I dont know anyone that cant think of ways of improving the studies they ran in the first year or so, a PhD is a learning curve after all.

Hell NO I wouldn't do it again it has been an uphill struggle all the way and 3 years and a month later I'm still not done. I'm not going to lie, it has been and still is grim. I think there are 2 types of PhD student; those that live and breath their research and enjoy their PhDs, there are those that will either realise it's not for them and quit, or who will struggle on and get there through sheer determination. I definately fall into the latter category. Looking back I should have done something else, or I should have quit when the struggle began but that's not to say I regret the decision I made then, there was still a chance it would get better so I hedged my bets and battled on. The point is you have to ask yourself 'Is it worth the fight?' Can you grit your teeth and push on for whatever reason (whether it be 'coz I am not bloody quitting' because you want to be Dr X, or because of the job ops). If the answere is 'no' then get out now, there's no shame in that AT all.

would I do it again if I knew what I know now HELL NO! With hindsight would I have done things differently HELL YES - some of the work I did in first year is crip but it's still got to be a chapter somehow. Hmmmmm the difference is I dont have any regrets, at the time the decisions I made were sound, hindsight is a beautiful thing. The point is you dont know if you're gunna like it/gunna finish it/gunna fall in love with academia or hate it unless you try, it's different for everyone. It turns out academia is not for me so no I wouldn't do it again but I didn't know that before and i dont think I've lost anything as a result of trying it.

I went to speak to someone in the dept about quitting and she found out (nothing is confidential in accademia) and confronted me so I told her......everything. I called her a bully and cried,swore and shouted for an hour. I had nothing to loose, she couldn't do anything else to me at that stage. Since then I've stopped caring, I expect the worst from her and enjoy the fact that I'm still going much to her annoyance and she still has to proof read my work etc. the way I see it is she has something I want so I'll be civil and then I'll walk away and have a great life and forget she existed. It just took me hitting rock bottom to get perspective. Consequently my phd has been tough, she's right I'm not a natural but that's no excuse to be a bully, I WILL finish this, I've realised a PhD is more about stamina than skill, you've just got to decide if it's worth the 3/4 year fight.

I struggled with one of my supervisors for ........... well I guess I still am but it just means alot less to me these days. My first year and a half were grim, I cried alot. My supervisor took a disliking to me from day one, she banned other people in my research group from helping me, she dished out alot of critacism, non of it constructive and I didn't even dare dream about encouragment. She's set me impossible targets to watch me fail, constanlty telling me she thought I couldn't do it and I should just submit an Mphil and call it a day. She picked on every weakness I have (my dyslexia was her favourite) and I broke, I hit rock bottom and snapped.

Everyone feels like an idiot! It's just that some people hide it better than others. I am in my final year and have encountered soooooo many people saying the same thing. I always thought it was just me but it's not, even the people that I thought really knew their stuff think it. All accademics do is find fault in other peoples work and try to do better than their colleagues, it's the nature of the profession! Just hold onto the reason you want a PhD and keep some perspective, DO NOT let the ego bashing influence other areas of your life. I hated my first year and was constantly told I should quit coz I wasn't good enough and I now think they had a point but you dont need to be a genious to get a PhD (although I'm sure it makes it much less painful) you just need to be bloody minded and keep perspective. Good luck.