Walrus - I think this is fairly common for people with your previous expereince - a lot of folk find it quite boring or intimidating in the first few months - reading is really up to you I would say, but there is no harm in speaking to your supervisor about your concerns.

Your proficiency with lab work will eventually lead to you designing the experiments, but your understanding of the area, as well as the desire to do so will greatly affect this. Reading is important as well as is critical thinking

The big difference is at the moment you may just be doing as you are told. What you should be doing is analysing what you are doing, where it is going, can you do it better, more efficiently - are you missing something, has someone published ideas that intrest you or you'd like to follow. What is going to be in your final write up - whats the story behind your thesis and where is your work novel!

its more like a job that you get a stated amount of holidays that you can take

In fairness you get a ridiculous amount of holidays, but I've yet to meet a PhD student that takes them all - it would be very disruptive to your research

most folk opt for a couple of 1-2 week holidays per year (in my expereince)

depends on your experience,

if you know the area, then there will be less reading

If you have already done some work in the area then you you can start the lab work faster

a lot of people spend the first few months doing very little lab work, because it takes a long time to become good at planning your own experiments etc

Just takes time and can be boring

if all else fails, drop and roll - get out the door fast, get in to the waiting get away car and head into the outback and live as a bushperson eating scorpions and deadly snakes for the rest of your life

hope this helps (except the last bit) and good luck

S

Here is my tips (based on my experience):
1- when they ask you a question take a second to consider it, make sure you have understood the question and why they are asking it
Questions tend to be asked:
A- Because they don't understand and want you to explain
B- To see if you really know what you've written or said
C- To point out that you have not quite got your ideas correct and to ultimately correct you - this can actually be quite helpful in the end

2- if the meaning of the question is not clear, or the relationship to your work is not clear, then its okay to ask for clarity. sometimes its okay to repeat the question back to them and say is this what you meant

3- if you really really don't know - just say ' I don't know, sorry' (or something like that), you can't know everything and will only look worse when you make up answers (been there done that)

for a start, calm down! Its going to be fine - really

Feelings of not knowing anything and that other people overestimate your qualities are all part of being a PhD student. can't remember the name of it but there was a thread on this a while ago, describing the syndrome associated to always feeling you'll be found out as a fraud, which is partivularly prevolent in academics.

Everyone gets nervous at these things AND at poster presentations, talks, seminars etc etc etc - its just part of the life

As for your panel, you will never be able to predict the questions they are going to ask you and the more you worry the less rational about it you will become. Just make sure you know what you've got and where it is going and you'll be fine

I would say from the start of writing to submission, dependant on how much analysis you have, how well you already know you're direction, how motivated you are to write and how fast your supervisor corrects for you all play into it and I think 6-12 months is realistic for most folk from start to finish - again its highly variable.

However at 18 months 1 year takes you only to the minimum 2.5 year requirement for time served as a PhD - so I would imagine this is the quickest you could do it

hope this helps

S

I'm just at the final stage of write up - but its in science - so I don't know how well that translates to business, a lot of my thesis is based around data analysis which took about 2-3 months of non-stop 6am-8pm analysis.

I suppose one of the longest phases for me was to get things like the relevant pictures, tables, graphs correctly analysed and formatted

Then you've got to figure out what you are really trying to say - in my experience this can be the longest and most frustrating bit - because you can spend hours and do nothing, as you are unsure of direction

Once you've got the basic structure and written out,you'll need it corrected by you supervisor - so a lot can depend on how efficient they are in turning your stuff around

Then its all corrections and final drafts (stage I am at)

My wife and I have been together for 12 years (from high school)
We've been through our degrees (one after the other). bought 2 houses got engaged got married and are now (while I'm finishing the write up) planning our move to the US.

My point is you don't have give up everything for your studies -

finding the balance is the tricky bit -

But also finding a partner who understands you'll be busy, stressed and wholly irrationaly for a long period of time helps

Its not a lot - particularly as a PhD now gets about 16000 (dependant on where you go) and thats tax free.

I presume you are doing this part time option because its in your preferred subject are/ location/ or to suit your lifestyle?

However as you say its only temporary

being over 30 isn't the worst thing in the world, I'm 30 this year Yea!

As for the mortgage, there was a post yesterday about it - its a bit complicated and you have to be careful - best to look at the previous post - plenty of acvice there

good luck

S

as with AmyP I got mine in Jan 06 so may be out of date

We tried going to the banks direct but it got a bit frustrating
We then used an independant financial advisor (IFA) who sourced a bank for us, we ended up using Halifax/bank of scotland/Halifax

We did need it in writing that I had a salary etc

In addition I had a large deposit (about 40%) and a partner with a job so I presume that makes a difference too

But as is illustrated by pamw you really really need to make sure they accept PhD stipends first - don't try to hide it as it will only end up causing issues later on

Best advice particularly with the current mortgage climate is to speak to an IFA

good luck

S

Also based on numbers of researchers, post docs phd students and successful submission of Phds

it could be worse! the people asking when you'll submit could be:
- your external because he wants to book his holidays
- your new boss because he wants you to start
- and the immigration people who want to know when you'll enter their country.

All that on top of family members who have a knack of saying things to tip you over the edge

Deep Joy

I think that is where packages like prism are best

reasonably simple format - put data in and it automatically produces graphs - you can then change graph type at the click of a button

press 'analyze' and select the type of analysis (e.g. one-way anova) you want and it does it and produces all you tables for you giving you the relevant P values - it even has agood help section if you don't know the types of analysis you want

I find excel - particularly the new one in office 2007 more laborious, however it is still good for calculations

Its worth looking in to as it will eventually save you a lot of time - particularly at the write up stage

just in the last 3-4 weeks of thesis write up - so hopefully all finished ;)