I think it varies a lot from one department to the other. In my department, people change supervisors all the time, and I have a friend who has had three... (It's clearly my friend's fault, though.) It's all very formal and private, not a big deal.

Congrats!

And totally agree with the majority here. My mood changes 180 degrees from one day to the other.

I understand your situation. I'm finishing but I'm not, kind of weird.

My summer was worse thou, I did not write a decent sentence in 3 months, the last 3 months of the 3rd year -I guess it was the realisation of having to finish what made me panic and sit for hours feeling guilty about yet another lost day. It gets better... don't give up now!

I sympathise..., I was planning to be revising by now, and am still trying to figure out the structure... The good thing is that apparently it all comes together so quickly when the hard work is done. I'll be done by Christmas or January an will be ready to submit by April or so, if everything goes according to the plan -it never has, but it will, it must, eventually, or so I hope

I got "How to Get a PhD" on my first week, read three pages and never opened it again. Then, by the end of the first year, while working on my upgrade report, I made the mistake of buying "How to write a Literature Review". I read two pages and instantly thought "20 quid down the drain". Then, at the end of my third year, in a moment of panic, I bought "Authoring a PhD", and I think it's crap.

Well, everyone's different, but in my view these works are only good if you find any consolation in self-help books.

For me, this very forum had been way more helpful.

It's never easy to deal with a supervisor. On the one hand, they see you as a student and they want to tell you what to do. On the other hand, for them you're a colleague and they just want to discuss things as equals. But I'm afraid that's the contradiction inherent to getting a PhD!

I understand there are new rules, but they do not make things any easier for the student.

It's all about the fees, new students etc. Universities are becoming corporations.

The UK system is competing with the US, where they still take 7, 8 or 9 years to finish.

Surely the new regulations have affected the quality of the Phds, especially in non-science fields, where ideas take years to develop.

What a bitch, it's all I can say. Get that job, your suprevisor cannot do anything about it.

Was I alone in thinking that being a 4th year PhD student in a UK university was somehow not normal?

I just found this, and it's quite interesting.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2181202,00.html

My experience is that introductions need to be short. You'll probably find your chapters are too long anyway. But you need to contextualise too.

BTW, there's a book called something like "The right measure" that deals with weights and measurements. It has little or no explanation, just the figures. It's good for European and some north African measures. I got it from Amazon.

Another option is "Weights, Money and Other Measures Used by Our Ancestors", which I believe is available online.

Difficult question. I've had some of those too. It depends on when and where. A 19th century English inch is different from a 16th century Italian one. But, unless you need the exact measure, you can safely say it's approximately 2 cms.

Sorry I had to leave yesterday. I'm with o.stoll on this.

As I said, I think the whole process of getting a PhD is quite disappointing. You soon realise that it's not going to be groundbreaking.

Many people regret having started the Phd because they don't see beyond the actual thesis.

I would be bitter if the only result of the Phd was the thesis, or a better job or a higher salary.

Being a doctor is going to be my reward, and at this stage (I'm finishing but going through hard times) is the reason I'm still working on it.

No, don't get me wrong, it's not something to brag about, it's something to remind you of your achievement. My PhD friends (some of whom have seriously demanding jobs) say they have never done and probably will never do anything as hard as the PhD. When you've done it, that's it, the title is your reward. The thesis itself is just a minor thing, nobody's gonna read it aside from your suprevisor/examiner/mum. And you'll have it in the corner of a shelf, half forgotten. the title will be there, part of your name so to speak.