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I got a distinction in my Masters, studying part-time over 2 years, and certainly didn't put in masses of extra time! I was a very minimal student I'm afraid, mainly for disability/illness reasons. But I focused carefully in what I studied, concentrating on those areas most important, and making sure to pick a dissertation topic that I could really get my teeth in.

It probably also helped that there was quite a lot of flexibility in the earlier essays I had to do, so I could bend them to suit my interests and existing experience. I was at or about distinction level throughout my essay marks, but the final dissertation obviously helped to swing things.

Good luck!

Glad the interview went ok Alpacalover. Even if you don't go for the job it's good experience to have gone through the interview.

I'm not planning on being a nocturnal worker tonight because I managed a double whammy of editing last night and am very knocked out today - even more than usual! So plan to just sleep hopefully. Will be back the night after.

Good luck to everyeone else out there.

======= Date Modified 01 Oct 2009 02:59:07 =======
Checking in. Trying to work through some more pages of thesis final draft feedback. So more comma adding, word removing etc. Just doing the easy changes for now. Will worry about the trickier issues later.

EDIT: And signing out an hour later. Got through another 25 or so pages of detailed edits, so that's good progress for now. Sleep time calls though.

Good luck with the remaining chapters Sue2604. I had my huge panic in August, when I lost a whole month due to the swine flu. Mega mega panic! Then I had a meeting with my supervisor in early September, we discussed what needs to be done to finish things off, and I felt much better. I have to have another meeting with him next week to discuss the final thesis changes, but expect to still feel chipper after then.

Meanwhile I'm pushing ahead with implementing his suggestions, starting with the easy then working to the bigger ones, but extremely slowly due to the long-term illness. Managed an hour tonight, which is all I could manage today. I'm lucky to manage 5 hours total a week. So 6 months is scarily close in that respect. But hoping to have things pretty much sorted by Christmas, though I expect to take until nearer March (my official deadline) to finally submit.

So panic averted I'm glad to say. Although seeing it's (in 10 minutes for me here in the UK) almost the start of another month does fill me with a moment of slight trepidation!

I had a clear proposal and sub-questions before starting, but they've evolved constantly throughout the PhD, including up to and beyond producing the full draft of my thesis. Partly this is due to supervisors saying 'so what' i.e. what is the point of what I've done, rather than it being an open-ended exploration. But it's also as they try to help me narrow down what exactly I've found out.

It might vary by discipline though, as well as by individual supervisor. When I was a science PhD student over a decade ago my research goals were much clearer from the onset. Now that I'm a humanities PhD student (almost finished), working on my own topic, it's much more open-ended and prone to constant redefinition.

So pleased for you Lara. Well done!

Oh that's wonderful news. Huge congratulations!

I frequently have to return to the PhD work after breaks due to illness. I find it hard to get into the swing of things too, but get myself up to speed by drawing up lots of to-do lists (everything I can think of doing, from small to big), then picking them off in the order of the least unappealing. That builds up my stamina/confidence, and gets me going again.

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Started going through final batch of detailed thesis feedback (can do the first half now - have a meeting to discuss second half in a couple of weeks). Starting by going through the easy fix suggestions which I don't quibble over, like grammar, or odd extra words, or punctuation. Crossing each one out with a yellow highlighter pen as I deal with it - nice to see progress! It's very tedious though and rather depressing turning page after page to see a pile of mega scribbles. So only doing a chapter's worth tonight. Will resume tomorrow.

Once all that's sorted out I plan to go through the thesis again and draw up a list of the more troublesome things, and start tackling them, while also tackling the higher-level issues. But will get there.

Could you try mind-mapping where you are in the literature? You said earlier that you're looking at a number of inter-linked areas. What about a separate mind-map for each one and an overall one showing how they link together? That might help formulate your ideas a bit.

But I wouldn't stress about progress/meetings at this stage. You're at the finding-your-feet stage.

EndNote course sounds good too, though I just bought the package (at student rates), and figured it out myself.