I've always undertaken mine from home. It has advantages and disadvantages. On the upside, you can get a lot done, cups of tea whenever you want and peace and quiet without the hustle and bustle of travel. On the downside, it can be very isolating and lonely - ad you can go a bit stir crazy. As has been stated, you do need a system and ways of avoiding getting distracted.

Good luck, Jinkim65. Try not to be too nervous. Here's something to motivate you; it's very inspirational: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2c5j01Z6yY

I am, unfortunately. My supervisor said catch some sun this weekend. As if! Too much to do.

Write checker, as far as the comparison goes, is not a thorough as Viper.

I wouldn't think you'd fail. From my undergrad days I recall that you could get marked down a bit if you were under the word limit. Having said that, if the content and quality of it is really good, you I wouldn't think you'd get criticised for being under the limit.

12,000 words is a lot to write in 3 days but I think you can do it. You'll have notes, you'll know what you need to write - you just have to get it typed up. Try using mytomatoes to work in solid 25 minute blocks with 5 minute breaks in between. YOu'll getto see how quickly you are progressing that way.

I think the plagiarism checker is called Viper and it's free: http://www.scanmyessay.com/ There's a link to download it and everything.

Thank you, Sneaks. I think I've sorted it now. The absolute minimum I can go for is 46 patients. That's if I have 19 observations, a Ho of 0.7 and a H1 of 0.8. I couldn't have done the other, no because of my strong moral compass, but because my viva examiner could argue that it's unethical, as it would be me choosing numbers to fit my own circumstances. Meh.

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The final bit of data collection and analysis for me is a reliability study using dreaded intra class correleation co-efficients. I want to, hopefully, demonstrate that there is a strong level of agreement between my scores over the space of a week. Now, I don't have any fancy confidence interval statistics because I haven't started using it yet and it just seems like everything o do with sample size calculations is largely free fancy and supposition. Thinking that at least an attempt at a sample size calculation is better than nothing, I've done one that says I need 33 patients.

The null hypothesis is very conservative and says I will have an ICC (a 2 way random effects one) of 0.55. My alternative hypothesis says that it will be 0.7 or greater. 0.7 is acceptable for my questionnaire, but if I go for a null hypothesis like 0.7 and alternative hypothesis of 0.8 (which would admittedly be much better), I'd need over 100 subjects. I'm using sample size calculation software. This will be impossible based upon the time I have left and the fact that it would cost too much money. At least I'll have some evidence suggesting it's reliable. Does anyone else think that this is okay?

Apologies for the typo in the thread title.

I used to be into pro-gaming, big time. I have a Nintendo Entertainment System and I used to be pretty good on it until I started my PhD. I'd almost finished Mario but Bowser kept getting me with fire balls. If I finish Mario, I might get Mario 3. As for finding the time to pro-game, pffff, I think I might have to keep my games console locked away until I finish my PhD.

Well done!

Haha, lost the plot now, but I've found some pets you can get.

There's the dramatic gopher.........http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw&feature=related

The dancing lemur........http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX8EKBbx20I&NR=1&feature=fvwp

The dramatic dog.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp_WV91jx8E&feature=related

and there's always the angry cat as well............http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hPxGmTGarM

Fortunately rabbits evolved long ears for more than being able to hear really well. The glancing blows raining down on the rabbit didn't hurt one bit because the rabbit's ears provided perfect cushioning protection. Now it was the rabbit's turn, but he was hungry and the cabbages were getting away.

Have a star for being brave, Starlight. It really does seem like eye professionals are quite a scary bunch. Funny because my mate's sister is an opthamologist and I lent her my printer, because the one she had broke down, so she could get her dissertation in on time and qualify. It seems I have inadvertently perpetuated evil. I've trawled my memory and I can't think of anything to top your experiences, Sneaks' or Bilbo's. Not surprised about Danb's comment though because I've read Dice Man (which I'd like to direct as a movie if I don't get my unemployed PhD students' circus off the ground, and they're all mainly nutters - with a few exceptions.

Happens to me all the time. I've been collecting and analysing data and have actually quite enjoyed it because it's just forms and button clicking. In my view, the really high end stuff is the actual writing. I've been putting it off with the excuse that I have to, erm, collect my data at all costs and then analyse it. However, I've nearly done this now and I have no excuses, barring death, to actually put it off any longer. I read through what I've done so far and feel as though I don't understand it any more. So, it looks like I'll have to get into the writing frame of mind again. For me, it's the skill I'm weakest at.