Hi silentray, i agree with hairui that you should get someone more experience to read your thesis. Contary to popular belief people DO fail their vivas, in fact my own supervisor failed a couple of people outright already this year. However, it wasnt the thesis itself he said it was the fact that the students didnt have a clue what they were talking about and didnt have a grasp on basic knowledge which would be expected. So try not to get too stressed with the thesis as im sure your supervisor wouldnt let you submit if he thought it was poor. Remember his reputation is on the line as well. Good luck

I didnt think horses could get that high?!!!

Thanks for your help. I had my upgrade viva and i passed yipee!!!!

Hi chappies. Well its Sunday early evening and ive been at uni all weekend. I have my first year appraisal on Wednesday, and i am getting a little worried. Im a bit of a perfectionist, so i will feel like a failure if i cant answer a question on my research area. Does anyone else feel like this or is it just me?

Great stuff!! Hope you are enjoying your PhD where ever you are. A few of my friends here are vets and got really bored so went back to school to do a PhD

My god, thats kind of weird. Andy is my supervisor and Josh Slater is my second supervisor. Did you do the BVetMed of VetSci?

Royal Vet College. Another chap here is looking at Strep suis as well

Tricky, im doing subunit vaccine design for a pig respiratory infection!!

As for PhD applications, like Tricky said state why you want to do the PhD and maybe a few initial ideas for the project

Hey Tricky. My PhD is in bacteriology as well. I am in my second year. Techniques for bacteriology and virology can be similar and then different depending on what type of virus you are working with. Alot of research will involve molecular techniques such as PCR and cloning. The basic principles will be common to both research areas. Depending on the area of research there may be protein assays, infection studies in-vitro and in-vivo, confocal microscopy etc. Basically, you will be in the lab alot. My friends doing virology and me doing microbiology chose to do our PhD's in this area as we are interested in disease and the mechanisms surrounding it. I think as long as you have an idea of what you are getting yourself into and you enjoy it, then you should be fine. What are you interested in?

A few of my friends are doing a PhD in virology. What do you want to know?

Just read the relevent papers and get some ideas from there. Also, a good way to start is to do something basic, whether its designing your own primers for PCR, making up reagents or doing simple microbiology propagation. Doing something simple and it working will boost your confidence. Its great you get on with your supervisor, just be honest with them if you are feeling a bit unsure (they too were once in your position).

Hi there. I was in the same position to you just over a year ago. I did a BSc and MSc but was still petrified at doing interviews and alot of the reasearch went over my head. However, be brave. Interviewers are not there to trick you, they just want you to show you have a basic understanding of the project and perhaps a few initial ideas. To be honest if you really dont understand the area, then maybe that paticular PhD is not for you. Just pick a project that resembles past reaserch/lectures you enjoyed (usually that is the easiest to understand) For me, biochemistry and i just dont get along!!!

Hi there. I know how daunting it can be when designing your first experiments, but the best thing to do is to formulate a hypothesis and methods, (methods at this point can be vague). Then when you have a meeting with your prof, speak to him/her about your initial ideas and methods. At this point raise the fact that you are not too sure about the complete materials you need and you would like to work through it together or with a post-doc.

Hi there. I think the decision to study for a PhD part-time should not be taken lightly. Although this does depend in your area of research. A friend of mine doing a lab-based PhD PT took over 10 years to submit a thesis. However, i know people doing more social-science PhD PT and they handle it fine. I did an MSc PT and that was bad enough!!!But i think it depends on the finance, if you can do it FT then definately do it that way rather than PT. Good-luck. At the end of the day if your heart is in your work you will do great no matter how long it takes

Hi there chrisrolinski. My housemate has the same condition you do. She had a few courses of laser treatment done and its got 100 times better. I suggest talking to your GP and see what he/she recommends