Hello, I am currently a PhD student in the UK, and on my second half of my third year.

I'll be honest, I've procrastinated my way through the PhD, for many reasons, mostly because my perfectionism fills me with a crippling fear of failure whenever I try to do any work. I am now reaching the end of my expected PhD time and have no results to show. In 4 months my funding will finish, though I have enough savings to survive another year, if needed.

The problem is, I don't know if it's worth even trying to finish at this point. I have a suitable subject and some background work done, but I am not sure if it's possible to finish within 4 years at this point. I am on the other hand, terrified to quit, as this will leave a gaping 3 year hole in my CV, and frankly, I don't think I'll be able to face myself after such a colossal failure.

I guess what I am asking is are there other people like me out there? Has anyone reached their third year without real results, and what did you do about it?

i am in the same boat,not with the perfectionism but i have had a very unsuccessful project, i almost left at the end of year 1 and decided to battle it out, things seemed to get better but i had to throw months of work away because things werent quite right, now i have half a project, i am just aiming to secure enough data for a masters and trying still with not great success to get the other half working. i too am anxious about having a 3 year gap in my cv. i dont think you will get another year as you will have a set date to be written up by, but you could maybe use a few months of your write up period to accumulate data? you should seek an advisors advice about what they think your volume of data will achieve asap

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It's good to see at least some people out there have had similar problems. I am pretty sure I can get the extra year, though no more than that. I am not sure if a PhD is doable in basically 16 months though.At this point I am just looking to see what hap[pens in the remaining 4 months I got funded, and I'll go from there.

It's good to see at least some people out there have had similar problems. I am pretty sure I can get the extra year, though no more than that. I am not sure if a PhD is doable in basically 16 months though.At this point I am just looking to see what hap[pens in the remaining 4 months I got funded, and I'll go from there.

yeah i was left to muddle on aswell, even when i did cry out for help, some supervisors just arent interested if your not going to bring them worthy papers. well done for pushing on globe_trotter
, its what i am trying to do aswell i refuse to give up!
with regards to securing an extra year,i am not sure thats possible and i wouldnt rely on it,its usually set in stone that you have a year from your funding ending to get written up and submitted, only an extreme circumstance will get you extra time if its caused you leave during your research. for your own personal well being a shorter term goal might be better, as you dont want to drag it out and be too relaxed and think you have plenty of time becasue the days pass quickly!

Check with your department - they may make exceptions as sometimes despite trying to finish within the time allocated it's not possible due to problems along the way (e.g. data collection, analyses, supervisor etc...) Have a solid plan of what you want to do and be prepared to answer questions on why you haven't got the data already if your supervisor doesn't know already!

Good luck and I hope you get something worked out. It's best to get it done ASAP before it feels like it's dragging on! (up)