Hello,
My research is not going well at all. I think my supervisor was not very happy at my lack of progress in our last meeting. I feel so stupid because I said a lot of non sensical things, and now, I keep thinking about how bad the meeting was. I cannot even concentrate anymore.what to do?

Hi politics_student,

Sorry to hear things aren't going very well! I can sympathise because my research hasn't been going well for the past few months and my supervisor has a very critical and blunt attitude. Even when things started to turn around recently, he still picks holes in everything and didn't even acknowledge that some progress had finally been made.

When I have a meeting that goes badly, I find that taking a bit of a break to get some perspective helps (even if it's just half an hour to go for a walk or an hour to have lunch) and that might help with your concentration problem. Then when I come back I make a list of everything that needs to be done to move forward. Have you spoken to your supervisor directly and asked if s/he thinks that you're behind? It might not be as bad as you think, and even if you are a bit behind there are always ways to catch up and get back on track. If your supervisor isn't very approachable, maybe there's someone else you can ask for advice? I always feel worse when I feel like I'm not making progress, so maybe the best thing to do is take a short break to help you concentrate, and then speak to your supervisor or someone else that can give advice on the best way to move forward.

Hope things start to improve soon, and feel free to PM if you want to talk! :) Tulip

Hello "politics_student" and also to you "Tulip",

I hope you are well - apart from having a down day.

I too am a political science student. I would like to ask you three questions.
1) What stage of your candidature are you at?;
2) What country you are studying in?; and
3) And what is your topic?
Knowing the answers to these questions will help me to give you the encouragement you need right now.

Most people doing a PhD feel exactly as you do at some point in there candidature. I certainly have.

But please remember, if you got this far you must be pretty amazing!

"I feel so stupid because I said a lot of non sensical things, and now, I keep thinking about how bad the meeting was. I cannot even concentrate anymore.what to do?"

Dear Politiks student, don't worry about what you said or whether it seemed nonsensical or not. This sort of fretting can be really destructive but is often not 'real'. Your supervisor is a really busy person and probably isn't even thinking about what you said. Most of us are our own worst critics. Take Tulips advice and make a list of things you can do to catch up and resolve to work on the things on the list, one step at a time.

Exercise is also really helpful. Both the 'long walk' type where you think things through and the intensive type where you don't think about anything at all but getting through the exercise!

We all say and do things that we regret or believe are 'silly' because we are human. Remember the worst critic you will ever have is probably yourself and it is your work that eventually your supervisor gets to assess or help-not you yourself-you are absolutely fine.

Hello again politics_student,

I hope you are well.

Thank you for letting me know you are studying for a Masters degree in the UK. Could you please tell me what your topic is? Maybe by writing it out here it will help to clarify in your mind what it is you are trying to achieve. As a fellow political science student I would very much like to help if I am able.

I am not saying I am brilliant - far from it, but I am sure that as postgraduate students we are experiencing a lot of the same problems.

All the best!