• Question: How long did it take in order to earn all of your qualifications?

    Asked by to Bethany, Hannah, Keith, Peter, Ramya on 14 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Bethany Dearlove

      Bethany Dearlove answered on 14 Jun 2014:

      If we’re talking literally, then 11 years: GCSEs (2 years), A levels (2 years), undergraduate degree (3 years), masters degree (1 year), and doctorate (3 years). But really, being a scientist is about far more than qualifications – so I’d actually say I’ve been learning how to be a scientist (how to make and test hypotheses, experiment and further what we know) since primary school, and continue to do so every day. Qualifications are just a ‘measure’ of that – you don’t necessarily need all of them to become a successful scientist, if 11 years of studying sounds like a very long time!

    • Photo: Peter Elliott

      Peter Elliott answered on 15 Jun 2014:

      My answer is very similar. My career started back with having an interest in science at GCSE level *cough* 11 years ago *coughMATOMO_URL This lead to me doing my A levels, undergraduate degree then my PhD. Unlike Bethany my undergraduate took 4 years as my university allowed me to do a years placement in an industrial company. This allowed me to go straight from my undergraduate to PhD without needing to do a masters as well.

    • Photo: Hannah Tanner

      Hannah Tanner answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      GCSEs 2 years
      A levels 2 years
      BSc degree 4 years (including 1 year work placement)
      PhD 3 years
      Clinical scientist training (including MSc) 4 years

      So that’s 15 years all together! All of it was fun and I did get paid during the PhD and clinical scientist training.

    • Photo: Ramya Bhatia

      Ramya Bhatia answered on 22 Jun 2014:

      I come from a slightly different system as i did my schooling and undersgraduate degree in India

      Schooling n india is grade 1 to grade 10 at which point you get GCSE level. After that it is 2 years – A level equivalent
      3 years – undergraduate degree
      1 year – Master in Research (which i did in Glasgow University)
      3 years- PhD.

      So after GCSE, it took me 9 years.

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