PhD support group?

celyn90

Hi melancholly, hope you're feeling better. I spent my first three years banging my head against various brick walls (my supervisor is someone that won't believe a negative result and that sometimes things don't work). He made me repeat everything ad nasausm - and it still didn't work. I finally snapped (literally snapped - I wouldn't advise this) and told him that the approach was problematic, these are the flaws and that I did the work properly the first time and this is how I could see to help solve the problems and asked if he had any *helpful* suggestions. I found writing it all out in full and trying to work out where to change tack helped me a great deal before going in to see him. After that, we had a long chat and worked out how to get the most from the lack of data I had and where to go from there.

The most valuble thing I got out of that was the knowledge that it didn't matter if it didn't work - I can still write it up, the work was still carried out. The model might need to be changed or you might have disproved your hypothesis, but that doesn't make your work any less valid.

melancholly

feeling much better today thanks - have yet to tell my supervisors about the bad data, but i'll deal with that later in the week. all i have is null data, so i guess that's better than dis-proving a hypothesis! i'm going to write a new experiment tomorrow which could help explain some results - figured it's better to go into a meeting with that plan rather than nothing!

PalaeoQueen

Hi, I'm not sure if it's too late to dredge this up but I've just discovered these forums and thought I'd say hi. I submitted my PhD on the 8th January (a whole month ago!), after taking four years and three months to complete (I had a four month extension), and am now waiting for my viva. My supervisor is exceptionally slow at organising these things and it seems unlikely that it'll be before Easter I'm also now convinced that my work was rubbish and that I'll fail horribly.

Anyway, I just wanted to show my support to the others going through their write-ups as I know just how hard it is. You will get there in the end, I honestly didn't think I'd ever make it but somehow I did. Keep going and chin up!

tessa0032

hi all - looking at this a few years later having searched 'phd support forum' and I wanted to recommend the fabulous site Phinished.org to you all - it's been a lifesaver for me for the last year, I should be submitting in March or April...

Noctu

Can I resurrect this thread? I'm about to start a PhD at Durham University... anyone else doing a PhD at the moment?

Reactive

Noctu wrote: »

Can I resurrect this thread? I'm about to start a PhD at Durham University... anyone else doing a PhD at the moment?

Me. PhD in Chemical Engineering, verging on physical chemistry. :beer: