Hi Lisa,

Don't panic. I had a similar experience at the beginning of my PhD - one of my SPs said that I need to be more independent and "take a more active" role in discussions.

I assume you are reading at the moment to figure out your research question? All they mean (I think) is that if you find something that looks really interesting or relevant then you should send across a short email just saying "i found this interesting because X"....
nothing too complicated, just a sentence :)

I found this really hard at first. I think its just that they want proactive students rather than student students if that makes any sense at all (it's first thing on a Monday morning!), students who take more of a lead in their learning as, after all, it is YOUR PhD :) This should grow as your confidence in dealing with them grows, but I would be very surprised if most PhD students haven't had at least one experience like this.

A big part of it is not really thinking about whether something sounds stupid or not. If you have an idea you think is good, put it to them. The worst they can do is disagree or argue a different point of view. I learned not to worry about appearing to be stupid - getting questions and ideas out in the early part of my PhD was a learning experience as they picked up on quite a few misconceptions, etc.

Here's a brill article that I love that does a much better job of detailing the importance of "stupidity":

I hope some of this made some sense - I haven't even had a cup of tea yet. Just wanted to let you know that you are definitely not the only PhD student to have had this kind of thing happen.

I'm a first year PhD student and I have looked incredibly stupid in front of my supervisors (not just one!) more than once. I used to get very nervous in their company and when I get nervous I struggle to articulate my thoughts well. I found that trying to have a bit more confidence in my meetings with them has helped somewhat :)

Hi,

I am in a pretty similar position to you. I've had a rough few years in terms of job prospects, and finally found a job I adore in this PhD. But I do also constantly think I should be doing more, I feel like I am always trying to catch up with academics who have been doing this for years and years. Realistically I know I am doing ok (my SP is brilliant and would definitely let me know if I wasn't!) but that just doesn't stop me from comparing myself to others in my office who are published or looking to publish, doing conferences and so on. I've been to two conferences but have absolutely nothing to present or submit to a journal thus far!

It is really tough -- for me this is the toughest part of the PhD so far. By nature I think a lot of us are quite analytical, and I know I definitely find it hard to stop myself from constantly thinking about what I should be doing/haven't done/other people are doing.

You are most definitely not alone!

We have one going in my department, I'll check the deadline and PM you if it's still open.

Edit: It is, I sent you a PM.

I can't really give any advice myself (being a baby 1st year), but I can tell you how I plan to structure mine. There is a thread connecting all 5 studies of my thesis, an overall statement/theme. Then each study is kind of exploring a different aspect of that same theme.

I'm not sure if it makes sense to have one completely separate thing? Can you link it somehow, or is it completely independent?

I had the same issue when applying for mine. The response I got was to essentially write a research proposal for the topic as if it was my own, covering plenty of literature and intended impact.

Yes :)

I'm also in my first year :)

My reading tends to come in bulks at different times - I'm doing lots of reading at the moment (like 8/9 hours a day) on one of the instruments we might use (such as past experiments, etc). Before this though I was doing a contents analysis. Before that I was doing a fair bit of reading surrounding a different but related issue.

So sometimes I literally spend all day reading, and others I don't spend 20 minutes reading!

Edit: I am in Psychology, if that's relevant

It can take ages for them to read and review applications, I wouldn't worry.