One or two questions of mine are correctly marked as duplicate in the community.
How can I find the duplicate of my question before I post the question in the site?
Because it is not easy to find similar questions by simple search in the community.
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4 Answers
Unfortunately, it's really just mostly searching. You can limit your search using tags—just include the tag name, surrounded by brackets, when doing your search (e.g., "[phd] grades"). That helps limit the search. You can also use "is:question" to only search only questions (e.g., not answers). Past that, it's just making sure you use good search terms. Good luck!
Note that when you start typing a new question title into the "Ask a Question" box, it lists some possible duplicates immediately underneath. Read through these questions to make sure you are not asking a duplicate.
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Before asking a question it is best to have a quick search for similar questions. If you don't find a match and then ask a question that eventually gets closed as a duplicate, it is not an awful thing. While most closed questions eventually get deleted, duplicates are special and tend to get left on the system. This means that a duplicate question makes finding the original question a little easier for the next person.
In addition to all the correct answers, I have to agree that the search features of StackExchange are not exactly inspiring. I myself often think "I think we have seen this question before", but when I go and look for it, I can't find any duplicate. It always seems to me that I am only able to find a duplicate if I remember at least some words of the question title.
As such, for a new user, I would propose to do a quick search, and if you can't find a clear answer, just go ahead and ask your question. If it is closed as a duplicate, you at least know where to look. Always remember that a question being closed is not an insult, and does not cost you reputation on the site.