You are crazy timefortea, page looks fine to me!

I'm majorly struggling this week. I can't seem to get on with anything. I have busied myself since last tuesday with utter rubbish e.g. trying to stop squeak in shoes, excessivly walking the dog, organising email into folders, cleaning.

any tips on how to force myself to work, I'm not sure if its the nice weather or something but I feel like a jack in the box!

Well, I did some writing which my sup liked - which has made me take 3 weeks virtually off, like I always do for some reason when I have managed to accomplish anything - I just can't seem to keep up the momentum.

My second and now my third study seem to be going a bit wrong and I'm worrying they won't go ahead. But thinking that as long as I do do some writing then at least this won't be wasted time - hopefully!

oh, I love google scholar :-x expecially if you set it up so you can access the fulltexts through your library(ies) (through scholar preferences) and also works fab with endnote - I rarely use anything else although it does depend how good your uni library is with online stuff - mine is excellent thank god.

My advice would be to read the stuff you have and then go back and search any new terms you have read about, there are bound to be a few - and of course use the best search mechanisms e.g. using " " marks and alternate between US and UK spelling. e.g. PhDs are my favourite, PhDs are my favorite. :-s silly americans, but there you go!

is anybody there....................................................................................................................

My tip would be to contact the supervisor directly. I do a PhD in psychology, my sup always has a few funded PhD places going but refuses to give them out until someone has contacted her directly (often people try to go through me) - she wants to see they are keen on the topic etc. And how is she supposed to know you are out there if you don't introduce yourself?

ESRC 1+3 is probably your best bet - it may be an idea to contact an organisation and an academic supervisor to see if you can come to an agreement to put in a proposal for a CASE studentship - see the ESRC website for more detials.

A116 - why aren't you being accountable!?

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good combo. the MSc at my uni - we rejected someone this week, not solely but partly cos they wore jeans to the interview - it demonstrates a lack of professionalism and comes across a bit 'lazy student who wants another year off' kind of way. So trousers are best!

I know a PhD student with Dyslexia and she copes very well. Just having to get her thesis proof read for SPAG mistakes. To be honest you can't use your dyslexia as an excuse - everyone finds it difficult at conferences in my experience. As you are in this area of work, you will have to find ways of coping with it. As a PhD student people often prefer you to stand and listen to them anyway rather than have your own opinions - well thats my experience to date!

A very eminent speaker in my field has dyslexia and he starts most of his presentations with a 'dyslexia clause' - i.e. he says, "sorry if I stumble over words, I'm dyslexic, just ask if you need clarification". And he always has spelling mistakes on his slides which he apologises for all the way through - he is a fantastic speaker though and world renowned.

I think its more so for PhD - I don't know anyone who has got a PhD through just applying, the have all been encouraged by supervisors/lecturers to apply. Others have been interviewed, but it was a mere formality.

In terms of Masters - I think less so, but you are more likely to get funding if you know the lecturers e.g. you went there for undergrad, or your undergrad lecturers know your Masters lecturers. It is definately about who you know!

its who you know

Get "transcription buddy" its free to download from download.com, it has a trial period ,but if you just uninstall and reinstall it works again. It allows you to have set pause and rewind times, so it continually loops the tape, so you never have to press play or pause. The pause and run times can be set under the view menu on it I think.

My only concern would be that the rest of the class - getting wind of this girl getting extra help - might kick up a fuss. That is what I would have been annoyed about when I did my degree. Fairly, if you offer this help to one student, you should send out an email to all in the class. Its really difficult, I find that some students are just more persistent and get more help than others which is a bit unfair, even when they were probably fine without it.

Sounds like you are living my life at another uni. I like to call my day wear 'day pyjamas' - like pyjamas but slightly warmer e.g. hoody and joggers. Lip glossing is well out of the window and now having had my bday recently at the grand old age of 25 feel like I should retire. Its wierd cos a lot of my school friends messed up their AS levels and all had to re-take so they have literally only just graduated, so facebook is full of photos of wild parties etc., whereas in that time, I have got 2 degrees and half way through phd and have forgotten what parties are! (although have always hated them being my introverted self).

Lit review is up the top of the list this week as well, although having to navigate university responsabilities and other tasks along the way. Tasks for today

- finish the section I have been working on for weeks and send it to sup.
- Tidy desk from layers of journal articles
- organise rest of week
- do exercise to make me skinny

I had a situation like this recently but I wasn't really concerned about helping the student with reading suggestions - I don't see it as spoon-feeding if they are willing to enquire. The real 'spoon fed' students are those that don't find any reading and can't be bothered in my opinion.

What I was concerned about is me getting in trouble for helping one student more than others - very tricky I think.

I know the feeling - I have writing, data collection and all kinds of other work on my schedule! What have you got planned for this week coming?

As I said earlier in this thread. Me and my bf got a mortgage at 19 - when we were both full time MSc students cos his mum is our guarantor. As long as the guarantor can technically afford to pay their mortgage and yours (if you default) then it should be fine, although we have never missed a payment so never needed it yet! Obviously it does mean that if you don't pay the mortgage then you are putting your parents in trouble potentially.