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How to read papers of professors?

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 2:09 pm
by Saikat
This is a question that has been in my mind for a month now. I am a final year M.Sc student in mathematics and applying for graduate school this year. But for applying to graduate schools, let's say in Europe, it is recommended that you should study the papers of Professors to whom you are applying. My question is how to go about reading the papers? I am interested in doing research in algebraic geometry and I have only taken a course in basic undergraduate algebraic geometry and some basic homological algebra. I should have done my M.Sc thesis in algebraic geometry but in my university, nobody is working on this topic. Also, I didn't know I am interested in algebraic geometry until the last year otherwise I would have done some internships on this topic. With this background, there is no way I could understand the papers of a Professor who is working on the subject for years. This is certainly not a problem in the US as you don't have to apply to a Professor, you apply to the graduate program, but in Europe, I think in most of the cases, you have to directly apply to a Professor. So, what to do in this case?

Thanks in advance!
Sorry for my bad English.

Re: How to read papers of professors?

Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 2:33 pm
by lurenjia12138
Just go through the abstract and know the basic idea of the paper, you don't have to know every detail. If you wanna raise some questions, just focus on the assumptions setting in the paper which I think is the easiest part.