Graduate School Survival Guide

Here is a useful list of suggestions of how to get the most out of your PhD. It doesn't look very pretty, but if you read it you'll find a lot of very useful tips on managing the relationship with your supervisor, getting the most out of what you read, making continual progress and more. Much of it is (or should be!) common sense, but that certainly doesn't mean it's not worth reminding yourself of this advice every so often!

A few examples:

Prepare for your meetings (with your supervisor)- come to each meeting with:

* List of topics to discuss
* Plan for what you hope to get out of the meeting
* Summary of what you have done since your last meeting
* List of any upcoming deadlines
* Notes from your previous meeting

Continually update your:

* Problem statement
* Goals
* Approach (or a list of possible approaches)
* One-minute version of your research (aka the elevator ride summary)
* Five-minute version of your research

Confront your fears and weaknesses

* If you are afraid of public speaking, volunteer to give lots of talks.
* If you are afraid your ideas are stupid, discuss them with someone.
* If you are afraid of writing, write something about your research every day.