Dont give up, this does seem to be a commen problem in research groups. Yes these are people you have to work with but there are other people in the university who you will hopefully get to know and make friends with.

Trying to break into a cliche is hard does you group go to the pub on a Friday or do any social activities? these are good events to get to know your comrads

Failing that facebook and the post grad forum are a good place to chat and vent your anger

has anyone noticed the google ads down the left hand side

Dont use anything smaller than a 24 font as you wont see it on the big screen.

Keep it simple nothing fancy like words flying in I have always been told to show the whole slide and go through the points

Keep colours simple as they can distract from the presintation or make it difficult to read.

Practice timings for presintations

Turn up early to make sure everything works and is compatable (bitter experiance)

Saw Conan the Barbarian last night

Classic

New bit of technology you press the button on the 'kettle' and get a cup of hot water (80C) almost straight away.

Pros:- good for the environment no time hanging round waiting for the kettle to boil

Cons:- £50 price tag, you can't hang around the tea room chatting whilst waiting for the kettle boil, Only one cup size (two fills required for large cups.

I would say that the quality of your research and publications is all that counts. Although there is a degree of snobbery on where you have studied!!

I have just written a paper for submission and am working on number 2 the order of publishers is important. I have cited myself as the main author them my supervisor and another supervisor who helped with some on the data. If your supervisor is helping with the paper i.e. putting it into a format that would be accepted by a journal or adding his credentials as being experiance in the field then I would cite then as an author. If he is doing sweet FA I would find someone who would be prepared to help and stick them in as an author

Good on you, I'm Bristol born and have just finished my masters from Bristol although based at the Langford site. Love Bristol lots going on good campus and shopping down at Cribbs is good. Much better now than when I was a youngster. Post graduate society is very active and there are lots of events that go on.

Good luck

Have a chat with your supervisor they should be able to tell you the best journals to publish in.

I don't know if anyone else has this at their uni's but lecturers get so many point for publishing in certain journals. The more acclaimed the journal the more points. This mean that they have to obtain a set score each year!!!

BE WARNED univeristy AU clubs often involve a lot of booze and dare I say initiations. Although this is limited to the main clubs which is full of degree students. Athough the facilities are normally very good and the equipment for sports if often subsidised and you can 'borrow' the mini bus.

Normally within most department there are groups of like minded people who get together for a bit of sport.

Do you have a post-graduate union?

Ok so I sent some samples off to an external lab, They have just come back unlabelled @£"$**stards. The whole experiment most likely has to be redone as these were taken at specific times.

Anyone else got horror stories of experiments gone wrong

P.S I should mention that I did blow up a chemistry lab at A-level and still have the burns to prove it :-)

I work in the food industry and there are several group technical directors who have PhD's (salery 60-70K). The only problem is that these types of positions are limited and need several years of experiance. But it does mean that if you represent the group they you do have more respect by being highly qualified. One person I know only uses his Dr title when arguing with other companies then it is like saying 'I do know what i'm talking about'

I once spilled a can of tango into my laptop

It was never the same again the enter button kept sticking and every so often a faint orange smell

DONT PANIC

after your viva you will be given the chance to make amends to your thesis. Your thesis should be judged on content and what you have written to prove you study.

Minor spelling mistakes are missed most of the time in non dyslexic people.

P.S I am dyslexic too but have several people who will check through anything I write although they know nothing of the content!!

Times are essential to pace yourself

08:00 - Large Coffee
11:00 - Hot Chocolate
12:00 - NPD tasting (if available+free)
12:30 - Lunch (normaly chips)
14:00 - Small Coffee
16:00 - Hot chocolate + doubble decker (would be starbar but have been removed from site due to nut free policy)