You come to your PhD already equipped with many skills. However, you're bound to need to develop new ones and extend old ones. There's no shame in acknowledging you have gaps, even those that might be elementary. Often, PhD students come to their research from varied backgrounds. Perhaps they move across disciplinary boundaries, return to study after a break of more than a decade, or attend a different kind of institution. Therefore, it would be surprising if all their experiences were the same - the whole sphere of information access and retrieval through libraries, the sophistication of computers and other equipment, and even the pace of life at the university. It is also important to remember that acquiring and sharpening high level skills is one of the aims of any PhD program. By doing a PhD you equip yourself with generalised research skills, and often skills in very specific experimental and analytical techniques used in your discipline. The important thing is that as early as possible you identify what skills you need to acquire and at what level of expertise. Take your supervisor into your confidence and, although you take the initiative, also take on board your supervisor's advice about what skills you might need and how to gain them. And there may be cost or time implications which you are not aware of but which your supervisor can handle. Library skills Unless you've come straight from a postgraduate degree or a research position, you almost certainly will need to extend your library skills. At most universities, libraries run training workshops for research students on how and where to search and in how to set up personal data bases to handle files. These workshops are usually free and acquiring the skills this way can save you lots of frustration later. Undergraduate lectures If you are moving into a different discipline, you could consider sitting in on undergraduate lectures. This could be a quicker and more structured way of filling in gaps and could give you indications of where to branch off and continue with your own reading. Computing and statistical skills Computing and statistical skills may not be required for their own sakes. You have to decide to what extent you need to master these. For example, in the major research areas, usually there is a statistical adviser you could consult when you are designing your research. One warning is that attending all sorts of workshops could become a displacement activity. It ends up as procrastination and will keep you away from getting on with your work.

	I've spent months trying to get my experiments to work or to get the data I need but time is running out. What can I do?
	Coping with transition to study.
	Finding out about departmental resources.
	Taking stock of where you are.
	Consortium Universities assistance.