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I am currently a first-year Ph.D. student in computer science in Europe. I have published some papers in the top-venue conferences.

Recently, we are looking into a new field that requires strong mathematical background, but unfortunately, my math skills are not that steady. Whenever I encounter something I don't understand, I am always confused about whether I should have learned it in the basic courses and don't know how to catch up with it. I am also worried that my supervisor would think me less qualified if I admit that I am not sure about something.

I am wondering how people manage this. Should I just be strait-forward with my supervisor? What would he think of me and what would he probably do?

--- Edit ---

Thanks for all of your replies and suggestions. I especially appreciate the answers/comments from the perspective of supervisors since I really have no idea how my supervisor would react to it. I am probably overthinking and feeling less confident in this new field. It is also good to know that I am not the only one who faces this problem.

After all, I think I would first try to find some references and teach myself first though it may be very challenging to me since I am sure what courses/subjects would cover the specific techniques I need for my research. If it still doesn't work out, I would show what I have tried during the past week and see if my supervisor could point me to any further resources.

hpwww
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    As a bit of a confidence boost: You state that you have puplished some (i.e. >1) papers in top-venue conferences. That is a lot for a first-year PhD student. Don't be afraid of minor problems like missing math skills. – trikPu Aug 10 '21 at 14:40
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    haha, one of my supervisors favourite comments was "As you remember from undergraduate...." in a tone that implied he was well aware I had forgotten it, or never properly understood it in the first place. We got on fine overall though, I think it's normal to mess up some basic stuff. – Clumsy cat Aug 10 '21 at 19:22
  • Reminded me of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3Pq9Okpycc – Prof. Santa Claus Aug 12 '21 at 05:54

3 Answers3

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I am wondering how people manage this. Should I just be strait-forward to my supervisor? What would he think of me?

Yes, you should be straight-forward with your supervisor. No good will come out of pretending you understand something, or know how to do something, when you really don't. Even if they "think less" of you, they will find out eventually, and this way you have at least done the right thing and alerted them of the problem as soon as you noticed it.

What would he probably do?

Well, that depends on the supervisor, their expectations, and what kind of knowledge we are talking about. My expectation is that your supervisor will recommend you some resources to study, and/or teach you the basics themselves, and/or ask somebody else in the lab (for example a postdoc) to teach you the basics. Maybe they also decide that you are after all not the right person to explore this new field with, and recommend you to change your research direction to something that's more aligned with your prior knowledge.

Independently of how they react, it's better than stumbling forward without knowing what you are doing. That's how failed PhDs start.

xLeitix
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    I think its very unlikely a supervisor would "decide that you are after all not the right person to explore this new field with, and recommend you to change your research direction to something that's more aligned with your prior knowledge". – Ian Sudbery Aug 10 '21 at 09:14
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    I second the advice to be straight-forward, but I think you're overthinking this. A PhD supervisor is unlikely to regret hiring a PhD student just because the student asked them a math question. In fact, I know many PhD supervisors who often say that their students don't ask enough questions. – Stef Aug 10 '21 at 10:45
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    Yeah, sure, but OP also said that they have published before and they and their advisor are now considering exploring an apparently rather different field. If I'm an advisor I could see myself saying "ok, if field A is super formal and you don't feel comfortable with that, let's continue working in a different direction" (and then exploring field A with a different student). I wasn't suggesting that the advisor would kick OP out, that's indeed rather unlikely. – xLeitix Aug 10 '21 at 12:21
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    @IanSudbery I have seen this exact situation happen several times, with different advisors. How likely it is to happen might depend on your field. In software engineering, there's a broad variety of methodologies (empirical, formal, constructive) that fall under the same broader umbrella. – lighthouse keeper Aug 10 '21 at 13:06
  • Never forget one universal fact: Nobody was born already knowing all this stuff. Everybody has to learn it. Whether you learn some particular thing at age 16, 26, or 96 doesn't really matter. – alephzero Aug 10 '21 at 20:11
  • @xLeitix - sorry, I misunderstood, I was assuming you were suggesting the supervisor might kick them out. – Ian Sudbery Aug 11 '21 at 12:06
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I once asked my supervisor "When will I know enough to stop having to look these things up?" and the simple response was "Never!". Everyone (even supervisors!) has to look things up, everyone has to revise things at some point. There is no shame in this. It might be that you ask your supervisor only to find that he/she promptly goes and looks it up.

Your supervisor will probably not think badly of you for some maths naivety. You lack knowledge, but you have enough self-awareness (and knowledge) to identify this fact. You now need to fill the gap in your knowledge. You can either do this by asking your supervisor, as you've suggested, or you can try to do it yourself first.

Don't worry about whether or not you should have already learned this. Maybe it was covered briefly but you didn't know you'd need it in future so you've forgotten it, maybe you didn't even know it existed in the first place. No one can blame you for that.

Figure out if you can learn it yourself. What do you already know? What resources do you have? What do you need to know to accomplish the task. Your supervisor is one resource but are they the best one for this purpose? It might be that they can point you towards some resources, but maybe you can find these yourself if you try. One way you might annoy your supervisor is by using them as your first resource for every single thing. Try to educate yourself first so that you know which questions to ask when/if you do ask your supervisor. Also, consider what kind of resources you need: do you need a personal one-on-one tutor or an online course or just a series of tutorial videos? Does your university offer sessions with a maths tutor or will it have to be your supervisor?

Pam
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  • If you are going to talk to the supervisor, I imagine it would help to say something like "I looked at [resource X] and [resource Y], but they weren't very helpful because [Z]." Then your supervisor can give an answer like "[X] is terrible, don't use it!" or "Here's how to overcome [Z]." – Kevin Aug 10 '21 at 20:59
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    Relax. There is a lot of truth in the old joke: "The student has to know it. The post-doc has to know where to look it up. The professor has to know where the post-doc is." – bhbr Aug 10 '21 at 21:38
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Just do it if you cannot figure it out yourself! I'm so much happier when this conversation happens as it firms something that needs to be firmed in the foundations for my student!

The worst thing is that something basic ends up continually being an issue and I don't know how to help the student and something lags for months. Nip it in the bud immediately and directly. That really makes projects and research actually speed up from this issue rather than slow down!

T K
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