Hi everyone.

I'm just curious, what's everyone's idea about where a student 'should be' in terms of their performance and progress throughout their 1st year of a PhD?

For example, should a supervisor still except a student to make mistakes, should the student be more independent etc.

And for those who are curious about why i'm asking, it's because I still lack 'attention to detail' to some things (I am working on this) and i'm wondering if other students have flaws like this ~6 months into their PhD.

I havent started data collection yet, I'm aware that I can't afford to keep doing this by then.

Cheers.

Hi,

Everyone progresses differently and each project is different so it can be very hard to compare. I think most supervisors would like you to do a lot of reading in the first year and get to know the basic techniques for the project (if it is a lab based project), but I've known plenty of people (myself included!) to make mistakes throughout the process, even right up until the final year. What is it that makes you feel like you lack attention to detail? Has your supervisor expressed any concerns? I feel like I went around in circles for at least the first two years trying to make experiments work, trouble shooting etc and I've been told by other people that it's perfectly normal, so maybe you're being too hard on yourself!

Tulip

Hi Tulip,

Thanks for answering. Yeah the first few moths were dedicated to reading and learning the techniques but now that we have 2 studies coming up in April. It's a lot more full on.

My supervisor mentioned in an email ... 'your lack of attention to detail that you sometimes lack and needs improvement.' He's expressed concerns before about my progress, so now I'm definitely a little worried