• Question: do you have to be clever to go to university

    Asked by monstermuncher to Steve, Vera, Sam, Katie, Ed on 13 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Steven Daly

      Steven Daly answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      That is a good question. Really, it isn’t about being really really clever to go to university, the important thing is that you find the subject you are doing interesting, and that you are willing to put the effort in to learn it. When I was at University, I had to put in a lot of effort to learn certain things. Sometimes that meant spending ages with a book reading the same two lines over and over again trying to get my head around stuff! But in the end I mostly did get my head around what I needed to by working hard.

      So, in short I guess it isn’t really about being clever, it is about being willing to work hard to gain the knowledge you need. And every single person at University will have to do that.

    • Photo: Katie Marriott

      Katie Marriott answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I agree with Steven!

      Chemistry definitely was not my best subject but I enjoyed learning about it and therefore I didn’t mind putting the time in to make sure I understood things. You definitely need to like the subject as 3/4 years is a long time to study something you hate!

    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I agree with Steven and Katie. For my undergraduate degree I did Maths. Some of it I didn’t understand, and it was a case of putting in a lot of work to get good marks for those bits. Of course there were other people in my class who were very clever and could understand lots of things first time. But even they struggled on some bits. It helps to be clever, but you also have to work hard.

    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      You don’t have to be a super-genius (although it would help I imagine). I would say it’s more important to be really interested and enthusiastic in your subject if you want to study it at university.

    • Photo: Vera Weisbecker

      Vera Weisbecker answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I agree with the others. Generally if you are really interested in something and ready to put most of your time and your passion into it, you also have the brains to do it. I think the problem is more that many people study stuff that they are not interested in, just to make money (less likely for Evolutionary Science, I guess). Then you have to be pretty smart to make it I’d say.

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