does anyone else find that they are expected to know an unreasonable amount of literature when starting out with their phd? i'm getting towards the end of my first year and have settled on a topic, but this topic naturally overlaps with other complex topics. whenever i give a talk on it or have a meeting, it feels like i'm expected to know about all of these other topics indepth and people get annoyed that i don't. it feels like i'm being expect to learn multiple topics and propose new research at the same time and it doesn't seem realistic to me and is very stressful. :-(

ignore them. i find a lot of the people who criticise actually don't know their stuff either. they are just good at making it sound like they do ...

i know i will eventually be an expert in my chosen areas but i'm so frustrated at the moment because i'm not entirely sure what my chosen areas are yet. i'm looking at several areas at the moment so i cant just go and get a book and work through it to pick up all the words and techniques i'm meant to know because it might be a waste of time. but because i dont know about any of the areas properly yet i feel like reviewers and such think im stupid and lazy. i will know my areas well when i find out what they are. :(

anyone else having this problem? it just feels like all i can do is wait

I did the waiting for a week or so but it does not work. Eventhough I am not sure how, I desperately want to focus on one area or topic which makes me a stress-bag rather than productive in the long search for my topic..where ever..whenever..whatever...I am gonna get it.

Amber, I completely agree! The more you learn, the more you realise just how much you don't know - it's very humbling. The thing is not to let it worry you, obviously one person is NEVER going to know everything. As new work is constantly being produced (thousands of articles being published every month) it's an impossible goal. All anyone can do is to try to stay up to date with the most important developments in their field.