I think you have to wait for the outcome of the appeal. I think it's possible you will be examined again, either by a third independent examiner, or another set of examiners and redo the whole process.

Could you ask someone in your research group to read it? Or someone else in your department? That's what we normally do in my group.

You knew the deadlines and you haven't adhered to them. I would contact your administration department if I were you and explain the situation and see what they suggest. You probably should have escalated her lack of response earlier. Get your stuff ready to submit asap.

I don't know about Nottingham, but in most places you will struggle to find accommodation that quickly and that close to the start of term.

I've known students at my university leaving it very late to find somewhere and having to stay in hostels for several months, sometimes in a different city, because they can't find proper accommodation.

I would advise going there a month or two before and finding somewhere if that's a possibility (that's what I did when I started my postdoc in a different city), or just look online eg at Rightmove or places the university recommends to find somewhere, or contacting the uni and seeing what they advise. Sometimes there is a departmental mailing list where they email out to see if people have spare rooms.

It's probably cheaper to rent a room somewhere, although it can be hard to find decent ones and obviously you get what you pay for... Nottingham is fairly cheap as far as I know, so your budget should be fine for a room - you might also get a very cheap 1 bed flat for that price. Sometimes landlords do rent out rooms in their houses, but this is fairly atypical.

Rental contracts are usually for at least 6 months, so you might struggle to get a contract for less than that, unless it's an informal arrangement with someone.

Yep, close to the uni is usually better.

I agree with fallenonion. I don't think people sit there after interviews and go 'now who should we employ, not this one, she didn't go to a Russell group uni'. It's about the person and how much they like them and think they will fit in the department in terms of research, teaching and collegiality.

What do you mean by you have finished your research project?

You can email supervisors with a short introduction about you and a CV and see if they have any interest in working with you and have funding.

I don't think it will matter where you have done your PhD - it's more whether your supervisor is known in the field. Go for it.

No, I think you will need to adapt to whomever you are sending it, it will be better received if it is addressed to someone personally.

This is really odd for a supervisor to request you write the letter for them. I would have expected them to have written many by now, for undergrads and PhD students. I've written about 10 references so far this year!

It's also difficult to write it from your perspective, since it should sound personal.

Here's some resources that might help:

http://www.seanclancy.org/resume/graduate-research-advisor-recommendation-letter/

http://users.clas.ufl.edu/msscha/writing_recommendations.doc

https://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/documents/equality/HHMI_WriteReference.pdf

https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/9780472031887-appendixg.pdf

Weird!

There's loads of advice online about how to design a good academic poster, just google it. Your university will have a web page explaining how to use their print services to print a poster.

You are highly likely to pass at this stage if you have done what the examiners have requested. Try to forget about it for now and focus on other things, the outcome may take a while.

First of all, congrats on getting the MRes. I think this will help with getting a PhD, since after this you have a decent amount of research experience so that can't be used as an excuse at least.

It seems interview technique might be letting you down a bit - I would get training in this from your uni career's service and practice informally with supervisors and colleagues.

Go to conferences and see if you can get a publication during your MRes - that will really help in applying for PhD positions.

Make sure you have a good relationship with your MRes supervisor and evaluate this as you go through - you need an excellent reference this time.

Most age restrictions are being withdrawn as they are unfair barriers so I wouldn't worry too much about this.

Get feedback from supervisors or colleagues and make the changes suggested by the reviewers.

I agree, you need to look for posts that don't require a PhD. As a postdoc, you are expected to do more than just know some lab techniques. A postdoc is a research position, so you need to have been trained in research ie have a PhD in order to do one. You should look for technician posts that are advertised.