I'm just about to start a PhD, was just wondering if someone could tell me how much time students generally spend working on it out of hours ie: evenings and weekends.

Treat it as a full time job, so about 40 hours per week. as your project picks up, you may need to put in extra hours at home

I share a house at the moment with two lads doing PhDs. They say it should be treated as a full time job but they are both in first yr of PhD and dont quite match this time allowance. If you can do 40 hrs a week I would imagine you would be fine. If you are looking to scrape it, 4-5 hrs a day may be what you are looking at.

Hi S. Are u the S that was asking about the interview. I guess u did well since u are about to start ur PhD. How did the telephone interview go? Which uni will u be going. I hope everyting work out for ur project. gook luck.

Stu, BB, Roan, thanks for the advice. Roan - sorry I am not the same S, maybe I should probably change my name.

I've had friends who have got through on 3-4 hours a day, although they have been mad geniuses. Then again I've known people who have done nothing else, but then they are the sort who have no social skills and never had much life beforehand. But yeah, the best advice i was given is 'full time job + overtime as necessary', I don't think that's a bad guide.

I have a hard supervisor making me establish everything my self. I work at least 50 hours a week which seems to be normal in Switzerland. Cheers,
Barbara

Absolutely, 40 hours a week + writing/reading at home when needed. Don't forget your all important downtime though or you'll go insane and start performing immoral acts and/or eating your thesis like this lot on the forum!