I am 18 months into PhD but I feel I have been let down slightly. Please read this and give me your opinion on what you would do- Im desperate.

At 12 months handed in transfer report (wasn't fantastic standard but not bad).
It took 3 MONTHS FOR FEEDBACK!!!!!! Should only normally take 4 weeks. During this time I am can't really move on so work halted (apart from bit of reading) during this time.
I was not upgraded and given recommended alterations to complete.
I did these and re-submitted recently.
However, the two examiners aren't from my field and dont understand the topic area so eventhough I had made ammendments, they were still not convinced (even though my supervisor was).
Now, 18 months in- no data collected.

I am SERIOUSLY contemplating quiting. It would probably take a couple of weeks to get some data and it seems that every step I take I get a door slammed in my face.

What would you ddo in this situation?

Your thoughts really are appreciated.

First, what doofus chose a couple of examiners that don't understand your field?

Second, is it possible that your supervisor is a bit lax in checking your results? No questioning of your work or abilities intended, I just wonder if your supervisor has not been guiding you properly (I've heard of that happening before).

If it's not that, then perhaps you need to go to the faculty reserach committee: here we have a very helpful woman who acts as a first contact point for postgrads with research difficulties. Do you have anyone like this?

is your 3 months of waiting for feedback from your supervisors, or from your transfer committee? (although, either way, its pretty outrageous)

Jono- Yes it was ridiculous that the examiners dont know the field. In this department, you have one internal examiner (a postgrad supervisor) and an external examiner who should know the field in question. However, my discipline is somewhat different from all the other fields in the school so the internal examiner has no idea about my field. Secondly, they cut a corner and elected the external examiner to be someone from a seperate department but who has a very vague association with the field (and I say that in the weakest sense). So yes it is ridiculous that this has occured.

Also, my supervisor has be pretty good with me but as I dont know how the process works, I cant say whether I have been mis-informed. What I would say is Im his first PhD student so that may be a factor but I can not complain about how he has treated me or the support given.
(PS- We both agree the proposal I have created is a sound idea with definate publishable qualities).
Zelda- 3 month wait was for the examiners when they were assesssing the transfer report.

A 3-month wait for a thesis panel is utterly outrageous. Do you have a research student handbook? I've found this invaluable in determining procedures and, in particular, expected timescales for these things.
My end-of-first-year thesis panel was 2 weeks after i submitted a short doc for it, and i got told straightaway in the panel that I'd got through. I'm telling you this to let you know what you should expect, as a frame of reference: sometimes i know that one ends up thinking 'is this just the way it is?', but it absolutely shouldn't be & you really need to take it further and, to be honest, make a complaint.

Ok Guys= so what would you do in my situation? Keep going even if it seems inevitable that time will run out or continue on regardless?

I know this doesn't help but I submitted my transfer report in December, taking into account xmas, it probably got to the transfer panel in January. I received notification that I passed last week.

I agree with Juno, is there no one in the graduate office who can advise you? It seems a bit rash to quit after you have been doing well (apart from the rubbish transfer panel's verdit).

My experience of the transfer thing was quite different - my report was read by one academic across the corridor from my lab, I had an interview (around two weeks after submitting the report) that lasted probably 3/4 hour and was told the same day that I had been upgraded. The process obviously varies from department to department. Actually, now that I think about it, a friend of mine had to actually be AWARDED an MPhil before they continued research towards a PhD (we had both been initially registered as MPhil). This involved an external examiner and the whole process therefore took a lot longer... Is this what's happening to you? Maybe I'm just confusing you - the point is, for me there was no period of waiting around, not being allowed to do research.

I don't really understand what point you're at now - do you have to submit the report again? If so, I think you should probably take heart. The friend I mentioned has found that her MPhil work is much more substantial than ours having been through the external examiners. Things will probably even themselves out - even though it's horrible for you at the minute.

Sorry Sue I dont follow. I am in a position now where the two examiners have agreed to upgrade me on the basis that I submit a first chapter of thesis at the end of April (end of my 18th month). However, even though I have a very good grasp of literature, and have developed an interesting initial question, I feel I can not continue because I am so far behind in terms of time. I am at 18 months of PhD- no data collected and would probably take at least another month to get initial experiment up and running.
Do you agree that I am too far behind on the time scale of PhD? If I was where I am now at 12 months I would be very happy.

I wonder if it depends on whether you're doing a science or not...you mentioned 'experiment' which makes you think you are: if it is social sciences, then i don't think 18 months in would be 'too late' at all - i know a few students who only started collecting data at this point.

I think it is possible personally. Can you share your concerns with your supervisor?

So you are effectively six months behind where you want to be...six months isn't an excessively long time to have 'wasted' (for whatever reason - I'm not saying it's your fault). What I mean is I've had plenty of six month periods during my PhD where I've achieved very little. That said, I was at least TRYING to achieve something. And there's always the fourth year (where I am now)...

18 months in I had...one 'result' (result = set of experiments that worked - I'm a scientist), and that had already been published.