lol!

yea you'll never publish in your peer reviewed journals with n=1

funny stuff!

I don't know If I agree with the last comment - its not like you deliberately make mistakes - my understanding of dyslexia is limited but I do know that as a sufferer you are granted more time under examination conditions for normal exams - I don't see why these kind of allowances wouldn't be made under these circumstances.

If my understanding is correct an examiner who has specific points to be made i.e. spelling, will identify each of the mistakes and present you with a list of them - therefore if you need to correct these will be pointed out for you and should be easily corrected. I cna't imagine them saying poor spelling re-correct it all - plus I presume your supervisor will have helped you with the majority.

It is perfectly normal to spot mistakes in grammar and spelling even in final drafts - I wouldn't worry about the occasional one

If you are really worried ask your supervisor for advice and they will tell you whats best to do.

I think the min requirement is a 2(i) or a 2(ii) + a masters

I don't know if your work experience will help or not and you very possibly will have to do a masters first - but lots of folk do this even with 2i's

However if you happen to know someone in your department, who thinks you are good enough then you could possibly get one with a 2ii - I'm sure its not unheard of?

Although I do think you'll need a masters first

good luck

S

First of all CONGRATULATIONS!!

All it really means is that they liked it enough not to need to grill you! I've heard of quite a few of these although the shortest was 1:30 - during which the external spent a lot of time talking about his Labrador dogs - he reckoned only 45 mins contributed to the actual viva

Conversley we recently had one last 8 hours! real page by page stuff! nasty!

no need to feel like a fraud - you've passed - well done!

I personally try to write what it is I want to say (based on a knowledge of the literature) then go back and fill the gaps with the appropriate references if I don't know them at the time.

If you really don't know the subject area, then it is almost impossible to aviod doing some basic reading first

The reason I do it this way is to get a structure and flow for the writing.

Personally I find you could read one paper after another - which is great for your knowledge but doesn't neccessarily speed up the process.

Probably somewhere in between - write till you are bored, read till you are bored, write till you are bored..................

I know what you are saying about meeting others it is very hard, but you should try it will make your life much more bearable - I wouldn't have made it as far without good support from other PhD students - also they are more likely to understand what you are going through. And most PhD are usually an outgoing bunch -

your institution may even have a PhD centre where people who are new to the area get together and do organised events - a lot of unis organise these and they are great to meet others- try speaking to the PhD co-ordinator and see if they can help

In the meantime - there are always an abundance of folk here to help you through it

One of the biggest problems is that a lot of people just don't understand - particularly at first they assume you are just a student and don't want to give up your student days!

It can be very difficult to talk to anyone! about your work, because most field are so specific.

My family are interested and do try to get a grasp of it - but try explaining advance Biochemistry to someone who has never dealt with it is really a bit pointless.

On the other hand when people ask and you try dumb it down - they can get insulted

I found it very difficult to find a balance between not boring them to tears and not insulting their intelligence.

I'll add - as for your supervisor

sometimes it helps to admit where you are - this really depends how easy going your supervisor is?

If they are approachable you should just ask him/her for advice - they are the ones who have written papers and grants before - and will know the best way to present your data

Hmmmm1

it is hard for everyone to write and in my experience - particularly at first.

The hardest thing to write is when you are not sure what direction it is headed- like you have all the data but aren't sure what the hell it all means.

What to do is to try figure out what your story is, how it fits in with current literature

its all just a big story: Start - beginning - end

Doesn't matter what you have - your data is your data and you cant change that.

What I do if I'm struggling is to put it together one crappy paragraph after the other - at least then its written - write it ALL - then you can only improve on it - the hard thing is to get the story line.

don't do what a lot of folk do which is sit doing nothing because you are so unsure of the direction of their writing - it is very frustrating when you achieve nothing

many people have to make the sacrifice - but the good news is it is only temporary (3-4 years) and after that your earning potential or job prospects are better I presume

sometimes you just have to take the hit to get what you want

It is often possible to do some teaching or demonstrating to increase your pay.

but as for woek outside of this - I'm pretty sure the answer would be no

is a bit of a grey area - most contracts usually state that you may NOT undertake any other work apart from your PhD - not sure of the official reason - it may be because you don't pay tax on your PhD earnings

However as long as it doesn't interfere with your work I think most supervisors would not stop you - but to be honest its best to check

I would think twice about it as the PhD is hard enough

Most folk live quite well on their PhD income these days

type 'molecular biology short course' into google

it appears quite a few universities run these courses - best thing would be to contact them and choose the one that suites you best

S

Glasgow Caledonian University runs a week long molecular biology course (In Glasgow Scotland)

http://www.gcal.ac.uk/sls/Bio/study/mtls.html


If you are interested I think the best person to contact would be Dr. Adrian Pierroti email: [email protected]

I don't know what the cost is but they take in quite a few industry and hospital staff to train up in molecular biology techniques as well as providing a similar course for all their undergrads and grad students.

I don't know what other unis do them - but I've done this course and its good if you want the basic principals and hands on experience.

They tend to run this course during the summer vacation period I think

Hope this helps

S

a very valid point is in the last comment - if you have a general biology degree you might want to consider something more general - more from the respect of funding and jobs afterwards

for example there are always more jobs in general areas such as cancer research; heart disease; diabetes than there is in some of the more specific PhDs

If there is a shortage of funding and PhDs there may be a shortage of jobs at the end of the day?

It sounds like the group is funded towards a certain goal

I wouldn't be put off, it just means that it will be very focused - this can be good or bad - sometimes they can be quite high pressure - deadlines expected - but with an organsied supervisor this should not be too bad - but essentially your project would be doing work to fit in with what they want

It depends what YOUR goal is?
A- any old PhD as long as its a good one that'll get you published - this one sounds fine

B - you have some rough ideas of the field you want, you'd prefer to develop your ideas in conjunction with the supervisor, but ultimately you want to decide the direction - this might not be for you

I would still go talk to them and find out the limits though -you never know it might not be that bad