-
Asked by anon-267529 to K on 23 Nov 2020.
Question: Was it hard studying in PhD?
- Keywords:
-
K Sasitharan answered on 23 Nov 2020:
It has been a great experience. At times it is difficult because it is a major transition from previous university degrees. Usually (in school and undergrad degrees) we get questions that have answers somewhere, in text books or the internet search etc. However, in a PhD you get to work on a unique research topic/question, and you need to find the answers by experimenting and analyzing your data. There are no straightforward answers. Most of the time your supervisors, advisors, tutors will also be able to only make educated guesses based on their expertise. So you have independence to explore and find out the answers to questions that have never been answered before. It is an amazing feeling when you accomplish your research goals after numerous trial and error.
Comments
Romain commented on :
It’s a bit hard because it’s the first time that it’s expected from you to plan and get organised over a couple of years ! Imagine a science project that is 3-4 years long! You need to be able to imagine how you’ll have progressed in 2 years time etc. It’s not easy. And that’s not something you’re often prepared for before that during BA or even Master’s level.
Also, sometimes, you need to work late and feel the frustration when some experiments don’t work. It’s then important to learn how NOT to take it personally, so it’s also difficult because it’s hard work on learning who you are as a scientist!
Pratik commented on :
At times yes. It’s very different than school before. In college and in high school I was taught how to do something and then asked to do it on tests.
My PhD was very different. On day 1 my advisor sat down with me and said ‘I want to shoot a laser at a red blood cell, but I don’t know if that will melt the cell. I need to you find out how hot the cell will get if I shoot a laser at it’. And that’s what I spent the better part of my first year figuring out! I didn’t know how hot the cell would get, and neither did my advisor! So those kinds of open ended problems were quite different than how I was used to learning and that took some getting used to. But as I started to solve them I got some more confidence in myself and was able to get through it and eventually start doing well! In doing so I became really really comfortable with the idea that you just have to keep trying after experiments don’t work, eventually something will work.