Hari Selasa 3/11/09..pagi-pagi aku dah ke lab. Nak basuh batu yang baru sampai semalam..Batu zeolite ni kecik sangat sizenya..0.2 hingga 2 mm ja...Letih sungguh membasuhnya..terlalu kotor dan berdebu. Nampak macam buruh kasar ja aku buat keja ni. Dah la tu tempat aku dok basuh batu-batu tu adalah laluan awam...kadang-kadang terasa juga segannya. Lantak je la...Dah keja aku, kena buat juga la. Ptg Isnin aku call Sara kat Warrnabool..dia kata nak datang ke Geelong untuk hantar pengasuh anaknya balik ke M’sia. Dia akan bermalam kat rumah Rima. Rasa bersalah kalau aku tak jemput dia datang ke rumah aku. Setelah berpakat dengan Khaleeda, kami akan jemput Sara makan tengahari kat rumah aku. Menu dia di bahagi dua. Khaleeda akan buat air asam dengan sambal belacan, aku masak nasi, ikan bakar, sayur campur dan daging goreng. Lepas basuh semua batu-batu tu..aku kelam kelibut balik utk masak tengahari. Tetamu dah sampai nak makan, aku tak siap masak lagi....gelabah biawak aku dibuatnya..namun segalanya beres juga...alhamdulillah...
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
What makes a good PhD student?
Some tips for PhD students.
Doing a PhD should be fun and rewarding, because you can spend all your working time discovering things and pursuing ideas — and getting paid for it, without any administrative responsibilities. Those who stick with a career in science do so because, despite the relatively poor pay, long hours and lack of security, it is all we want to do.
Unfortunately most new PhD students are ill-prepared, and as a consequence very few will fulfill their aspirations to be independent scientists. The main reasons for this are the 'grade creep' inherent at most universities, making it difficult to identify the really talented first-class graduates from the rest, and the pressure on universities to graduate as many PhD students as possible. The consequence is that we enroll far too many of them without telling them clearly what doing a doctorate should entail. We therefore set ourselves, and the students, on a path of frustration and disappointment.
So what should we be telling prospective PhD students?
• Choose a supervisor whose work you admire and who is well supported by grants and departmental infrastructure.
• Take responsibility for your project.
• Work hard — long days all week and part of most weekends. If research is your passion this should be easy, and if it isn't, you are probably in the wrong field. Note who goes home with a full briefcase to work on at the end of the day. This is a cause of success, not a consequence.
• Take some weekends off, and decent holidays, so you don't burn out.
• Read the literature in your immediate area, both current and past, and around it. You can't possibly make an original contribution to the literature unless you know what is already there.
• Plan your days and weeks carefully to dovetail experiments so that you have a minimum amount of downtime.
• Keep a good lab book and write it up every day.
• Be creative. Think about what you are doing and why, and look for better ways to go. Don't see your PhD as just a road map laid out by your supervisor.
• Develop good writing skills: they will make your scientific career immeasurably easier.
• To be successful you must be at least four of the following: smart, motivated, creative, hard-working, skilful and lucky. You can't depend on luck, so you had better focus on the others!
Source :Georgia Chenevix-Trench is principal research fellow at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Herston, Australia.
Doing a PhD should be fun and rewarding, because you can spend all your working time discovering things and pursuing ideas — and getting paid for it, without any administrative responsibilities. Those who stick with a career in science do so because, despite the relatively poor pay, long hours and lack of security, it is all we want to do.
Unfortunately most new PhD students are ill-prepared, and as a consequence very few will fulfill their aspirations to be independent scientists. The main reasons for this are the 'grade creep' inherent at most universities, making it difficult to identify the really talented first-class graduates from the rest, and the pressure on universities to graduate as many PhD students as possible. The consequence is that we enroll far too many of them without telling them clearly what doing a doctorate should entail. We therefore set ourselves, and the students, on a path of frustration and disappointment.
So what should we be telling prospective PhD students?
• Choose a supervisor whose work you admire and who is well supported by grants and departmental infrastructure.
• Take responsibility for your project.
• Work hard — long days all week and part of most weekends. If research is your passion this should be easy, and if it isn't, you are probably in the wrong field. Note who goes home with a full briefcase to work on at the end of the day. This is a cause of success, not a consequence.
• Take some weekends off, and decent holidays, so you don't burn out.
• Read the literature in your immediate area, both current and past, and around it. You can't possibly make an original contribution to the literature unless you know what is already there.
• Plan your days and weeks carefully to dovetail experiments so that you have a minimum amount of downtime.
• Keep a good lab book and write it up every day.
• Be creative. Think about what you are doing and why, and look for better ways to go. Don't see your PhD as just a road map laid out by your supervisor.
• Develop good writing skills: they will make your scientific career immeasurably easier.
• To be successful you must be at least four of the following: smart, motivated, creative, hard-working, skilful and lucky. You can't depend on luck, so you had better focus on the others!
Source :Georgia Chenevix-Trench is principal research fellow at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Herston, Australia.
PhD dan kebimbangan..
Hari ni mood aku x menentu. Pagi-pagi pi school macam biasa...check e-mail, baca apa yang patut, lepas tu pi lab. Check pump dan water level dalam tangki wetland ku..Alhamdulillah nampak ok ja..Jumpa Leanne, dia kata zeolite aku dah sampai....kena basuh batu lagi....Esok la aku basuh..hari ni rasa x ok sangat. Rasa takut dan kurang confident tentang PhD ni..aku pun tak tau pasai apa....Aku pun cari apa yang patut untuk mengembalikan semangat dan confident yang hilang.....harap2 ia membantu
The seven secrets of highly successful PhD students
Researchers who know and make use of these seven secrets get through their doctorate more quickly, and just as importantly are happier, according to the Staff Development and Training Unit, Flinders University, Australia.
1. Care and maintenance of your supervisors
* Meet regularly with your supervisors (even if they think it is not that necessary)
* Discuss and negotiate your progress regularly
* Understand your different styles. If your supervisor keeps wanting you to follow up new leads and you are happy to, and you are five years into your study, it is time to get some outside perspective and guidance
* If it is not working out, do something about it. Don't just think it will get better or that you can do it on your own
2. Write and show as you go: This is show and tell, not hide and seek
* Always write and show as you go. If you are reading and not writing, after about 3 or 4 weeks you will forget what you have read
* Writing and showing your work forces you to stay on track and refine your thinking
* Writing is helpful because at the end you can't hand in your head full of lots of good ideas
* Set deadlines for your writing and handing in. People generally don't write because of issues of perfectionism, so avoid this with deadlines
* Generally it is a good idea to write journal articles (on your exact thesis topic), as you go
* Practice writing with your peers, this can be very effective
3. Be realistic: It's not a Nobel Prize
* When you are doing PhD you are learning how to do a PhD, you are not expected to know this in advance
* Original work does not mean a cure for cancer. In reality it means one small step in advancing existing knowledge
* Do not go off on tangents in the hope of answering 'The question', stay focused
* You have a cast iron guarantee right now that your thesis will not, cannot and probably should not, be perfect
* Separate yourself from your PhD. It's a bunch of thoughts on a piece of paper, it's not you. Put it in perspective
4. Say no to distractions: Even the fun ones and the ones you think you must do
* Set priorities and be realistic about what you can do
* Do the important rather than the immediately urgent
* Cleaning scum build-up from the shower may be more fun than your PhD, but it won't get the thesis done. Resist this and other urges, and keep writing!
* The golden rule to avoid over-commitment is don't let anything eat into your set study times, or as you would with a job, make the time up if interruption is unavoidable
5. It's a job: That means working nine to five but you get holidays
* You may not work from nine to five, but you definitely need fixed hours. Otherwise how should you know when you should be working?
* Set up a proper workplace. A bus station, university corridor or the lounge room with a TV on are not proper work areas
* Like a job, if you take time off, make it up somewhere else. You wouldn't just not show up to work for three days with no consequences
* Set deadlines and targets. There are very few jobs where the boss says "I'll see you in three years time with that report"
* When you stick to your work times, you get guilt-free time off in the evenings and holidays (like a job). Don't try to squeeze more out of yourself. You'll just kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
6. Get help: You are not an owner-operator single person business
* This means you are allowed to get help. Not only are you allowed, but you will greatly reduce time and effort if you do
* Get help from statistics consultants, editors, methodologists, academics, peers, your supervisors...
* Use any and all formal assistance in the university/institution including tutors and graduate schools, skills development and faculty staff
7. You can do it: A PhD is about intelligence and persistence
* You would not have got this far if you did not have the intelligence to do it. If you feel like impostor, be reassured that most people doing a PhD feel that way
* Persistence is at least as important ingredient; this comes from habits like meeting regularly with your supervisors, treating PhD like a job etc.
* So in fact the final habit of a highly effective PhD researcher is to know and believe that you can do it, and when the going gets tough, keep going!
1. Care and maintenance of your supervisors
* Meet regularly with your supervisors (even if they think it is not that necessary)
* Discuss and negotiate your progress regularly
* Understand your different styles. If your supervisor keeps wanting you to follow up new leads and you are happy to, and you are five years into your study, it is time to get some outside perspective and guidance
* If it is not working out, do something about it. Don't just think it will get better or that you can do it on your own
2. Write and show as you go: This is show and tell, not hide and seek
* Always write and show as you go. If you are reading and not writing, after about 3 or 4 weeks you will forget what you have read
* Writing and showing your work forces you to stay on track and refine your thinking
* Writing is helpful because at the end you can't hand in your head full of lots of good ideas
* Set deadlines for your writing and handing in. People generally don't write because of issues of perfectionism, so avoid this with deadlines
* Generally it is a good idea to write journal articles (on your exact thesis topic), as you go
* Practice writing with your peers, this can be very effective
3. Be realistic: It's not a Nobel Prize
* When you are doing PhD you are learning how to do a PhD, you are not expected to know this in advance
* Original work does not mean a cure for cancer. In reality it means one small step in advancing existing knowledge
* Do not go off on tangents in the hope of answering 'The question', stay focused
* You have a cast iron guarantee right now that your thesis will not, cannot and probably should not, be perfect
* Separate yourself from your PhD. It's a bunch of thoughts on a piece of paper, it's not you. Put it in perspective
4. Say no to distractions: Even the fun ones and the ones you think you must do
* Set priorities and be realistic about what you can do
* Do the important rather than the immediately urgent
* Cleaning scum build-up from the shower may be more fun than your PhD, but it won't get the thesis done. Resist this and other urges, and keep writing!
* The golden rule to avoid over-commitment is don't let anything eat into your set study times, or as you would with a job, make the time up if interruption is unavoidable
5. It's a job: That means working nine to five but you get holidays
* You may not work from nine to five, but you definitely need fixed hours. Otherwise how should you know when you should be working?
* Set up a proper workplace. A bus station, university corridor or the lounge room with a TV on are not proper work areas
* Like a job, if you take time off, make it up somewhere else. You wouldn't just not show up to work for three days with no consequences
* Set deadlines and targets. There are very few jobs where the boss says "I'll see you in three years time with that report"
* When you stick to your work times, you get guilt-free time off in the evenings and holidays (like a job). Don't try to squeeze more out of yourself. You'll just kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
6. Get help: You are not an owner-operator single person business
* This means you are allowed to get help. Not only are you allowed, but you will greatly reduce time and effort if you do
* Get help from statistics consultants, editors, methodologists, academics, peers, your supervisors...
* Use any and all formal assistance in the university/institution including tutors and graduate schools, skills development and faculty staff
7. You can do it: A PhD is about intelligence and persistence
* You would not have got this far if you did not have the intelligence to do it. If you feel like impostor, be reassured that most people doing a PhD feel that way
* Persistence is at least as important ingredient; this comes from habits like meeting regularly with your supervisors, treating PhD like a job etc.
* So in fact the final habit of a highly effective PhD researcher is to know and believe that you can do it, and when the going gets tough, keep going!
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