Well done jojo it's really great to see you progressing! Kepp up the good work!!

Hi,

'R' is actually a statistical package (free to download) that does produce very good graphs. However, it is command based rather than having a toolbar and takes ages to learn. I have been using R for two years now and still find basic things like labelling a graph really hard on R. Its also difficult to read in data unless you know how.

However, not sure of any other packages that you could try Excel are good but basic. In SPSS you have no control over your graphs.

If you are planning to say something about it, is there someone who can make a complaint with you jointly? You have to be careful that it dosn't look like you just don't like this girl, otherwise your complaint might not be taken seriously.

Is today the big day? Good luck

Myself, I am going to be catching up on some reading and taking it easy. Am very broke so won't be doing anything exciting, but am going to chill and watch some dvd's too! :-)

Congrats- that is a good result!

Hey- great question!

I too am going to my first conference, though not until after easter. I am not presenting, but it would be great to find out other peoples experiences and maybe some hints or tips? What is the etiquette about introducing yourself to people?

And what the hell do I wear? It's a student conference so I'm guessing it doesn't need to be too smart?

And to cap it all off, they are currently building a bungalow to move into on another part of the (massive) garden, and the house is currently up for sale. Meaning we are going to move house definetly once, maybe twice if we need to live in rented accommodation temporarily.

And my brother is not talking to me because he rung me up to tell me he is going to propose to his girlfriend, and i told my mum thinking she knew (she didn't) and he is annoyed because he wanted it to be a suprise. And mum is upset because she was the last to find out!

My weekend in a nutshell!!! I was quite relieved to return to the office for some much needed peace and sanity!

MIL is a complete nightmare and control freak. Also my partner and I currently live with the in-laws, which is complicated. They live abroad for 8 months of the year and only return in the summer. Currently, my partners brother is living in the 'pool room' (granny annex) and keeps taking things belonging to the in-laws and is running up huge electricity bills. He then proceeds to blame all this on my partner and myself, which results in a lot of tensions. The sad thing is that the in-laws believe my partners brother when lies and says these things are our faults, which is extreemly stressful and upsetting.

I think you'll find that the english education system varies from county to county and school to school. I personally went to a single-sex school. I was in classes that were streamed from the beginning, meaning I was always in classes with people of the same abilities as me. I did also find that there were people at uni at undergrad level just doing the bare minimum to pass. I luckily managed to go straight from my undergrad degree to my PhD, without a Masters, as my undergrad degree was already fairly specalist. However, I have never done a thesis before and so my supervisors have taken a bit of a risk with me!

Hey big_mac: my PhD is in statistics so not too different a field. I am working on methodology, so agree that it's not quite a normal PhD is terms of Data collection, Methods, Results etc. etc.

Am in agreement with Olivia, seems there are some people going through some tough situations at the moment- how it all gets better soon. And to think that I have been fretting about the mother-in-law coming to stay!

Hope you get better soon

I'm sane- at least I think I am!!

Calm down! Don't panic Captain Mannering! Of course you can do all these things- your supervisor would not have asked you to do the book reviews if he didn't think you could handle it. Nor would you have got the position if you didn't have the potential.

Take it all one step at a time. Don't worry about the book reviews at the moment. Get as much done on your work for tomorrow as you can, don't worry about it not being perfect, hand it in anyway saying that its not quite finished and suggests parts that you are not happy with. Hopefully your supervisor can give you some constructive feedback and you can proceed with a second draft with some more confidence. Hope this helps! x