5 Tips to Help You Finish Your MSc or PhD On Time
By : Professor Datuk Dr. A Rahman A Jamal
Work over the weekends
There are only 365 days in a year. If you don’t work on weekends, then the working days will be down to 261 days. Don’t forget that Malaysia has about 35 public holidays. If you regard your position of a graduate research assistant (GRA) like any other paying job, then you only have 226 days to work on your research and thesis. I see many students fail to graduate on time simply because they choose to work 8am to 5pm and 5 days a week. Why not aim to finish all your lab work in 3 semesters (for MSc) and use the final semester to wrap up loose ends and write the theses. Utilise your weekends to fast-track your experiments. Research laboratories in the USA, Europe, Japan, and many other countries (including ours) are opened 24/7. I see many of our own students leaving at 5 pm sharp every day and very few actually come over the weekends. The faster you finish your MSc or PhD, the faster you will get a better job with a better pay. I may sound brutal to ask you to come over the weekend to work but my colleague from the NUS once said, ‘GRAs should go home just to sleep’.
Master the relevant techniques early, even if you are not paid yet
If you know your project in advance i.e. once you get a verbal agreement with your potential supervisor, volunteer to come and work for free to learn the relevant techniques involved even if your GRA allowance will not commence yet. Learn techniques hands-on whilst doing your literature review or waiting for submission to the ethics committee. Learn from a senior person and not from another student unless asked to by your supervisor. Do not waste time. I see many students spending too much time in front of their computers and laptops. If you come in to the lab, do lab work and conduct experiments. One of the first things which Professor Sydney Brenner (Nobel Laureate) did when he arrived to become head of the Cambridge Molecular Biology Laboratory was to remove all the chairs and writing desks. He wanted students to spend their time doing experiments rather than to sit comfortably in their seats. I myself had just one square metre of bench space whilst doing my PhD at the University College London with no additional desk or area for writing. Remember also not to be just a high level technician but know the science behind each technique.
Begin to write your thesis from day 1
A thesis has introduction, literature review, objectives and study rationale, materials and method, results, discussion and conclusions. From day 1 onwards you should already begin formulating and writing the introduction plus also working on the literature review. Please do this after office hours. Being a scientist does not mean your work ends at 5pm. For those who have a family or even kids, spend an hour or two writing and reading at home after you have finished your chores and responsibilities to your loved ones. It has been done by others before you which means you can do it too. In UMBI, we have a best practice where every student has to submit a 25-page, 50-page and 75-page mini thesis at the end of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd semesters. What the student needs to do is to build up upon this mini-thesis as he/she progresses. At the end of the 3rd semester, almost 50-75% of the thesis will have been written and you can then focus making the tables and figures look better and also work on the discussion and conclusion. If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail (famous words by Stephen Covey).
Start compiling the relevant journals and read them
Start reading around the topic even before you begin you lab work. Compile those relevant papers (the pdf copies) and organise them well in your computer. I am pretty sure there will be many. Read at least one journal a day and understand them well. Use a dictionary if your English is not good. Trust me. After a while, you will not only improve your knowledge but also your English skills. Ask your supervisor if you don’t understand. Follow the literature as new articles are published relating to the topic. With this approach, you will strengthen your basic knowledge, you will know the latest advances and also where your project stands in relation to what is already known. I always tell students to build up their body of knowledge until they are able to educate and update their supervisors on the latest knowledge and articles related to their research project. Improve your approach to the experiments through reading and understanding of the science behind them. You can detect whether a student knows his/her stuff just by listening for the opening 5 minutes of his/her research update presentation. Remember, knowledge instil confidence.
Meet your supervisor or co-supervisor regularly
Do not avoid meeting your supervisor or co-supervisors. They cannot help you if they don’t know the problems you are facing. I see students get stuck and not progress for weeks and months just because they are too afraid to tell the supervisors. For those supervisors out there, please don’t scold your student if they are not successful in their experiments. Guide them, and if you do not know how to troubleshoot or you are not familiar with the technique, send your student to someone who can help. During my post-doc stint in a lab in Japan in 2001, I observed a PhD student struggling to get a particular experiment to work. Every day this student would repeat the same experiment and not getting results. This student was brushed off by the supervisor every time she asked for guidance. After 2 weeks, I found out that this supervisor had actually no mastery of the technique and was too proud to admit. Students, please meet and present your progress regularly to your supervisor or co-supervisor. Do not try to follow a different route in the building or take the stairs just because you want to avoid meeting your supervisors. Just kidding. Your supervisors will be able to mentor and guide you better if you update them regularly. In the case of supervision, absence does not make your heart grow fonder.