I've only just started and I'm going hell for leather right now on a pilot study that has already proved wrong some recent publications, so my supervisor wants to go for publication also - to say I'm bricking it is an understatement! I also have to prepare a lit review for my first panel in the new year so I'm guessing that it will be pretty full on over christmas.
I do envy those of you who are close to the end and have a light at the end of the tunnel, mine seems an awfully long way away :-(

I have a little one (5 years) and 2 teenagers so have both sides.

To be perfectly honest with you, and you will probably hate me for it, but its not THEIR choice that YOU are doing a Phd. I've had to face this with mine - this is their home, their life too and I have no right to impose on them too much. To be fair mine are great but I work away from them rather than expecting them to be away from me. My books, computer, everything tends to move with me to a caravan we've converted into an office down the garden. I'm back up in the house at the moment, and it drives me nuts - when I have to work work - ie writing or reading as opposed to data inputting I go down there. Its cold, its not good, but its better than noise lol.

The way I look at it is that we make this choice to do this and we can't impose it on others. They have to live for 3 years+ too. I do sympathise massively with you, its difficult and hard work, and kids are so damned noisy (try a little one lol) but its life and as I say, mine are brilliant - they tend to go upstairs themselves - but I can't ask them to live up there so we try to come to a happy medium and if I need excessive quantities of quiet its me that moves (and I can't read/write with noise!!!)

Other than that gaffer tape and hide the remote control.... might work ;-)

I'm not sure I could cope with weekly meetings that long lol! I met with mine yesterday for an hour and it was great, we got a lot of things talked over and planned - I see him again at the beginning of Dec (formally) but I can email him, ring, drop in any time I need to, so although the formal meetings are only once a month I have continual access to his genius lol. He also introduced me to another lecturer who I had a chat with for nearly another hour who will be on my sup board who is great and gave me lots more advice. He is passionate about my subject too so its really good - I feel like a have a lot of support and a lot of help. The dept is very much focussed on self motivation and development and so doesn't arrange weekly meetings but encourages you to search out stuff and develop your own style, but with that continual safety net of the experts to help you on your way. It seems to work well, the pass rate is, from what I understand, 100% in the dept, they said that those who make it through the 1st year all go on to do very well- I hope I'm with them ;-)
For my board in Jan I have to produce a 5-7K lit review and outline of the methodology and general proposal for discussion - eek!

How are you doing now? My Masters was very different to my undergraduate, there were no lectures at all, I guess that they are all different aren't they.
I would say bear with it though - the MA in my experience suddenly picked up quite dramatically and was so incredibly intense. The first month or so I was wondering what was going on and thinking it a breeze compared to the last year of the BA and then BAMMMMMMMMMMM it hit and boy did it hit! Again, yours may be different but I had 5K essays for submission each month between Dec and Apr and they had to be full on and well researched - on top of all that was the dissertation (still shaking slightly here) and the pressure and the workload was incredible - so far my Phd feels like a walk in the park in comparison (although that won't last ;-))
You have to remember that so much more of this is down to you - to get a good grade in your essays and your dissertation you have to have read very widely and produce work that is of a very high standard. I can't speak for other unis, but if we handed in work that at BA would have got us an easy 72-75 we'd get low-mid 60s at MA.
I wouldn't worry about being bored - use this build up time (cos that is what it is) to get as much reading done as possible, strap yourself in and prepare for all hell to break lose by Christmas.

He he, good luck!!! There's quite a few of us who have only just started - from what I can see from those who are well into it (and even submitted - great respect) its hard work, lots of it, little sleep, but good in a strange sort of way lol.
I'm into my second month now, had a meeting with my sup, another tomorrow, working away but still a little unfocussed as I'm not sure how things will work out with a massive spanner thrown in the works just over a week in - I may have a change of direction! Fun, fun fun!!!

6K words??????????????????????????????????????? omg!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't written a thing yet - not a single line...... oops! I have done a pilot database and am building a spreadsheet to discuss with sup on Tues but have nothing written and mine is humanities so it is all words lol.
Its November now - into our second month -eeek - this is starting to build up speed isn't it. I'm sure that in some ways it will seem like no time til we're posting that we've submitted - then what.... lol lol

Ahhhh my dream post - it seems like it will be a lifetime before I make that one lol! Congratulations - enjoy your time off until gearing up for the viva - you deserve a well earned break :-)

I wouldn't worry too much, you need the firm basis on which to do the work its not time wasted. I'm also a month in, am due to meet with my sup next week for the second time with everything having gone haywire in the last couple of weeks - my nerves are shot lol.
I see my sup once a month, submit work twice a year (for the board) and can submit other stuff in between if I choose to, so it seems that everyone is different.
It is long haul, a marathon rather than the 400m of the MA lol

======= Date Modified 26 Oct 2008 12:39:04 =======
Hi - argghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - don't ask!!!!! I'm having a minor disaster and having to do a pilot study atm - with a view to presenting results at sup meeting on the 4th. Bascially, when preparing the proposal I did a search and found all ok - good area - doing more detailed reading I found that someone had done something in a different area, but using same resources and coming to a conclusion - worst bit my sup had quoted her back in the 80s! Anyway, now doing pilot study because she only studied one census year, to find whether results would match stretched over 50 year period - they are so far - not sure where this leaves me - I'm going to have to discuss it with sup :-(

I was supposed to be reading and preparing lit review for the next 6 months without going near the archives, now I find myself in the archives and carrying out a full sample study a month in!



So............................... very very stressed out and worried :-( and so no, not liking it lol - I hope that once this is ironed out it will settle down again :-(

======= Date Modified 22 Oct 2008 17:37:49 =======
I'm 38, (39 on Friday!!!) and I'm just starting my Phd, I left school at 16 with a handful of O levels, did dead end jobs, some quite good ones, but dead end that weren't what I wanted to be doing and didn't stretch me mentally. I married at 21, had my first child at 23, my 2nd at 24, divorced at 27, went back to nightschool at 32, did A levels, married again at 33 and had my 3rd child at 34, started my BA also at 34, then MA, now Phd. So, I've kind of seen things from the other end. I'm not sure how to not make this sound patronising, but at 27 you're still so very very young. You have so much more to give, so much time to go - when you look at what I've done SINCE I was your age, well.... Its not in anyway a sacrifice, things that look perfect aren't - if I was one of your school friends at this stage you'd think depending on which part of 27, that I had the perfect life - nice house (my own), 2 beautiful children, a husband, a 'career' - but it was a smokescreen - the only thing I have left are the two beautiful children (who are now teenagers - say no more lol).

I genuinely wish sometimes, not that I'd change the kids for the world, they are my life, that I'd done it the other way - I can't imagine how it must be to do all this without school runs, sickness, all the other 'kid' stuff lol.

You can create a brilliant career for yourself in something you love rather than something you 'have' to do, you are still way young enough to have children etc if that's what you would like - you've literally got your whole life in front of you. Heck, I'm still planning on a career lol - I work out that I'll only have slightly less work time before retirement left after I graduate than I've had already and I plan to spend that doing something that excites me, that i'm passionate about and that uses my mind.



Here endeth the lesson ;-)

Thanks everyone :-) I'll have a look for endnote and other things, I may just end up with the trusty filing trays - at least I can't lose them...... but I would also like to sort out something for the computer if I don't end up blowing my poor little centuries old lap top up!

I'm not sure but I think most unis are different and it has to be clearly laid out in your handbook or on the website. In my uni its under 50% fail, 50-59% pass, 60-69% merit, 70% and above distinction. I hope its a good wee and not a bad wee for you! You're soooo lucky, I don't get my marks til wk 11 (week before Christmas!!! :$)

Lol, I'm with you there! First few weeks too ;-) From what I can see from having spoken to students who are a bit ahead they tend to do varying amounts. I know I have to submit something that is about 5K words on a lit review to my sup in December - then it gets a bit bigger from there. He reckoned for me personally I won't do much writing as such early on, but I'll have 2 official submits a year but can submit more to him in the meantime if I wish. What freaked me out was another of his students came in during our meeting (unofficial, had just dropped by to say hello) and she'd just started her second year, but was saying the paper she had prepared was 50 pages (including illustrations.....- by my reckoning thats around 10K words!) He was saying that some of what is written in the first year for boards and things can be slotted into the final thesis with a bit of revision, but it seems to be very much a personal thing.

======= Date Modified 14 38 2008 23:38:01 =======
I'm just starting now to get down to some serious reading and thinking that I should get in place some form of record system and also detailed notes. I remember so clearly from essays that I'd do the - I'm sure someone said something about that and couldn't remember which book, which page, exactly what etc - and that was after a few days - after 3 years I don't stand a chance!

Is there any advice you could offer on the best way of doing this and how best to arrange notes for use further into the research so I don't lose anything vital? I've always been pretty haphazard, normally scribbling notes on photocopied chapters or in the back of my A4 pad and I don't reckon that that will hold up this time (or will it?)

Please bear in mind that I'm a total computer dunce - I'm a historian and find computer speak 'challenging' - my computer skills are pretty much the same as my car mechanic skills lol - so if the computer is the way to go then idiot proof would be great 8-)

Thanks