That is such a pain, I'm really sorry about that - it is very difficult and does cause problems if something does happen at the end of the year. I had a sudden death (suspicious at first) with a very close family member just a few weeks before submission and was also ill, not to mention the stress of the AHRC! (that was hell wasn't it!) and I'm well aware that it could have caused big problems for my MA which I won't hear about until week 11 of term. Like you, the fact that I have good marks in other parts of my coursework means nothing in the grand scheme of things - to get a distinction I need a distinction in the dissertation. Personally I didn't bother putting in an extenuating circumstances form - I was very ill for my exams in the 2nd year of the BA and put one in - it made no difference - I did ok, but in my uni they will only change your grade if you are within 2 marks of the next classification if extenuating circumstances are accepted - I got a 67 in one major exam - too far out to be shifted up to the first and I'm guessing that this is the situation with you.
I complained, they did nothing, they explained that to change it for one means changing it for everyone and then, well, the whole system could collapse.
I do feel for you though - but you have an MA - with Merit I'm guessing - congratulations, that's one hell of an achievement. Lets face it, apart from us academic sorts most people don't even realise that there is classification for MAs and until very recently there wasn't - its an MA - be extremely proud of yourself - you've done amazingly well (up)

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!! That is such lovely news - I'm really happy for you. Don't worry about her too much, and don't allow the concerns surrounding her to affect your pregnancy - its a special time. I would be very straight, very assertive - this is the situation - I'm having a baby, its due in the summer (fill in date lol) I aim to work as close to my due date as possible (are you mad???? lol lol) and will then be aiming to take off x months following delivery - I'd like to make the appropriate arrangements - big smile. There's not much she can say, she sounds a bit strange lol, but at the end of the day you are having the baby, we are allowed time off for things like this, don't stress and whatever you do don't come across as apologetic for it - anything but! You will work around the situation, you'll fulfill your obligations and it'll be fine. I hope that you haven't got the old sickness too bad - I had one with none and two constant :-(, yayyyyy not long til you get your 12 weeks scan - how exciting - I'm going to read now because otherwise I'll think about it and get broody again lol

I really have no idea as to how you'd recruit - surely this is something your sup or the admin in your dept would help you with? At least they could let you know what the procedure is for your uni. With regard to incentive - we regularly get asked to help out by our psychology dept, I know its different, but they range from £5 for an hour, to entry to a draw to win £25, or even vouchers for the pizza place on campus. I've seen chocolates to be won in a draw - all sorts of things.
Sorry I can' t help more - I guess I'm lucky in a way in that the people I study are all dead and buried long ago ;-)

Hi Svm - difficult question! Yesterday I did a lot of work, sorted out a lot of primary sources I need to access, read about 5 articles and made notes, and generally put a lot of stuff in order. Today so far, ermmm nothing - although I'm planning on doing another few articles later. I'm finding that I vary so much - sometimes it just isn't happening at all - other days I'm on fire lol!

At risk of sounding like a party pooper I am a nurse - or I was. I trained back in the late 80s early 90s (I started in 1989) and back then nursing was great - damned hard work, incredibly so- emotionally killing - holding a dying person, (worse still a child) is something that sears itself into your brain and stays with you life - it can be exciting at times, there are some great moments, but there are far far more heartbreaks. I left when it ceased to be so much a caring profession and turned into a paperwork based one like the secretarial work I had left. The time with patients was cut, budgets were cut. Whilst in the early days I could sit on the bed of a person who was scared or upset or just needed a shoulder to cry on and give them the time they needed, by the end I couldn't do that - not enough staff, too much paperwork. I went into nursing to care for people - sounds a cliche I know, a bit like Miss World lol, but its true, but I found that nursing isn't like that anymore really. When I went back after my children were born and worked as an auxilliary nurse part time with the elderly I regained that - but as a trained nurse - nope, not really. That is one reason I decided to study again and change professions totally - I just didn't want to return to something that was nothing like the vocation I chose.
Sorry to sound on such a downer about it - just understand that nursing is something you do because you can think of nothing else. Its not all patient contact - its patient tolerance - they ring bells, you have a mountain of paperwork to do. Its so so sad and I wish to goodness that they would change things so that nurses were back out on the ward with the people they went into the profession to care for rather than behind a desk struggling to meet the latest deadlines.

This is all very interesting, particularly as I am planning on being a GTA next year too. You sound like really lovely tutors to have. Over my BA years I had many different kinds - the harsh ones, the sweet ones, the ones who didn't seem to know what the heck was going on, one who couldn't speak English very well and would ask us to translate things (not sure how he got through the selection process!)
I think, from a student perspective, knowing that you couldn't get away with stuff was helpful. We had one lecturer who was course director (and is my supervisor now) who would ask who had read what, the first week people enthusiastically said what they'd read, then after he'd gone around the group he smiled sweetly and asked each in turn what they felt about the author's feelings on xyz and their position - it certainly worked, people read from then on!
What I hated was when you were put on the spot though - particularly if you didn't 'get' a theory - I was one of the shy and quiet ones, and was made to feel very stupid a few times by the mouthy ones. It damaged my confidence to such an extent that my poor sup is STILL trying to bring me around and is always saying that my biggest problem is my confidence and I need to understand that I'm not thick etc, that my opinion is worthy and that I need to push myself forwards lol (I'm sure it will work at some stage).
The best way to get people talking and keep them talking imo is to ensure that nobody is savaged at any point. To be completely approachable, one of the group whilst still maintaining control, to turn around a misunderstanding with something along the lines of 'yes, that's a really good point, how about though if we consider this or that' - that's when the eureka moments happen. I had a fantastic graduate tutor in my third year, he was funny, friendly, you didn't feel you were in a class most of the time, but omg he taught us so damned well. I got a first in that class and I was absolute rubbish at social theory lol - he made it all make sense and removed the mystique - then you wanted to talk. As soon as the tutor gets stroppy (which I don't think for a second any of you do) its gone, probably for the entire course. My personal fave was another graduate tutor who, when we were really struggling as a group with some reading she asked us to discuss, asked if we were being deliberately obtuse, or whether we were actually just stupid.....

I will certainly keep you posted :-) I agree, it does make a huge difference, I know when I've been working and forget lunch (the norm) or pig out on high sugar things like biscuits etc I feel awful during the afternoon - unable to concentrate, jumpy, tired. I think its important to keep your sugar levels, protein etc in balance to enable you to work well and its something I don't tend to manage. It doesn't help that I quit smoking in September - 2 days after submission of my MA dissertation - since then my eating patterns are all over the place and my blood sugar is just ridiculous - like a rollercoaster, so I'm looking foward to trying something that won't help me to pile weight on, but will enable me to work well without resorting to my old concentration aid.... watch this space ;-)

Thanks everyone, you've made me feel a whole lot better :-) I haven't quite managed to step down a gear from the madness of the MA and realise I have 3 years to do this, I don't have to do it all in the next few months lol - more tortoise than hare ;-) I will force myself to take at least one day off a week, especially during quieter weeks, preferably two - I don't want to burn out, it would be madness!
Lol Phdbug, thanks :-) Its not as big as it sounds - it was more a full on arrggghhhhhhhh pilot study after it turned out somebody had done something that sounded very similar to what I was planning (not sure how I missed it at proposal stage!) and they were quoted a fair bit so my proposal, even though different, would have been too similar and would have resulted in a 'yeh and????'. I had to do a pilot study as a matter of urgency to see if it was still viable - and oh is it ;-)
Sigh, I think I'm going to call it a night - as of tomorrow I am going to try and pace a bit better and stop these crazy hours!

That's great, thanks Olivia, I'm going to go shopping ;-)

Ditto what Phdbug says - I haven't got my MA results yet and I'm in my 2nd month of the Phd. You can apply, most people do apply without results otherwise everybody would be forced to take a year out. Its conditional, mine is conditional on a pass at MA, but all unis are different. You'd have to go and find out from unis you were interested in what their particular policy is. For me it was easy, I'm at the same uni I did my BA and MA at so they know me well, but ask. I hope you get where you want to be - I remember dreaming of doing it lol.

Almond butter sounds really interesting :-) Is it expensive? I might get some - not too keen on peanut butter but I do like almonds

From this year, like Phdbug, we have a mandatory 4 year maximum time scale for submission. We are basically allowed 3 years of research and then 12 months completion and it has to be submitted by the 4th anniversary of initial registration unless there are significant extenuating circumstances agreed well in advance of the deadline. I guess its helpful in that it stops people from procrastinating too much but then again it does restrict you from being able allow the thesis to evolve significantly if things turn out differently to what was expected. It suits me as I need to go as fast as possible (within reason) due to my age and really wanting to build a career afterwards (I'll be in my early 40s when I graduate) and I have a couple of friends who started their Phd when I started my nightschool A levels (so back in 2001) and are STILL going lol.

I must agree with the others, maybe, as is often the case with the internet, your true feelings have got lost in the words, but it does come across that you are thinking of doing this as an afterthought because you have nothing else doing. A phd is far from an easy option - I'm a month in now, with another 3 years of intensive study, 95% self motivated, to go. If you look as Phdbug has suggested at the boards you will see the reality of doing this - it is hard - so damned hard - and is, in my personal opinion (others may disagree), something that you should only do if you can not conceive of doing anything else with your life right now and it is a driving passion. Otherwise you will crash and burn, many do, its tragic, those who have made it to the end all seem to me to share the same thing - although they moan sometimes (;-)) and get frustrated with the incredible pressure they are under, they are all passionate about what they do, it shines through even when they are completely pi**ed off with the whole thing and just want it all to go away (as you do after working solidly for 3 years+ under immense pressure).
Speaking personally this has been my goal since the end of the first year of my BA - I didn't realise it could be a possibility until then, from then on i've worked myself to the bone to get the grades I needed to get to the MA and then onto the Phd.

Good luck, and I hope that you're successful, but consider strongly what you are doing and why.

It is quite difficult to pin down the difference - the main difference between my BA and MA essays was the length of them as we had to provide a great deal of critical analysis for BA in my field. What you find though is that the luxury of the extra word count lends itself to far more critical engagement with the texts and more analysis of the subject area. You need to show that you have read widely, but that your reading is focused and applicable directly to the topic in hand. You also need to show a greater sophistication in your argument to show that you understand the nuances within the debate and ways in which different areas interact. You also need a very good level of presentation and writing.
I think this question is something that every new MA student asks, we plagued out tutors with it - what is different, what is an equivalent mark, if I wrote something that got a 75 at BA what would that translate to at MA etc etc. What we found was that our engagement deepened and our analysis became far more complex through the extended wordcount allowing a much more thorough consideration of the question. It was still only ever scratching the surface, and as such, the answer itself becomes more focused and tighter than at BA.
I'm sorry to be so vague, but its an incredibly difficult question to answer because, looking at the marking criteria for my BA and my MA the requirements are, on paper, much the same. Its just focusing for longer and going deeper than you can with a BA length essay.

I'm new to the Phd, into my second month now and its going well so far, but I wanted to ask how many hours/days a week do you work?
During my MA I was pretty much working 7 days a week and promised myself that I'd pace it better for the doctorate and have some time off - I'm guessing that in regular jobs people don't work 7 days a week (at least I didn't when I was working)! So how much work is 'normal' and acceptable, and what is the best way to pace yourself? I can't work 9-5 as such, I have children and have to do school runs, and when my youngest is home working is pretty much impossible, so I have say 9.30-3 during the week when I can work without distraction and then I tend to work in the evenings too - but I've worked everyday this week, and am planning on doing more this afternoon and wondering if I'm overdoing it - I just seem to think that I HAVE to work as much as I can every day and I'm not sure that its the way to go for this level of study. I work from home so don't have the commute to uni to take into consideration. It was the norm last year and in the final year of the BA for me to work 7 days and I missed so much in terms of family life and promised myself that I would work at a more relaxed pace this time but I don't want to under-do it or to slack.
Any advice would be hugely appreciated.