Hi Lara,
I have 2 supervisors who each want a copy; I also have to submit one to the library; one to my research centre and one for myself - so a total of five copies - with binding at £30 each, not including printing it's not cheap. Hopefully my supervisors will take pity on me!

Thanks Lara, congratulations to you too! I threw all my drafts and various papers out as soon as my viva was over! It's such a great feeling to get rid of it all! I am looking forward to seeing a hard-bound copy of my thesis, it's just too bad that I need 5 copies as it is going to cost a fortune! It may have to wait until next month!!

Also is there an unwritten rule that you have to pay for bound copies of your thesis for your supervisors? I feel cheeky asking but then they earn lots and have generous research accounts - anyone know??

:-x

Thank you! I am still in shock from finally finishing. I am going to try to work on my corrections today and submit them next week :D

My final year was VERY hard I will not lie to you! Particularly the last few months. I had extra stress as my flat was flooded by a washing machine in the flat above. I had to have new floors and ceilings which really really added to the stress and put me back a bit. My supervisors were so understanding though. I don't think I ever made a deadline! But I was so determined as it got to the point where if I didn't do it I would never finish. I know its madness but I probably wrote half my PhD in about 2 months. I turned my 1st draft around to a final version and submitted within 1 month. I am lucky because my English is very good, and my writing is good so I can turn chapters out very quickly (once I can actually be bothered to work!). I was just so focussed in the last few months. I didn't pay attention to anything else, hardly saw my friends or boyfriend at all. I was very selfish - but I got it done and will make it up to everyone now!!

Good luck!!

I just wanted to let people know that if I can get my PhD you can too! After 5 long years (varying between part and full-time throughout) I had my viva on Tuesday and passed with minor corrections :D

I had a lot of problems throughout, varying between personal relationship problems to serious laziness and procrastination. But throughout everything I stuck at it and the end was eventually in sight - I hope it will be for you too :)

Hi all,

I'm at the same stage :D and aiming to submit w/c 3rd August. I still have a bit of writing to do and one of my supervisors is giving me some final comments on Monday - hopefully there will not be too much. Then it's the 'fun' bit (!) - checking through the preliminary pages and everything else over the last week.

I think you can do it EE. It only took me 3 weeks between handing in 1st draft to final draft. Not too sure how I managed it, and neither is anyone else! But I am lucky as I have two supervisors - one checks through briefly (asks me to do a document indicating the changes, and blatantly only reads those changes), the other one looks over in detail - sometimes pretty annoying when you agonise over a comma for 10 minutes - I am not joking! It is a shame if you only have one supervisor. Perhaps if she knows it is the final draft she will make sure to read it in detail? Maybe stress that this is the final draft and say when you would like to submit to put pressure on?

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Hi Joyce,



I agree with the others. Also, what statistical techniques have people used in similar analyses? - this will also help you. If you are not trained in statistics and a program such as SPSS, you should seriously consider if you should do complex statistical analysis.



I had used SPSS before, and was quite good as statistics. However, I decided to use logistic regression in one of my case study analyses. This chapter took me the best part of a year to complete because of a complete lack of support from my supervisors. Neither of them wanted to learn the specifics of what it is or how to do it. When I discussed it I was told "you sound like you know what you're talking about" - basically I blinded them with stats and it worked, but I was more concerned about what an external examiner would think. I took a logistic regression course, and although this was a social science course and mine was a lot more complicated as it was natural science, the tutor on the course was really helpful and I met with them seperately to go through my results. However, this took a while because they were not in my department. I was lucky that they were interested in its application in the natural sciences.



So, my advice is that if other people use complex statistics and you want to, seriously consider what support is available. If there is none, as in my case, I would not progress it further. Unless everyone uses these techniques, your external examiners will not be expecting it, and might just glaze over when they read it anyway, as my supervisors do.

Hello,

I can completely relate to this post. I have almost finished my thesis. I was supposed to hand my final draft in on Friday, but as usual didn't quite make the deadline. I gave 5 chapters in and said I needed 1 more day to do the rest even though there is loads to do, including some analysis(!). But instead of actually finishing the thing tonight, I have decided to sign up to this forum and write a reply to this post! I have lost all motivation and really don't care anymore. You may think I am silly as I am almost there, but I just can't face looking at the thing again!

I can't really give you any advice. Though it sounds like you are like me. In which case its best to set deadlines with your supervisors, as I have to make you actually do the work. Yes mine might be rather unrealistic, but hopefully at some point this evening I will get "the fear" and start doing some work!

Hope you get it done. At least you have not left it to Sunday night like me!