Question: how hard do you have to work to get a PhD and is it hard?

Frank Longford answered on 11 Mar 2015:

When you go to university you’ll be studying as an “undergrad” in the topic of your choice. After 3 years (if you pass) you’ll graduate with an “undergrad degree”. If your grades are high enough you then have the option of staying at university and studying as a “postgrad”. Usually next thing you will study is a Master’s degree, which is a 1-year course on advanced material that you didn’t learn at undergrad. Once you have a Master’s you’ll then be able to apply to research groups to study a PhD for another 3 years. Some PhDs don’t require you to have a Master’s however, as it really depends on the supervisor’s requirements for their research project.

So, basically you have to spend around 3-4 years studying in order to be a postgrad researcher who’s studying for a PhD. That’s a lot of studying! But, really once you get to do your own research then you’re only studying the things that you want to learn about, so it doesn’t feel so difficult any more.