Hey Chickpea. It only took me about 5 mins I think. :)

Done! As Moonblue said, perhaps you could give some info here concerning the subject matter of the study.

I hope your research goes well. It is a very important area. Good luck!

I have nothing useful to add, I'm just jealous of you all! I wish I'd been able to get funding for such an experience. The furthest I got is Poland! Enjoy =D

From what I've seen and heard, it's very common to change. I've known people (drs/professors) present stuff that's really different from their abstract in the booklet. I really wouldn't worry about it, but do check with supervisors first.

Good luck!

Welcome, Ike. Do you have a specific question to ask?

Hi Cherry

This may be difficult for people here to give advice on because there are so many issues around this. Have you tried talking to practitioners in your area who are doing what you're interested in? Ask them how they got there, what they enjoy/don't enjoy about their roles, and if they have any advice for you.

If you're interested in doing a masters, first of all find out if that is something that is useful/recommended in your field, especially if you prefer the practical, hands on work it may not be the best route to take. If it is something you'd like to pursue, the best thing is to go along to meet with course leaders and talk to them about the makeup of the course and see if it's something that works for you.

Hope that helps
Good luck!

How's everyone doing?

I'm waiting for my feedback on my full draft and should be concentrating on catching up all my referencing but I'm finding it soooo hard to stay motivated and concentrate. I've got so little time left that I should be pressing on, but I kind of feel in limbo until I get my feedback, which I'm hoping will be end of this week or early next week.

I hope things are going well with you all. Any updates?
G x

I definitely found that there were periods when I was getting very little phd work done, but I was always able to make up for that over times when there was no teaching. It is daunting at first, but I found that it all balanced itself out in the end.

Just make sure that you're really organised and, although it may be tempting, try not to spend too much time on the teaching side of things. Remember that the phd must be your priority.

Also, if you're really struggling, speak to someone - your supervisor or someone else if you don't feel you can speak to them - before it gets too much.

Good luck!

Hi everyone!

Sounds like a lot of people are struggling with motivation and illness. Everyone I know seems to be ill atm :(

Thank you all so much for your kind words. I'm very happy to say that I did manage to get a full draft off last week (hence my absence because I've had the weekend off!!). The support on here has been great and it's lovely to know that I've been in your thoughts. Thanks again.

Tulip, I know that overwhelming feeling so well and have struggled with it immensely over the course of my phd. You can do it, and it will be worth it, I promise. I actually had to temporarily disable my Facebook account because I couldn't cope with everyone being abroad and putting up these fun happy profile status things - GAH! It was driving me insane! So I disabled my account and plan to reactivate it after I've submitted (and go on holiday - *evil laugh*!)

;)

I actually feel like I'm much more productive without the distraction of Facebook whenever I feel the procrastination monkey creeping up on me! I also believe taking some time off once in a while helps, so well done for getting your 700+ words done yesterday, Tulip.

How is everyone else doing? I need to get cracking with my references, charts and bits and bobs this week while I wait for the feedback on my full draft. Also doing some 'real life' stuff like bills and shopping that I've been putting off.

Good luck everyone x

Hi everyone. I'm still here - just about! As most of you know I have to get my full draft off to supervisors by the end of tomorrow. I'm determined to do this and I have theatre tickets for tomorrow night so can't even work that late. Aaaaaand on top of everything I've developed an absolutely horrendous cold that started on Monday, so my concentration span and general 'ability-to-do-anything-useful-ness' has gone completely out of the window.

Sod's law. Anyway, I'm determined and am taking all the cold & flu drugs I can get my hands on. The full draft won't quite be as polished as I wanted it, but hey ho, that's life, isn't it?!

Sorry about the huge moan. I'm just feeling very sorry for myself haha!

Good luck everyone - keep going =D

Only just spotted this. Congratulations again. It sounds like you did brilliantly. Thanks for keeping us posted :)

Congratulations, Emaa! Well done!

I'd love to hear more about your viva whenever you get chance to write it. But first make sure you celebrate and enjoy this time =D

I think everyone has panics like that, Aisling. I know that I definitely have. I've found that it all kind of comes together in the end. I'm not sure if it's the PhD pixies or what ;)

I've also gradually realised the closer I get to submission that I can't include everything and that this won't be a 'grand opus' it's just a starting point of my (hopefully) research career. This realisation helps a lot and makes it a lot easier to cut out less relevant stuff.

I've got my 4 other sections to crack on with today and I'm out this evening so I can't work too late. Hopefully I'll be able to get enough done before then.

Good luck everyone! =D

Thanks for your kind words, Tulip :)
And you were right! I'm only just finishing and I've got a big section dealt with. I've still got 4 out of 6 sections left to add, but the one I did today was a really important bit, so I feel like I've achieved and done well getting that (pretty much) sorted.

How did everyone else do? Sorry to hear you weren't well, Tulip. Hope you managed to get what you wanted to done this afternoon.

See you all tomorrow x