That is interesting piglet. Though I am terrified of the viva at the moment (and I'm only at the start of final year), I hope that I will be like Hillyg when the time comes. But I like the Aussie system for the way it seems to be more rigorous, and to actually give some opportunity for monitoring progress all the way through. In the department i am in we dont even have upgrades - the supervisor has to send in a form every quarter to say whether progress is satisfactory, but as he hardly knows who i am this means: he asks me if everything is going ok, i say yes I think so, he signs form and sends it off. Now i am starting writing and noone has ever commented on my stuff I am starting to get very, very scared.

Piglet when you say the final examiners are international do you mean they are outside Oz or that they have international reputation but could be in your department?

TBH juno I've given up worrying about what people think.

OMG - does this mean I am becoming the stereotype arrogant academic with no care for personal appearance and no social skills

At the mo tho I think it has to be whatever gets me through this bloomin PhD. And i have to admit I have given up trying to work in the communal room we've got and just work at home now (lucky enough to be able to do that).

not got any advice, but it sounds a horrible situation. I take it that your new supervisors are the 'best' available, so no chance of changing or getting anyone else involved? Did you ever think about moving with your original supervisor(s)? Depends on practicalities of course, but it sounds as though you had a really good set up. Otherwise, if it is any consolation, a lot of us have given up on any hope of supervisors actually being useful and are ust doing it ourselves.

and happy afternoon!

bed is for wimnps

It doesnt matter if you are a student, a full time worker or a highly trained baboon, it is being an employee that counts. If you are employed then any income (above the limits mc2006 gave) is liable for income tax.

I dont see how you can NOT be paying tax on earned income - anything I have earnt has had tax deducted before I saw any of it. If anyone really is not paying tax on earnings then watch out, the inland revenue will catch up with you sooner or later.

juno, from long experience, I'd recommend investment in some earplugs, or decent headphones to block out noise.

making me mad, spending the last couple of hours worrying about a strange flashing icon on my new mobile before working out it was telling me I had new messages.

Going to the library very organised with a list of references I needed to photocopy and books I needed to get out and loosing said list somewhere about half way through finding the journal articles

OK, have finally worked out that the problem was me not having the default language on the computer set to UK speak

OK, I give up. Does anyone know how to change the default language setting for footnotes/endnotes in Word? I've trawled through all the help I can find, both with the programme and on the internet and can't work out how to do it. It keeps putting me back to American and i am getting VERY ANNOYED.

(and yes I know I should have worked out how to do this earlier - but my supervisor never reads the main stuff, let alone the notes, so I've been gritting my teeth and accepting being forced to write in american)

I sat down with a (metaphorical) sharpened pencil and clean bit of paper today to actually start writing properly and I havent got past 'Chapter one' at the top of the page yet!

sounds about right to me. One v experienced supervisor (not mine) reckoned you needed 500 days of work for a PhD, which if my maths is right is somewhere between 3 and 31/2 days a week. Don't underestimate the amount of time you'll spend thinking about your PhD stuff when doing other things (good times for me are walking to campus and doing housework) - even if you are not consciously doing so. It all counts.

Wow! congratulations - well done DJW.

What's daft is that supervisors are still pushing the idea that a PhD is three years 'doing research' then a year 'writing up'. A PhD should be do-able (i.e. to submission) in three years - this is what the research councils want (that's why they fund for three years), it's what universities want, but still most PhDs take longer. Great for the supervisors of course, they get more research done on the cheap.

wish I could find a way to keep the weight under control. Maybe I need to ask my supervisor to start being nasty and hassling me more so that my stress levels increase. Ann, did you loose weight on the vodka chocolate diet you were talking about in the other thread?

err, why would you want to do that? As soon as you register the clock starts ticking to when you have to submit your thesis, there is no point in registering and then NOT studying!

You could do it the other way round, start studying (unofficially, eg doing background reading etc) in October and register in January.