Yeah that’s how it went for me. My confidence was very high until I finished my qualifying exam and just had to sit there trying to solve a novel problem for ov

Yeah that’s how it went for me. My confidence was very high until I finished my qualifying exam and just had to sit there trying to solve a novel problem for over a year. Eventually I learned enough through trial and error that I could work productively in that space, but doing well in classes often does not translate to immediate research success and there were dark days and many therapy appointments in the middle.