How to deal with accademic supervisor

Hi! I have an accademic superviosr who is brilliant when you can get hold of her. However, I have almost completed my thesis and she has only read two chapers. I'm supposed to finish my thesis this weekend. She is very hard to contact, and I don't want to upset her by keepi8ng on texting or emailing her, but I'm up the walls trying to get it finished and not knowing if it's right or not.

Now, I feel like just going ahead on my own and hoping for the best as I'm terrified of rocking the boat and annoying her.

Has anyone else got any other ideas on how to manage the situation. Would welcome advice/comments.

I had a very similar situation with my thesis supervisor 2 yrs ago. I just had to go ahead with out her. I got better marks in the break down for the chapters I did myself and got slated for stuff that she told me to omit and change - when it should have been left in. She was brilliant on the subject matter but when it came to it not good at the direction on the thesis.
In hindsight I wished I had contacted the head of the course who I later learned helped another student who was having difficulty with their supervisor. He was a very approachable guy but I just never thought to ask him.
Is there another lecturer or head of the course you would feel comfortable going to this about, or perhaps someone at a higher level course - post grad or Phd level that you know that could advise.

Hi! Niceoneted,

Thanks a mil for your reply. Unforutnately, this lady is professor and Head of Dept., she is God and everyone appears afraid to give help to students without her permission. I've tried to email other lecuturers, but they always refer me back to her, though they do sometimes give helpful advice while doing so, but they appear to be afraid of over-stepping the mark with the Professor.

I'm really driven mad with all the stress about it. I don't know what accademics get out of behaving like this. Some of my friends have had similar experiences with their supervisors. When I did another masters a couple of years ago, it felt like the supervisor as playing hide and seek - though the situation then was probably not as bad as now. I can't understand what makes people behave in this way - it's so disrespectful and unprofessoina!

Thanks again for your reply.

I had a similar situation when completing my thesis- very hard to get feedback in a timely manner. I have to admit I was late submitting work & was rushing in the final weeks.

In the end I ran out of time + had to go ahead without the final input of the supervisor.
I asked friends to review / critique my work who had completed a Masters dissertation themselves & found them a great help. Have you anyone you can get to read over your work?

Also - the same supervisor was mentoring more students so we compared notes between us in an attempt to get an idea for what the supervisor wanted.
I read their conclusions and recommendations and they did the same for me in the final few days.

I think at this point the only option is to ring her if you do need to talk to her-If she is the head of the course your email might just be getting lost in the many mails she probably gets daily.

Best of luck with it, its tough going and very stressful but worth the effort in the end.

Hi! Carallen2,

Thanks for your reply. I think you're right, I'm just going to have to go ahead without her. I have friends who have done Masters' degrees who could help. Accademic Supervisors arrggh!! Never again!

Thanks.

Can't you phone her up and ask her where you stand? If she is happy with the 2 chapters and is happy for you to go ahead, then fine. How often do you talk to her?

If you are getting no help then get as many people as possible to read and comment on the thesis, in fact I would recommend that anyway, even with an engaged supervisor.