Hi Bonzo

Gr8 idea!! I was thinking of letting this thread grow, and it really si growing fantastically in a couple of days, and then, once we cross some figure, lets say 50 or so, we could compile it all together as a kind of 'achievement'! Advice can be categorised, given personal anon examples, with quotes and who knows....this may be a nice downloadable e book too!!

Oh gosh, listen to PHDbug, desperate for publications so much so its running in her forum posts now..urgggh...:p

Phdbug - Yeah, would be willing to sort something out alright, but would need to be a few more and would need to keep it someway reasonable. Will be back in the office tomorrow and will get the thinking cap on. Any other people interested - it can count as your good deed for the day and its tax deductible!

One more tip people - be happy at your limited resources, as in the words of Frannie Coppolla

"We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went insane".

Try to be realistic. The PhD is never going to be perfect - it just has to be good enough.

Learn to take criticism gracefully even if you disagree with every word - write it down, go back to it three weeks or so later and take away the helpful bits when calmer.

The incredibly intellectually arrogant 'I'm brilliant' person who starts at the same time is probably not that bright! Don't be intimidated by people who confuse speaking the jargon with real research findings.

If you're arts /social sciences as someone already said, write, write, write. It's much easier to redraft faulty earlier work than to try and write the whole lot in six months.

Don't bury your head in the sand and forget to look beyond the PhD. You need to get a job at the end of it. Find out early on what the expectations for an academic career, career in industry or whatever sounds appealing are, and try to keep a few different options open. The write-up stage is hell and all-engrossing and is NOT the time to suddenly try to do everything to make yourself employable.

wow top tips has gotten a sticky ;-)

nice one admin.
i've yet to post my tips, will do soon though, probably be a repeat of all the great advice already given!!

lost it's stickyness?

Hi guys, am new to this forum, though I've been posting tons lately :p but whats a sticky thread? Also, do keep this up...remember the tons and millions of books that've been written on Phds and how tos and what nots? Probably just a few are really good...so this...is actually "empirical" data!!! keep writing in...once we reach 50, we'll collate the stuff together!

One more tip: I find this useful...to keep a PhD Journal. For me its hand written because I get so tired of typing all the while...just 5 mins at the end of the day before pushing off to bed, jotting down all that I did in the day...we've been speaking of this in the PGF in other threads as well....

Good Luck for all those who (like me) are trying to write....

PS: Anybody knows who this quote is by? Am paraphrasing it: Writing is when you look at a blank sheet of paper and beads of blood form on your forehead...or something like that LOL!!

======= Date Modified 12 Sep 2008 22:26:12 =======
============= Edited by a Moderator =============
Sticky threads simply stick to the top of either their own forum or all forums. Sticklers are admin controlled not user controlled.

Although I am a first year student, I would say the most important thing is to be positive and maintain a gud work-life balance.....Yeah and maintaing gud health , especially mental health is very important!!! U dont want to go CRAZZZZZZY at the end of all this........Yeah!!! and try to enjoy all what u r doing!!:-)

I am starting my third year (eek!)... I would say:

*Have a routine that means you have scheduled time off.

*Start writing any time you have something to write - do not save your chapters up until the end!! It is a process...

*be aware that this course is an emotional rollercoaster and that part of getting a PhD is dealing with this uncertainty! Sometimes you know everything and have tonnes of confidence and sometimes you know nothing and feel so disheartened and stupid... It's scary but it is the nature of the beast!

Enjoy! - and, of course, congratulations on getting on the course!!

x J

Btw, I do have a blog that has been going for a few months - it starts when I was close to completing my first chapter and facing my MPhil-PhD transfer meet. It is very silly - and quite honest I would say - it mainly works with the view that I am not the brightest or most sensible bunny in the box but muddle through. Consequently it will happily make you bright sparks feel a whole lot better about your PhD skills and future!!! There are tips and advice on it too from what I have been learning as I go through.

http://trialsandtribsofaphd.blogspot.com/

x J

======= Date Modified 17 Sep 2008 09:48:21 =======
Wow!!! I am now moving over to this forum from the MA one - I've just completed and submitted my MA dissertation and start my Phd on Oct 6th - I'm soooooo scared, but so excited. I was planning to start a thread just like this - and here one is! This advice is just amazing - thankyou so much for this!



I will no doubt have tons of incredibly stupid questions over the next 3 years - I have my first now if someone doesn't mind spoon feeding a techoidiot - what is endnote??? ;-)



Can someone also tell me what I can expect in the first few weeks - I know that all courses and unis are different, I'm starting my Phd in history - so I'm a humanities sort of girl :-) The BA and the MA were all laid out - induction, courses, lectures, classes, submission dates - this time I feel kind of like I'm going into the unknown, short of submit a massive thesis in 3 years time! I'm very lucky in that my supervisor was also my supervisor for the MA and is wonderful, but he's told me not to email him and not to even THINK about the Phd until Oct lol (yeh right) as I need a break after the mania leading up to the submission ;-)



Thanks - and looking forward to getting to know you all 8-)

Amanda

Stressed buddy...I submitted my MSc dissertation this month, and my PhD starts in less than two weeks. We can stress out together wail wail waillll ....I am SOOOOOO scared.

sorry i didnt read your earlier post. Endnote is a bibliographic and reference software which lets you store your references, manage your soon-to-be-increasing bibliography, cite while you write etc etc...its prolly available free in your school comps as EN Ex 1 or EN 9 or something...the guides are available online...

Forum, I am dreadfully sorry for 3 posts but I DID NOT read the whole post by Stressed. Amanda, me toooo...have same supervisor from MSc in my PhD and she is FANTASTIC...we've been sharing tons of thoughts...are you there on facebook? Oh we should get talking....my topic seems so wooly and after fantastic MSc talks with her I feel so foolish actually going up there for a PhD meeting with a wooly idea...Ok no more now...tips please everyone!!!

There's been mention of a PhD journal below, but I've found that even just keeping a word document with what I intend to do every day has been incredibly helpful. It might be something like:
Monday - chapter 2 corrections
Tuesday - chapter 2 re-write conclusion
Wednesday - start drafting interview schedules

I started doing this in January of this year and now when I look back on it, i can see where all the time has gone. If you are one of those people who are prone to thinking "I never achieve anything! I'm not working hard enough!" it is really reassuring to look back and see that progress has been made. Plus it forces me to be realistic and accept that it takes me 3 months to write a chapter even if I like to think I could do it in a few weeks if I just "tried harder" :-)