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I am currently a first-year Ph.D. student taking a course sequence with my Ph.D. advisor. The first class of the sequence went really well, however, the second class is not going as well. The most notable instance is I copied down a problem incorrectly from the homework prompt. This is the first time in my life I have ever done so, and I was extremely embarrassed about it. An embarrassing instance outside of the class was during a one-on-one discussion. He asked me a question, and I froze and could not think correctly, and said a factually incorrect thing. With the combination of these things, I am beginning to worry my advisor thinks I am stupid, and thus not cut out for a Ph.D. I think one aspect of why I am so nervous around him is he's extremely famous and I think that gets to me.

Anyway, I was curious if anyone had suggestions on how to proceed with any of the two instances I mentioned to help me improve my situation.

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4 Answers 4

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Don't try to build an "image" that is different from how you actually are, especially with your supervisor

I would counsel against the idea that you should be trying to build a positive image with this person at all. In particular, you should not be trying to build an image that presents you as more competent at your work than you actually are. The purpose of a PhD supervisor is to train you and assist you to improve, so if he has an image of your competence that is more favourable than your actual competence then it will harm his ability to assist your learning.

You are only in the first-year of your PhD. Accept that you are a novice and that you are in training to attain basic competence in research. Don't be embarrassed about making mistakes in front of your supervisor and don't worry about the "image" your supervisor has of you (see related question and advice here). Let me put you at ease --- your supervisor almost certainly views you and all your peers as incompetent, which is how almost all PhD students start out. Focus on learning and practicing your research area, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes, and improving your work. As you go through your PhD program you will get more competent and your supervisor will keep track of your progress. Focus on substantive learning and improvement and don't concern yourself with your image. You will have an entire career to build up a positive good image through good quality work.

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  • While I agree fully with this answer, especially the first paragraph, I have a small quibble with the notion that "your supervisor almost certainly views you and all your peers as incompetent," since if this were the case it's unlikely any of you would be in the program at all. I haven't yet advised students so I could certainly be wrong, but my sense is that while advisers may (and should!) view students as inexperienced and in need of training, it doesn't seem plausible that an admissions committee would admit a group of students whom the committee members judged to be incompetent...
    – cpit
    Commented Aug 22, 2022 at 5:52
  • I think we're just using a different bar. Since the purpose of the PhD program is to train the student to be able to conduct independent research, presumptively, the student would not be competent to do this prior to the training program; hence the diagnosis of incompetence (in the skills that the academic already has).
    – Ben
    Commented Aug 22, 2022 at 10:08
  • Ah, yes. I was originally reading incompetence as general ineptitude or incapacity rather than lack of competence in a particular skill.
    – cpit
    Commented Aug 22, 2022 at 19:25
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Take responsibility and move on.

You cannot do anything to change what has happened in the past, but you can learn from what has happened. If your advisor chooses to dwell on what has already happened rather than evaluate you based on your current progress, you might consider giving less weight to your advisor’s opinion since they are not assessing you with relevant and current data.

If you feel is is helpful, you could offer an explanation or apology for your errors. And if your advisor asks about the situation, you should talk about it. But unless this awkwardness is impeding your work with your advisor, I doubt it is necessary.


Embarrassing things happen all the time. I’ve blanked on factual questions in areas that I know really well, and I personally have evaluated it as being nervous on my part. Since then, I’ve tried different strategies to prepare better for meetings so I’m not caught off guard. Was it embarrassing? Absolutely. I’m sure my advisor found it odd and supplied his own narrative for why it happened. Take responsibility and move on.

I’ve also made mistakes in copying information and have had a misunderstanding based on my lack of proofreading. This is usually solved with a remark to the effect of “Looks like I copied that wrong, I’ll make a note to fix it on my own time.” Take responsibility and move on.

Both of these situations were embarrassing, but I hope they demonstrate that 1) you are not alone in not being a perfect person and 2) they are not career-devastating mistakes that color your advisor’s opinion of you as a good student.

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I'm also a first year PhD student so I get the pressure to feel impressive to your advisor. That having been said, I think the best advice is to try not to take your small mistakes too seriously. Everybody freezes and everybody misses homework questions. As long as you're putting in the effort (and if these mistakes are bothering you enough to ask about them on stack exchange, I bet you're the hard working type) you're advisor is going to see it after a little while.

In short - try not to be too critical of yourself, I really doubt your advisor thinks you're a bad student because of them. If not already, in time your advisor will recognize your strengths and see you're a valuable student. Just be patient and keep the faith.

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If that's the first time you've copied a problem down incorrectly, I'd bet you're the type of student whose conscientious work is obvious to your advisor and other professors in your department (whom you should also be developing relationships with, even at this early stage, btw). Also, keep in mind that admissions committees (especially in departments that can attract "famous" professors) don't casually accept students; if you weren't cut out for it, you probably wouldn't be there to begin with.

In any case, no reasonable advisor would expect a first-year student to get every fact right or never make mistakes. In the unlikely case your advisor does happen to have those expectations and/or does think, based on two inconsequential mistakes, that you're not cut out for the program, you have plenty of time to find a new advisor, which is not at all unusual. More importantly, it sounds like you may be assuming the advisor thinks these things, since you don't mention any specific reaction he had that indicates as much. But even if he did give some feedback or correction, keep in mind that giving feedback and critique is what they're there for, and receiving that critique and advice is what you're there for. It's crucial for survival in grad school that students not take criticism personally—after all, if you're planning to be an academic at least, proposing some idea and having other people critique it is pretty much what you'll be doing for the rest of your career. If your advisor did give some clear indication he's displeased with your progress, you might consider explaining the circumstances or somehow remediating the situation—but if there wasn't an explicit indication (and even if there was) he's probably forgotten about the whole thing by now. You're likely better off just keeping on with the hard work and reminding yourself as often as you can that you belong there and that all grad students who aren't egomaniacs are constantly wracked with self-doubt and that you're probably doing just fine.

But here's the most important thing, which I don't think most grad students (of which I am one) realize soon enough*: the professors are there because they want to teach students! If you showed up and knew every single thing perfectly before your first year was over, their lives would be pointless (slight exaggeration, but still). Being a professor is about teaching people things they didn't know before and guiding students in their acquisition of knowledge, so don't feel bad when that occasionally happens. A good advisor will genuinely enjoy feeling like they're actually contributing to your development from student to colleague, and your making mistakes early on is part of that process.


*I didn't figure it out on my own; I was lucky that someone very wise told me this when I was distraught after my first teaching evaluation (which in retrospect was actually full of constructive feedback, which I took as harsh criticism simply because it included room to improve).

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