did consider changing depts in my second year, but I really didn't think I could complete a new project in 2, or even 3 years - and I was pregnant. It seemed that I either had to make this project work or leave with no chance of trying again. So I stuck it out. This is not an uncommon situation - I know quite a few people covering their own research costs. The trick is to have a very cheap project!

I'm interdisciplinary and was recruiting for long questionnairres that would take up to an hour. The pilot design and execution was taken as seriously as the PhD overall (i.e. very seriously) and I did submit a proposal (I also used this proposal to apply for external funding for research costs - short-listed but no bananas). I started the pilot first year second term intending to finish it by the summer (which I think is a sensible plan). The recruitment was so difficult though that the pilot alone ran on into May of my second year. It cost about one thousand pounds.

A116 - I am writing up now and the recruitment was DEFINITELY the most difficult part!

I recruited for quant data. I paid 10 pounds per person for about an hour. It was difficult to recruit for this project and I used posters, leaflets, mass emailing and newspaper advertising. A lot depends on who your target group are. The smore pecific the target group is, the more tricky and expensive it is likely to be. You are wise to look into the cost of recruitment - it can be expensive. I recommend testing your recruitment method of choice in a pilot study first asap.

Congratulations!

Some supervisors can be difficult about this and in my limited experience females sups are the hardest. I aggree be firm and assertive. Talk to your admin/personal peaple asap and be very clear about policies in place for maternity. It's a very regular occurrence - there is probably a group of some sort for student parents. If she is churlish about it don't take it to heart - sounds like her standard response to anything academically 'non-productive'. Don't let your sup spoil the experience for you.

I had my daughter at the end of my second year. My sup, who is a nightmare in other ways, was totally supportive. I took a year out for maternity (then another but that was part of an overall plan to go part-time). I was sick as a dog for the first 3 months and had a huge baby that made my last month hard going. But I am a haggard old bag and you are most likely younger and fitter!

Well I certainly hope it will feel better when I get a complete draft!!

Ruby - a sensible person would never have persevered with my project but I did and her I am and that's that. Let's hope we all get our Xmas drafts done and can enjoy Xmas.

Personally I have never worked as intensively on the PhD as I did on the MPhil. I think that was the hardest I've ever worked in my life. One year courses tend to be very intense and I don't feel I could sustain that intensity for a PhD (and also I didn't have my daughter then). I work 9.30/10 to 6/7 3 days/week (when daughter is with her childminder) and 10 to 4/5 on Saturdays (husband takes daughter out). I very rarely work evenings because I'm tired and it makes me feel as though I have no life - although I keep meaning to. My daughter doesn't get to bed until 8-8.30 and I like to go to bed 10.30-11 so it's not a huge amount of time - I'd rather relax. I am not one of life's natural grafters and rely on strong motivation to get me through. Since that is flagging these days the going is tough.

It sounds as though you are very driven and acutally enjoy working a lot of hours/week - but still - take care as it is early days so don't burn out. Different projects at different stages require different amounts of work - they're not all the same so there is no standard amount of time you should be doing. Just guage what needs to be done and go from there.