Thank you :-)

======= Date Modified 05 Sep 2008 12:00:03 =======
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hiya, having som problems trying to get into the forums.....the newest posts section is all i can access. I keep getting an error message when i try to log into PhD life.....anyone else having this problem? It just started yesterday for me. SOME CONTENT REMOVED BY MODERATOR

"And steer clear of Sony - difficult to upgrade and just full of proprietary components. Why pay for a name? It certainly doesn't imply quality".

I have had a sony laptop for the last year.....super fast, copes well with every programme I have tried on it and has never given me any problems. Also great sound for music......Overall, its a very good quality laptop

Im having a different problem, when i click into the PhD forum I no longer see a list of threads, I only see one on the page. ANyone else having this problem?

posted to your other thread ....oops

*experiments

what type of ecperiments are you doing? What are the positive controls? PCR? Western blotting? Someone here may be able to give you some suggestions

Time to really make them work for you now.I think you should arrange another meeting (maybe bring in a student mediator/ombudsman/neutral person), get detailed feedback of what they feel is lacking and get a clear plan of how they want you to proceed. Make it clear how dissapointed you are with receiving such drastic feedback at such a late stage in the project and ask why nothing was said at an earlier stage (make them ans this question!). Formulate a plan to move forward with a tightly scheduled timetable, asking them to be realistic about the amount of work they want done. After all a PhD is a training period, and you have already spent X amount of years there.Finally dont get too disheartened, these things do happen

Not sure changing supervisors would be the best idea.the whole project will probably take longer if you start working with new people.Im interested to know where exactly your supervisors were during formulation of the PhD question-why didnt they have any input.I think you deserve better supervision than that. They get well paid to do their jobs and it sickens me that they just dont!

and it even plots the graphs for you automatically

have u tried using graphpad prism? Im not sure if it does everything SPSS does but I found it much much easier to use and there is a free trial version online (I think......well there used to be anyway :))Talks you through which stats test you need to use and gives examples.....great for someone like me who hates stats :)

Authoring a PhD thesis by Patrick Dunleavy is well worth a read.I think its aimed more at social science students, but Im in biological sciences and found that most of the information is applicable to my writing too.

make a table of contents, list all sub-sections and give a short overview of what each will contain, give bullet points as to what your discussion will contain. You should have a very clear idea of whats going into it at this stage since you have started writing it so it should only take a couple of hours to do. Also make a timeline graph (a gant chart, i think) showing what you have done, and what is left to do. I've nearly finished my thesis (also a biological scienec one) in 4 months (but that was not solid 9-5 wirking ) so Im sure you can get it done on time. However, the onus is completely on you to make sure that your supervisor works hard for you and provides timely feedback on all drafts. Ive found the "is it corrected yet, is it corrected yet, is it corrected yet" approach works for me

also,is there a student ombudsman at your university?Might be a good idea to go talk to them and get some advice as to how to handle this stressful situation.we have one at my uni and i know that somwtimes they offer to sit in on meetings etc. as an independent party.

Hi Lara,Ive had plenty of problems with my PhD and supervisors but im now at the writing stage and am glad i stuck it out.I think you need to turn up at his/her office with your detailed plan and talk it through.it sounds as though emailing just isnt enough to show how serious you are about it