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This post has been edited by tortoise_bobo: Jan 13 2014, 05:07 PM

I'm not sure how it works in the Life Sciences field, but in the Social Sciences, we ourselves are expected to develop the theoretical framework on our own.

I was lost for the first six months unable to find the theoretical gap and in the seventh month, all the ideas suddenly popped up and one year later, I presented my proposal framework and it went well.

Just keep reading and do a lot of literature search.

agree with this.. make good use of your time bro.. all the best

I'm in the pharmaceutical science field and I think not having done any lab work in the 3rd week is not too bad. I started at about the 2nd or 3rd week but that's because my lab is fully established to do my sort of project and is quite well funded. Also, I started off with the same supervisor in my Honours degree year and my PhD is a continuation of that project. My knowledge of the field I'm in is therefore quite decent and I can do experiments without wondering why the hell I'm doing them.

Scholarships are generally 3 years but extensions are usually granted for up to 6 months without issue. Any longer than that, you'll need a strong reason. The advice my faculty is giving to students is to aim to finish in 3.5 years. Most people finish in 3.5 - 4 years, although, there are also people who take 4-5 years. Taking 5-6 years is a rarity, I must say.

Reading up on the literature is very important and you should not see it as a waste of time. It's especially important if you have had minimal exposure to your field of research prior to your PhD. However, I do understand how you feel. Being 'under-worked' can also be as stressful as being overworked. Meanwhile, you should set yourself up to start labwork as soon as your equipment and consumables are in. Be as productive as possible when you are able to start labwork. Trust me, by then, you wish you could have a break

May I ask where your lab is?

If you're in Life Science, don't worry. Setting up lab and getting reagents all take time. And even if you have all those things now, you also can't start straight away cos you really need to know what you're doing and how you're doing it.

Your supervisor is right - take the time now to research your project and what items you need. Then how to conduct the experiments. Don't just jump into it and copy from the manual - know what you're doing. Most likely you'll fail and that's why you must know what you're doing so you can troubleshoot.

You also research to find out what you need. E.g. suddenly at the last step say you need this chemical X and you don't have it, then you need to order and wait for few weeks. Or that you find that the protocol is actually for genomic DNA and your sample is mitochondrial DNA.

tl;dr - Don't worry. In fact got some places spent up to 6 months just reading literature and follow senior to learn and see how they do.

which uni in australia?