Definitely don't think you should drop out. If you're in your 3rd and final year you may as well submit! I'm rather new to this but I know people that publish hardly anything or nothing and try to make up for it after they've received their PhD, I've heard of people taking and polishing what's in their PhD for a paper before.

So I've heard different things regarding this. My PhD is a science based PhD, by the way. I've been told by some people that a PhD is one big study with the result being a new result in a new area. Other people have said that it's essentially 3 small contributions to an area. What's the real answer here?

I'm being told to make a minor contribution for a paper but aren't all research papers novel in a way? Clearly that's not enough for a PhD. So is a PhD a massive research paper or a combination of the smaller ones? If it's a combination of the smaller ones than surely there must be some acceptance for difference in what each contribution achieves? But this is then confusing as all the PhD titles I've seen are like "Doing X with Y" which indicates one contribution.

I'm really confused and worried about this and want to get my understanding right so any advice is greatly appreciated!

I've been doing my PhD for about six weeks now. I still have no idea what I'm really doing, I'm just reading into a very broad topic. Is this normal? My reading can also be a day reading a 4/5 page paper and understanding only 80% of 3 key points. I feel I should at least know what problem I'll be working toward solving by now.

When do you start to know what you're doing?

I've recently started my PhD so it's probably far to early to worry about this...

I'm continuously reading into my research area. I've found a lot of information and (again probably too early to worry) but I'm not finding any massive gaps in the literature; the openings simply seem to be simple techniques not yet applied. This is my first worry.

However, this worry has meant I've scared myself by finding horror stories of poor people who've received an MPhil for clear contributions to their fields. Therefore my main question is, what qualifies one for an MPhil and not for a PhD? How does one avoid an MPhil and ensure that a PhD is in grasp throughout their studies?

Sorry for my splurge of emotion and thanks in advance for any advance!

I'm starting a PhD soon that's based at a distance from my supervisor (not that it matters, hopefully). I really don't know what to do for the first week, and subsequent weeks. I'm waiting on a reply asking this very question but I'm wondering what route most people took was. How did you spend your first weeks? When did you actually feel like you were doing good work (because I'm very conscious that whilst reading a lot I'll feel like I'm not progressing)? And lastly, and possibly most importantly, does anyone have any early-starter tips? Thank you!

I'm about to start a PhD in Computer Science. Obviously everybody will have different experiences but I'm working what the sort of 'average' working week, for those in and outside of this subject area, really is. I currently work a full time position as a standard 9-5 job. I hear horror stories all the time that I'll need to commit way more than that to the extent of including evenings, weekends, giving up on a social life, etc. Are there some happier stories than the dire ones I read online?

I'm applying for a PhD position at the moment, the department website specifies a research proposal is required so I've made one and contacted the supervisor. I was quite vague in the approach so I could leave room to explore areas as part of the research. I've since been told, however, to discuss the methods I'll be using to solve the problem. These have been used before. It feels like my proposal simply says I'll use methods I already know work, the only thing I could change is the tiny variable of what I try them on. This would make the end-to-end process novel but not the key method used. Is this an acceptable starting point for a PhD or does the proposal instead need to focus on finding new methods? I know it can change later, but I just want to start off on strong footing.