When `FiniteElement` method is used, the differential equations will first be transformed to certain _standard form_ (named as formal PDE in recent FEM document), and it turns out to be critical to check what the _standard form_ is when analyzing various issues related to FEM. Here are some examples: https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/q/131542/1871 https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/q/147089/1871 https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/q/194356/1871 https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/q/198894/1871 The coefficient of formal PDE is available from `PDECoefficientData`, but its output is just hard to read. For example, with {state} = NDSolve`ProcessEquations[ With[{u = u[x, y]}, {-2 D[u, y, y] - 3 D[u, x, x] == 1, DirichletCondition[u == 0, True]}], u, {x, 0, 1}, {y, 0, 1}]; data = state["FiniteElementData"]["PDECoefficientData"]; data["All"] (* {{{{1}}, {{{{0}, {0}}}}}, {{{{{3, 0}, {0, 2}}}}, {{{{0}, {0}}}}, {{{{0, 0}}}}, {{0}}}, {{{0}}}, {{{0}}}} *) at hand, can you tell what's what? Can you label $d$, $c$, $\alpha$, etc. in the formal PDE $$d\frac{\partial }{\partial t}u+\nabla \cdot (-c \nabla u-\alpha u+\gamma ) +\beta \cdot \nabla u+ a u -f=0$$ with corresponding values, without doubt? Can we have a function that shows the formal PDE of `FiniteElement` in a easy-to-read way? A possible (but not necessary of course) input-output in my mind: showFormalPDE@With[{u = u[x, y]}, -2 D[u, y, y] - 3 D[u, x, x] == 1] (* -1 + Inactive[Div][(-{{3, 0}, {0, 2}}.Inactive[Grad][u[x, y], {x, y}]), {x, y}] == 0 *)