I wrote my literature review within 3 months of starting a 6-year part-time PhD.

You can write it quite quickly. It doesn't need to argue a point (that's the job of later chapters). And it can be rewritten later if need be.

But you need to get on with it. I'd recommend doing that first.

I've had my Kindle for 2 months. It's transformed my reading. I'm an unusual case though, because I have severe difficulties reading print books now, due to physical and cognitive problems from a progressive neurological disease. I find the Kindle much easier to concentrate on, and to hold, and I can adjust the font size to be optimal for me reading.

But I pretty much just use it for recreational reading. The text books relevant to my (now post-doc) research aren't available in Kindle form. And when I have loaded PDFs onto it I prefer to cnovert them to native Kindle format, rather than to zoom in and scroll about, so I can have my favourite font size etc.

But for recreational reading it is superb. I've got about 8 books on the go at the moment, and can flit between like a yo-yo. And I have many more I'm looking forward to reading.

I think you really need to stick your foot down with your supervisor. If she wants you to do more hours on the RA work she's going to have to pay you to do more hours, and accept you don't have time to do your PhD properly.

Early on in my PhD I was working half-time as a RA (paid, separate contract), along with doing my part-time PhD. And my RA boss was my PhD supervisor. But he was very good at keeping the two separate, and making sure that they didn't cause problems for each other.

As for writing sections, do you have a plan? By that I mean a large structure that you can work within in. If not, don't worry. An alternative approach is to start with writing whatever looks most appealing (or least unappealing!). I also found it very helpful to draw up to-do lists.

I managed my thesis writing on tiny opportunities, snatching an hour here and there, and having no more than 5 hours a week near the end. So it can be done. But you need to get moving.

Good luck!

I found Twitter invaluable a few weeks ago when our broadband went down twice within 6 days. It wasn't just us, but a huge problem taking out Scotland and much of northern England. And it wasn't isolated to any single ISP. By searching for relevant tweets on Twitter (using my 3G Kindle - thank goodness I had that!) I was able to quickly understand the extent of the problem, and get more information about what was going on than from my ISP or BT who were to blame.

I find Twitter much less time-consuming than Facebook. But I'm not really into social networking: don't have the time/energy for it. I only stay on Facebook to keep in touch with other people with my 1 in a million disease.

As I said I use Twitter mainly for finding out useful/interesting stuff. So I'm following far more twitter feeds than I am twittering myself. And not - apart from Stephen Fry and a few others - any celebrities. Rather interesting local feeds, interesting history ones, astronomy feeds, etc.

And I restrict my tweets to be readable to followers only, so I am a bit happier about my twitterings not getting out there so much. And I approve any follow requests. I get very few.

I use Twitter, but mainly to follow interesting feeds/twitterers to learn useful stuff, rather than tweeting myself. For example there are lots of archivists posting about interesting records, which appeals to me as a historian. And there are lots of local tweets I follow, like my uni, the local theatre, the arts centre, etc.

I'll PM you though :-)

It's ok to take a snapshot survey, but PhDs tend to be a bit of an up-and-down experience, and things can change in the future for people who are very happy at the moment.

It's also natural during a PhD to hit really difficult sticking points, whether it be in the writing up (as happened to me) or whatever. And there's the notorious mid-PhD doldrums or blues, which seem to hit quite a high proportion of students. Again, it's par for the course.

And, as others have said, people are more likely to post about the dificulties, when they're seeking help, rather than people posting about the positives. This makes your thread very valuable!

I finished my part-time PhD earlier this year. I enjoyed it throughout, but there were nevertheless some very difficult phases. But I'd still give it all a big thumbs-up.

well done Bug :)

I actually withdrew from a funded full-time science PhD 2 years down the line. I'd fallen seriously ill with what I only found out later was a progressive neurological disease. But I knew I couldn't put in the hours needed to finish the PhD, and I'd lost a lot of time over the last 18 months or so.

This did have consequences for me getting more funding in the same vein, but I won funding successfully for a part-time humanities PhD. I declared the prior funding I'd received from EPSPRC but AHRC still gave me funding, and I was very grateful to them. And I completed that PhD, passing my viva this March just gone.

So you can have another go. And because you will - unlike me - be withdrawing before you receive any funding there should be no consequences for you reapplying in future.

Good luck!

It's *very* common to go through blues or doldrums in the second year (full-time, or appropriate part-time equivalent) of a PhD. This is very natural.

You need to work through it though, and that's hard. I'd recommend setting yourself mini deadlines/goals for things to focus on. Also drawing up to-do lists and starting by picking off the least unappealling items on the list is a good way to go. Anything to get a rhythm going again.

But this is very very common. Not that doldrums don't happen in the third year as well ;-)

I didn't have a mock viva either. I think it would have terrified me! I only wanted to go through the process once, thank you very much :p

If you set some deadlines for specific chapters and drafts that should help motivate you. I always found deadlines very motivating. And I preferred them to be deadlines that I set, rather than ones my supervisors came up with. Then I was in control ;-)

What you need to start doing is not thinking about the September deadline, but having lots of deadlines before then, so you can work towards each of those in turn, and make progress.

Good luck! I felt very close to quitting towards the end of my part-time PhD. Very very close, a lot. But I got through. Sending positive vibes to you too.

I was actually a part-time student, doing about 5-10 hours study a week, and finished inside 6 years. So not 3 years, but very very fast compared to a lot of full-timers working far more hours.

My best tip to people is to make the use of the first year (or 2 years for part-time students). So often people drift during that time, and valuable time is lost. In my first go at a PhD, full-time science student, I drifted in my first year, reading lots of papers, slowly producing a literature review. So then when I fell seriously ill at the end of that year I'd made little progrress.

In my second go at a PhD, part-time and humanities this time, I wrote my literature review 3 months after studying my PhD, and then I got on with the research. So, by the time I got to halfway through (equivalent to 18 months for a full-timer), I was writing up. That didn't go so good, and I had to start again. But I had time to spare.

Obviously that first year advice is a bit late for you now. But you can definitely help yourself now by setting firm deadlines with your supervisor. How much writing up have you done? Have you got deadlines agreed for when you will turn in certain chapters, and a full draft? If not set them!

And definitely have a frank discussion with your supervisor. You don't want this to drift on.

Ok something you can do easily in the time you have is to think about your answers to 5 key questions: originality of my thesis, contribution to knowledge, methodology, weaknesses/gaps/mistakes, and what would I do differently if starting again.

Between them, if you sort that out, you'll cover a lot of the general viva questions you're likely to be asked. Oh and also be prepared to be ask why you chose this topic. It's a common ice-breaker.