I'm Social Sciences so not directly related but I did have a panel interview for my PhD. It feels like it was ages ago now though. As Ian has stated, treat it like you would any other job interview. Dress smartly, prepare by doing background reading, make sure you are up to date with the current literature and be prepared to say something about your methodology and any potential pitfalls you anticipate at this point in time, and how you propose to overcome them.

I was interviewed by a panel of 4, one of whom was my now DoS. At the beginning of the interview I had to give a 5-10 minute presentation, giving a brief overview of my proposal, my methodology, methods and any anticipated issues. I was then questioned for another 10-15 minutes about why I wanted to do a PhD, how much I understood about what would be required of me, where I planned to live, why there were gaps in my employment history (a ONE month gap where I left a job and was waiting for CRB clearance before beginning a new job - I was even doing work experience at the time!!!!) and how much notice I would have to give. To be honest, I think they'd made their mind up before the interview but they were just checking I understood what would be required from me.

So in summary (!) dress smartly and prepare by reading about current literature and methodology. You'll be fine, it sounds like you have a lot of interest so good luck! And do come back and let us know how you get on! (up)

Morning all (just!) I slept in this morning as my fiance is full of cold and kept me up most of the night as he couldn't breathe properly! Poor thing! Hope you don't feel too rough Batfink! I'm feeling a bit tired and itchy around my sinuses but like you I really don't have time to get ill now! Maybe we should stock up on the vitamin c and conduct a mini experiment!

I hate having to go to meetings when I'm busy, especially when they're at my university as I live a fair drive away so I feel for you Button!

Today I'm going to crack on, I'm going to carry on writing but I think I'm going to re-structure my chapter, the way I have it at the moment I'm not really happy with. After I've written my quota for the day I'm going to have a play with different ideas and structures.

Have a good day everyone!

Hello,

Sorry to hear you're feeling so low at the moment. I suffered with anxiety a few years ago and my GP recommended Mood Gym: http://moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome
It's a free CBT course but I would discuss it with your counsellor/mental health professional before you start.

As for the lab skills, does your uni run workshops that you can attend? Is there someone in the department that you can talk to about having some extra help? More importantly, does your DoS know about how you're feeling? Can they offer any help at all? Are there any other PhD students that you can talk to and get help from? I know everything I'm saying requires you to converse with other students, but sometimes you just have to ask for help. People are a lot more understanding than you might think, and I bet you're not the only one who feels they can't make their experiments work (see numerous posts on this forum!)

As for the girl, I know it's a cliche and I used to hate it when people said it to me, but it takes time I'm afraid. You will get over her and at least she's spared you having a one sided relationship by being honest with you. Another cliche I'm afraid, but there are plenty of other girls out there and you will find someone who will reciprocate! As for the resultant tension between the two of you, is there no way you can just be friends with her? Believe you me, I've been on both sides of the fence but when you need to work with someone you sometimes need to suck it up and be friendly, even if its hurtful. If she has created the tension, just meet her with a friendly face and get on with your work - it's very hard to be grumpy with someone who only ever meets you with positivity. Keep yourself busy, get out there and do a new activity, buy a new game for a games console, a series of books, whatever will take your mind off her for a few hours. It will get better, I promise (up)

Anyway, that's enough from me! Hope that was somewhat helpful!

I totally agree with you Batfink, I think it's just as important to take breaks as it is to work hard. I find I tend to make more mistakes if I don't have some time away from the work occasionally. I really try and protect my weekends as much as I can but I feel like you, I don't think free weekends will exist the closer I get to submission! I've already warned all the people around me that this will be the case!

Well I've smashed my goal today - I've written 1,200 words, yipee! I definitely deserve the weekend off now I think :-)
I hasten to add though that I'm writing my qual analysis chapters so it's just me and my findings that I'm writing about at the moment! Hence the words are flowing quite easily... I'll slow down once I start theorising about my findings in a couple of days!

Ah well done Batfink, I finally managed to get back into the swing of writing yesterday, it really helps being accountable on this forum! I always feel rubbish if I log on not having done any work! Sounds like you had a good day yesterday so well done! I managed 1,000 words in the end yesterday which has made me feel better - I'm even back in the swing of waking up in the middle of the night thinking about what I'm going to write next!

Hope you feel better Button, it's horrible trying to work when you don't feel your best. Can you afford to have a half day or perhaps not do any writing for a day or two?

Out of interest, does anyone work through the weekend or do people have a couple of days off? It depends for me how much I have to do but I try and have at least one day where I spend time with my family rather than sitting up here like a hermit in the office!

Goal for today - write at least 666 words (freaky I know, but that's the calculation I came up with when doing a word count/days left! Is that an omen, I wonder...!)

Thanks Batfink, argh I'm not doing very well this morning, even after having scared myself with a daily word count! I'm suffering from lack of motivation following a couple of days off and I really need to get on with it!

Right, I AM going to do some work now!

Hi all,

Sounds like a busy couple of days you've all had! I ended up doing a trip to university yesterday as I had a one week loan book out from the library (which I've been renewing since November :$) and someone had requested it so I was getting a massive fine!

I'm back on the treadmill today as my fiance is entertaining the small child, but I will be heading off later to watch a matinee at the cinema. I'm starting to get a bit panicky as the structure of my thesis has changed a lot since my original plan so I'm worrying I'm going to run out of time! So my goals today are as follows:

1. Re-work my writing plan to suss out how much time I have per chapter
2. Get started on Chapter 6 properly - I've been copying and pasting into a document labelled chapter 6 but I haven't actually really done anything much. I'd like to get an introduction completed today so I can map out what the chapter is going to say, and get about 500 words written.

Good luck everyone!

Firstly, congratulations on being accepted onto a PhD programme!

I agree with everything Mog said - I can't really remember my first two weeks either, but they consisted mainly of reading, reading and reading! And then some more reading thrown in just for fun! I'd also use this time to familiarise yourself with the university, library, fellow students etc as time soon passes by.

Good morning all!

It's half term so I'm not going to get much done until Wednesday when my other half is off work - having a 9 year old about the house isn't exactly conducive to hard work! He's busy playing at the moment so I'm going to do my best to proof read my chapter again and make sure there are no silly spelling, grammar or punctuation mistakes!

Have a good day everyone! (up)

Mahoosive congratulations Dr Sneaks, that is awesome news!

I've been looking out for her too, I hope everything has gone ok! Good luck anyway Sneaks!

I can, PM me your email address and I will send on to you.

Sounds like you've had a productive day then Batfink! I re-read my chapter and it now looks and reads much better, so I'm hoping it will be met with approval when I send it off to DoS next week! I'm putting it to one side now though before I start nitpicking and going mad!

I managed to get all my other admin done too which is a bonus as I'm out all day tomorrow and Friday! So all in all, a (up) day!

Good afternoon! Thanks for your kind words Batfink, it actually went a lot better than I thought it would so that's cool! I just keep making stupid mistakes when I'm writing, like typos, not double checking Word's tendency to auto correct or using weak language! I suppose this is all part and parcel though, we are supposed to be learning after all! I find it really easy to explain what I mean when I'm talking out loud, I just find it hard to get it onto the page!

Hope you're all making good progress today, I've "finished" my chapter so I'm just going to re-read it now (checking for all the things I've mentioned above!) then leave it for a couple of days. I'm going to do some PhD admin afterwards if I get time as tomorrow's looking quite busy now and I don't know if I'll get a chance!

Agreed, come on LarryDavid, is there any need for that? I agree with the others, if you don't like reading the threads, then don't! The forum is here for support from other postgrads, everyone is different and deals with it in a different way. The forum is here for support, not belittling others.