In grad school we took classes and read papers that we didn’t understand, and then had to discuss said papers that we did not understand.

I wonder what would have happened , if instead of “BS’ing” it, we would have said we did not understand? Would we have then been taught strategies on how to understand complicated writing?

Because retrospectively, that skill seems like it would be more useful to me now than the skill of being able to talk about something I barely comprehended.