I was always told to keep it vague in the line of 'results will be presented...' without saying what the results were (since I didn't have any!), even though it often states in the guidelines not to do that.

There's a few of us around! What year are you in? I'm half way through my third year and although technically I have another year and half, I'm only funded for another 6 months so I'm trying to get written up by Christmas.

Just started throwing everything into 1 document this week and learnt how to make a linked table of contents and figures etc ... that is my achievement for the week in terms of thesis writing!

My PhD is in molecular biology. What about you?

I think your expectations are just right. Your supervisors should be prioritizing you and your thesis. You should push for feedback and emphasize that you want to pass and it won't look good for them if you don't. If they still won't review it properly, you could go to the head of your department or pastoral academic for advice.

People often hear back within a few days, and in the case of success, often within a few hours.

I agree, drop them an email.

If it was me, I would stick it out whilst trying to find something else. As you know, it's hard enough to find one PD, let alone another one.

I'm not aware of any cases where this has been done and I doubt it's possible.

It's often said that people should move around. I think it's supposed to show flexibility and experience or something. I'm yet to find an academic who has told me that they didn't take a post doc because they had all their degrees from one institution however. A postdoc in my lab has gone from undergrad to PhD to PD and now has just got a second PD a different institution so it obviously didn't hinder her progress. If you are working with a good research group and you have a good supervisory team, that is probably the most important thing.

Russell Group Unis do have a better research record so they are probably better in terms of quality of research and career opportunities.

I agree it's not the best solution, but sometimes you have to put yourself first

London School of Economics?

Good question! I would say a Tuesday or Wednesday because then people will have recovered from the weekend, organised themselves for the week ahead, and not be ready to switch out of working mode yet.

PS, you can always take it and cancel later if B offers you a place.

But bear in mind, spending hours and hours studying a topic can indoctrinate you to love it... as many of the people can testify, including myself.

Well done !

Oh yeah, each book is about 20 pounds but I like books so I like to have my own copy :)