I have started my PhD a month ago, and am a little worried about the progress I'm making. Although I have been working hard, I've made a couple of silly mistakes during the lab work, and as a result, my project is a little behind. I have also hardly spoken to my main supervisor, as he is always very busy and I'm worried I don't seem very enthusiastic about the work I'm doing because I'm very quite during lab meetings. I hope I won't be sacked. What shall I do?

One month is a very little period to self evaluate your progress and even more for you supervisor to evaluate you. Show your interest to him, asking advice and in this way you will prevent eventaul mistakes, althought these are part of a PhD process and they shoudn't worry too much

G is right, everyone makes a few mistakes in the beginning. I'm sure you will be able to contribute more to the lab meetings in the near future when the work becomes more familiar and you begin to gain confidence. Don't be too hard on yourself, your supervisors wouldn't have selected you for the project if they didn't think that you were capable of completing it successfully. All the best.

I dont know if it helps but i am in exactly the same boat. 3 mts in i cant get anything to work properly in the lab i never talk to my sup and im considering quitting if things dont improve by feb. dont worry about getting the sack though, they cant.

It's not strictly true that a Uni cannot 'sack' a failing student - they can and they do (happened to a student that started at the same time as me). However, I'm talking about the situation when it is clear that, despite every assistance, a student is simply not going to be able to achieve a PhD degree. Having a few problems getting things set up in the first few months is completely normal, after all this is PhD level work, it's not supposed to be easy! :o)

I have just completed my first year, and for the first 6 months I was having problems getting things to work. Now I have managed to get AHEAD of my schedule, but again have hit a bad patch. It happens. It comes in ebbs and flows, but look forward to your Christmas break and come back with good intenstions.

Is this the same Steve that was so enthusiastic about their application success last year? That's quite worrying if it is...