Astronomers

[deleted-104787]

To become an astronomer do you have to have A levels in Maths, Physics And Chemistry? because i was wondering if i was to get a C in my maths GCSE, would i be able to go onto Mathematics A levels

[deleted-71588]

Sufficient motivation, perseverance, effort, and self evaluation along with some useful guidance is usually enough to get you to something close to your goals.

You need to figure out via self evaluation why you ended up with a "C" instead of a "B" or "A". How bad did you want it? Didn't you put the effort you should have into it? Weren't you exposed to a teacher, teaching materials and methods that enabled you succeed? You can always pay to take courses to improve your skills and understanding of prerequisits and subjects. In college, you are paying to take courses. If you aren't understanding the instructor, why not drop the course and find a better path to gaining the required knowledge to proceed or take courses to build your skills to the point where you can be successful in taking the course.

That said, there aren't many well paid astronomer jobs in the world, so competition is fierce. You might want to consider if there are related areas of interest that aren't as competitive that you are interested in if you don't have the desire or finances to survive in a fiercely competitive field.

There are lots of hobbiest astronomers that have made significant discoveries. These are people that found other ways to pay their bills and have time and monies left over to devote to a hobby.

[deleted-104787]

Okay, thank you!

[deleted-93346]

What Craig said about diligence in your studies and the ferocity of competition is very true, but I like to put things a little differently.

First, do what you like doing and working hard will come naturally. As I proceeded through my career as an astronomer, I discovered that I preferred building things to writing papers, so I chose to specialize in astronomical instrumentation. I did have to work very, very hard at times, but it was work I enjoyed doing, and there were opportunities for rest and relaxation along the way too.

Second, don't set your heart on a particular career path. Carpe diem! While it is OK to have career goals, it is essential that you enjoy the process of achieving those goals -- because there's a lot of risk getting to those goals and you may have to give up on some of them. As an example of what I mean, consider the goal of getting into a top-rung grad school. To do that you will need to take a lot of "heavy duty" undergraduate courses, maintain a reasonably high GPA, master the physics curriculum to the degree necessary to 'ace' the GRE, and, most importantly, participate in some sort of undergraduate research opportunity with a professor so that you will be able to get a taste of real research and she/he will be able to write strong, personal recommendation letters. Doing all those things will, obviously, be a LOT of work. And even then you will not be guaranteed entry to the grad school you want. So you had better enjoy the work. That way a LOT of work = a LOT of fun. If you find that you are not enjoying your studies it's probably time to think about whether astrophysics is really what you want to spend the rest of your life doing. Maybe you prefer messing with programs rather than differential equations; a lot of graduate students in astrophysics I knew ended up in computer science. (It turns out that if you need a scientific programmer, it's easier to teach a scientist programming than to teach a programmer science.) Nothing is set in stone, you can change career directions at any time -- just try to have no regrets.

Good luck with your career(s)!

[deleted-104787]

Ok thankyou