Anyone failed a dissertation or research project?

[Rainedere]

I think I've come to the realisation that I'm not cut out for university. I have too many responsibilities at home and not enough time to dedicate to my studies.

I'm in the process of collecting data for a simple (and crap imo) idea with easy stats that I've forgotten most of and would need to use to manipulate my data. I'm so thick, I'm not sure why i didnt opt for the BA version of my degree instead. I got 55% for my year so I'm probably on track for a 2:2 or lower.

I havent done much reading for my project either and finding it hard to find relevant literature. Again, this is very time consuming.

I feel like packing it in now. I'm old and never had a career. I only have 1 child, a 5 year old, so it's not like I've spent my 20s raising a family. Approaching 30 soon and I've achieved nothing.

I dont know what to do

I think your first step should be to speak to your project supervisor. Be honest with them and ask for help in planning out the steps you need to take to make progress. I’m an academic, I find that my project students tend to talk to me less if they are struggling, which can be really frustrating for me.

First- I doubt you are thick, after all, you got there.

Are you in second or third year?

The first thing you should do is talk to academic/ tutor support, or whatever support your uni has.

Two things to keep in mind:

1. the point of doing a dissertation and the rest of the degree is to LEARN! You're not meant to have all the options.

2. studying while raising such small'uns is a huge undertaking. Be kind to yourself.

But practically speaking, talk to your support peolle- see if there are options to swap pathways/ get extra help/ take a term off.

If you're stressed, you probably can't see a way out- someone else at the uni can outline options.

Good luck!

Keep going. You are nearly there, or ask now if you can change to BA. That might still be an option.

I teach MSc students. We don't like to fail dissertations because....the student is allowed to resubmit with a cap of 50. So, even if you fail, you will likely get a resubmit, and the Covid uni guidelines mean that everyone is getting an early ride this year. At most universities, it is pretty hard to fail unless you just don't submit.

Make sure you include all the sections in your dissertation. If you needed ethical approval, be sure to include the details if required. Label your graphs if you have any. Make sure the literature is relevant, present your methods clearly so they could be replicated, and get help with your analysis (your uni likely has a drop in service). Do not cut and paste from the literature, that is a quick jump to plagiarism. Do the minimum well.

It has been a rough year, but keep with it. You are nearly there.

• you are not meant to have all the ANSWERS

I'm a third year.

I know I'm still in the learning process as an undergraduate, but I still need to present my work and defend it, a bit like a viva. My idea is embarrassment, boring and theres not much literature available. I've honestly forgotten all the statistics I learned in years 1 and 2. I had to take a few years out after year 2 as well for health reasons.

I went to my parents on the weekend and barely saw my daughter or spent time with her. I woke up at 4am and worked throughout the day to practice bayesian statistics in R. She has homework and reading to complete and now she's behind with that. I feel awful. I'm messing both our education.

Echoing above advice. Plus, work out a reasonable timetable and stick to it, ensuring you allocate time for your daughter's homework and reading, walks in the fresh air for you regularly and your other commitments. A whole day studying starting at 4am is counter productive.

She'll be so proud of you. You are nearly there.

You’re calling yourself old at not yet 30?

One thing you could do is ask your parents to help with your daughter’s homework and reading in future. Or perhaps her father, if he is involved with her upbringing?

I do agree with those who said to get advice from your supervisor and discuss options for your degree. They really want people to succeed, and you’ve come a long way. Good luck.

I would ask her dad if he wasn't abusive. That's why I'm heavily reliant on my parents on the weekend.

I actually got quite a lot in from getting up at 4am. I can concentrate for longs periods as long as my daughter isn't disturbing me.

Ok. I'm going to carry on. It might be shit at the end of the day, but at least I tried.

Please keep trying op - you are nearly there.
Get support from the Uni if you need it - eg talk to your tutors.
You sound like you are underestimating everything you do and have achieved.
You've got this!

I havent done much reading for my project either and finding it hard to find relevant literature. Again, this is very time consuming

Yes, it is time consuming and you need to be ready to spend that time. I always advise my dissertation students that they will feel like they're "wasting" their reading because some may not seem relevant.

Except ...that it is. In order to find what you need, you need to really read and research around your topic.

How often do you see your supervisor? Talk to them, as a priority.

The vast majority of the reading you do IS irrelevant to your project. You just have to keep at it until you get to the relevant stuff. Abstracts are your friend. They let you know right off if it's what you're looking for.

No point throwing the towel in now, kid. You're almost there. There is no reason you can't bring those 50s up to a 2:1 🙂

You can do it! I know it’s hard, I went as a mature single parent to a 5 year old too. It’s exhausting but worth it when you’ve come this far. Is there any way of adapting you diss topic to make it more wide ranging so there’s more literature? If it’s a new topic then they will accept that the literature hasn’t been published yet. What is the subject? There’s definitely some mnetters who are good with stats. Do you have the book choosing and using statistics? I found that helpful.

Keep your stats simple. The most important statistic is the p value. They aren't expecting seriously complex stats at undergrad.

Can you do your project with relationships/correlations? If so, do that. Assuming you're using SPSS? It's scary, I know, but I swear if I can do it, absolutely anyone can.

More replies! Thanks guys. This is all really helpful.

I dont want to go in to what the topic is, but I'm doing it on sex differences on choices. So will do a super easy t-test. Was hoping to do a one way ANOVA but I wont have another group. I'm also looking to measure something else so will use another super easy test- correlation. And Cohen's d as well, cant forget.

I would have thought that doing a multilevel regression or just a simple linear regression would get more Mark's.

I've slowed down on the studying now as well. I can feel myself burning out and my house is a tip.

I cant find much literature on the relationship part of my study. I'm writing about stigma but not much comes up. Only for sociological journals and I'm trying to avoid citing papers that are not from credible psychology journals.

Are you using google scholar for finding papers? You should also be able to do a subject search on your student library portal to see what they have or what they can potentially order in for you. If you’re already doing this, ignore me! Also they sometimes keep previous years dissertations in the library, may be worth digging those out even if it’s just to get ideas on writing and stats.

I've used google scholar and my university library e-resources mainly.

Is your DC at home all day or at school/pre school? Do you work? Only asking to see where your study hours are in a day. I did a 6 year part time degree, it's soul destroying at times but you have to have that inner drive to keep going. I worked full time for the last 3 years and have a dd too. It's bloody hard, but you can do it if you want to - if you aren't that bothered either way it must be almost impossible to motivate yourself.

What do you want to achieve? The pride of accomplishing it, a foot on the career ladder, something else? Think about why you started and good luck

You're far too young to write yourself off.
I did a masters recently, dissertation contained stats tests like yours, and I got 61%. Are you making it more complicated than it needs to be?

You can do it OP! I'm also in the 3rd year of my degree and I have 6yo DS. It's extremely hard and I'm also getting up early/staying up late to work, my DS is disabled so it's hard when hes awake but at least he's at school in the day for me. I feel for you. Keep pushing through - have to remind myself it will be worth it in the end and that it isn't worth giving up as I've already done most of it! ps I hate bayesian stats

Forget ANOVAs, you don't need them. Correlation and t tests are fine if you're doing a sex difference. You don't necessarily get more marks for doing more complicated statistical tests. Basic ones that are done properly are plenty for undergrad.

You're just looking for normality and p values.

Concentrate on linking your discussion to the lit review. Get your methodology spot on. That's what they're looking for. I'm assuming this is lab report style?

I'm happy to send you my dissertation which used those stats if it will help. I ended up with a first.

Sociology journals are fine. My degree was psychology which is a social science as is sociology.

That’s so kind of you @bottleofbeer Deffo take offer @Rainedere it really helps to read someone else’s work.

I'm doing MSc now and I love it when you're shown previous essays, it's like a template and half the time just getting started is the hardest bit.

Remember, the stats are only one part of the rubric but are by far the scariest bit x

Also yes, defend your work. Show them why it's important but also recognise the limitations of your work in the discussion and what you would do next time to make it better. The methodology is important too, it needs to be step by step description so it is easily replicated.