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After looking around for a book binder to do my PhD thesis for a reasonable price, ease of setting up and turnaround I settled for http://www.mythesis.co.uk/ Perhaps worth a look if you had as much trouble as me (a 462 page thesis). good luck

Hi, I am well rehearsed in using NVivo 8 which you can use for content analysis. NVivo 9 now has an inbuilt process which I think allows you to link with SPSS so you can conduct quant analysis on qual data. If you can't get a licence perhaps use a simple Excel spreadsheet to record qual data numerically and then merge into SPSS so you can define variables / groups. Hope this helps.

Although this may sound strange I would take the bragging as a compliment - you are obviously considered more than an equal, hence the constant need to impress some sort of assumed superiority and to unsettle you in your own mind. I have had this myself and yes it is draining - it is an intended part of the drama. I would ignore it, focus on yourself, your dreams and what you want to do. If she was the genuine article then there wouldn't be all the 'noise'. The louder on the outside, the smaller on the inside!! Whilst I would encourage amicable relations between students there is, ultimately, the option of telling her to shut up which, I would imagine, might do a great deal of good rather than harm for your relationship in the long run! all the best from a fellow (and recently successful) phd candidate.

Sounds normal to me! I can't honestly say I felt excited at any one point through my PhD until after it was ALL over (I passed my viva last November). This might have been through fear of allowing myself to ease back on work but in reality it was probably me just being too hard on myself. There's a way to go for you yet, true, but you've already done something pretty special to be here. I'd say enjoy the fear and let it motivate you but don't let it control you. Work hard, you will succeed!! best wishes

Hi, first of all congrats for starting your interviews so early in your second year. I am awaiting my viva (10 days!) but my interviews (23) did not take place until June of my second year. I was fortunate enough to complete a full time PhD so could spend all my time on various tasks. My interviews ran from June until August and data analysis (Grounded Theory) took until January the following year. If you can, get started on your analysis as soon as you can - it helps maintain momentum of the research and will help you feel on top of things - it's easy to forget what you did and when otherwise! If it helps, I split my 3 year PhD as follows - yr1 problem conceptualisation and research design / yr2 data collection and analysis (also started Lit Rev and tried to write methods as I went along) / yr3 write up. Hope this helps - best regards and good luck.

Hello all, again. Regarding mistakes, as painful as it is to find them the sooner you read cover to cover and make a note of them the better. Whilst it is demoralising it is also empowering - you'll be aware of them if they are mentioned in the viva and will be better able to respond e.g. 'yes, a typo' or 'appears misleading but...' Having done this I'm now reading with more interest and my enthusiasm is beginning to build again. I don't know if the link I'm about to provide will appear in this post but I recommend this as a very good starting position - it will help you make the most of your time and energy.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=0335233821

I'm taking a week's leave to really go through next week - less than 2 weeks now!

regards to all

Hi, this is my first post. Funny, a few months ago I was looking at a similar thread thinking about what it would like leading up to the viva - and now I have mine in two weeks. As with many of you PhD'ers out there mine was a long and tortuous process. What's been most challenging is returning my work after a 2 week break - not helped by finding numerous errors - some that I hope will remain undetected! With only 2 weeks to go I think it's important to remember that even getting this far is an achievement and the rest of the process is just part of the journey. Satisfaction is the death of desire - stay hungry guys!