MSc Physics: Struggling With Difficult Project

[motoroller]

I'm doing my MSc Physics project right now (I've already done a 4-year undergraduate course), and I'm finding the going very tough. My exam results were fine (I got a good percentage), but my project is due in a month and I'm finding it extremely difficult.

I think part of the reason is because my chosen project (QM, Markovian evolution etc) was canceled at the last minute and instead I was allocated a completely different project (CMP, computational simulation). I had no choice in this. The same happened at undergraduate level, but everyone was randomly allocated a project. That meant that the going was tough.

I accept that I'm expected to be doing research very independently, but throughout the project my supervisor has been a bit vague on the details of the research. I find this weird because he's then very specific about what he was looking for. I'm not psychic - I'm a physicist!

So, any advice or tips on how to get through this? :S

 

[motoroller]

Thanks for the help, everyone!

 

[Choppy]

I'm not sure if you're comment above is meant to be sacrastic or not.

Perhaps it would help if you had a more specific question. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of advice I can offer in a situation like this. Is the source of your difficulty communication with your supervisor?

Either way, communication between student and supervisor is a two-way street. When you meet, make sure that you ask the specific questions about your project that you need answers to. If you don't understand the answer, ask for clarification. Establish specific goals between now and the next meeting and confirm with your supervisor that they are reasonable and achievable.

If face-to-face meetings don't work, try email dialogues. Some people are more comfortable typing answers out.

If your supervisor is the source of the problem, try asking for help from other committee members, post-docs, or other senior graduate students.