• Question: What A-levels did you do and what did you study at university?

    Asked by secretsaudience21 on 31 Dec 2019. This question was also asked by lukelewis, babymario.
    • Photo: Lewis Griffin

      Lewis Griffin answered on 31 Dec 2019:

      Maths, Further Maths & Physics A-Levels, then Maths & Philosophy at University.

    • Photo: Andrew Harrison

      Andrew Harrison answered on 1 Jan 2020:

      Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry A-levels then Pure Mathematics at University. One course I didn’t understand and failed in my degree was mathematical optimisation, which is the subject I went on to study in my PhD and have spent the last 28 years applying.

      So don’t give up if you don’t understand something the first time.

    • Photo: Gary Munnelly

      Gary Munnelly answered on 1 Jan 2020:

      I didn’t actually do A-levels because I’m from Ireland. We do the Leaving Cert out here.

      I did Biology, Physics, Construction Studies, History, and a language (Spanish).

      In college I did a degree in Engineering, then later I specialized in Computer Engineering.

      This year I finished my PhD in Computer Science.

    • Photo: James Bentham

      James Bentham answered on 2 Jan 2020:

      Geography, Physics and Maths, and AS level Geology. I then studied civil engineering at university, so I’ve had a slightly complicated route to get to statistics

    • Photo: Giuseppe Cotugno

      Giuseppe Cotugno answered on 2 Jan 2020:

      I studied in Italy, we don’t have a concept of A-levels there but if you wish to become a research engineer, I suggest you to take math and physics plus another scientific subject like informatics.

      I studied engineering at university, as such I studied a lot of mathematics, physics (classical mechanics and electromagnetism) which are common subjects for every engineering student. As my bachelor degree was on digital systems engineering, I studied also algorithms, digital electronics, databases and programming. My masters degree was on Artificial Intelligence, so I studied machine learning and logic (expert systems).

      If you get a masters degree on a new topic (like AI) you can apply for a job as research engineer, however I would strongly suggest you to consider getting a PhD as well (mine was in Robotics) as this helps negotiating better conditions.

    • Photo: Rob Stanley

      Rob Stanley answered on 2 Jan 2020: last edited 2 Jan 2020 12:41 pm

      I did A-levels in Maths, Physics, and Art – I think Art was the hardest, due to the amount of time it took.

      I studied straight Mathematics at university for my first degree. Then I did a PhD studying mathematics and biochemistry.

    • Photo: Dominique Sleet

      Dominique Sleet answered on 3 Jan 2020:

      I studied Maths, Biology, French and Psychology at A Level and then went on to study Natural Sciences at University. Natural Sciences can cover a huge range of topics but I focused on maths, biology and science communication.

    • Photo: Diana Kornbrot

      Diana Kornbrot answered on 3 Jan 2020:

      Pbhysics, maths, applied maths, chemistry A level
      Physics B. sc.
      Mathematical Psychology Ph.d

      Good grounding in mathshas been inspiration and aid alll my life

    • Photo: Fiona Macfarlane

      Fiona Macfarlane answered on 3 Jan 2020: last edited 3 Jan 2020 4:36 pm

      I am Scottish, so we don’t have A levels, but I did Maths, English, Music, Biology and Chemistry at a similar level. At University I started studying Biochemistry, but switched to Mathematical Biology in my 1st year, which was split between Maths and Biology classes.

      I then did my PhD in Mathematical Biology too

    • Photo: Maja Popovic

      Maja Popovic answered on 6 Jan 2020:

      We don’t have A-levels in Serbia where I went to school and studied, but I went to mathematical high school where in the last two years maths was separated into Calculus (Mathematical Analysis), Geometry, Trigonometry, Probability and Statistics, Algebra.
      Then I did bachelor and master in Electrical Engineering (sub-field: telecommunications), and after that PhD in Computer Science (sub-field: natural language processing).

    • Photo: Sophie Carr

      Sophie Carr answered on 7 Jan 2020:

      Maths, Physics, Chemstry and General Studies. Then I studied Aeronautical Engineering with French (it’s not combined honours, just an engineering degree where some of the lectures are in French and you have a year in industry in France, and you might have spotted I didn’t study A Level French) which was followed by an MSc in Applied Maths and Fluid Mechanics before finishing off with a PhD in Bayesian Networks.

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