I talk about the research projects I've done from year 12 to my PhD - and about the skills I acquired along the way which allow me to do my work. The point of this video is that academic ability - and research skill - only comes from a experience and working on lots of projects. Don't think that researchers are fundamentally different from you, as a student. They only got to where they are from consistent hard work, and learning from their mistakes! And I've made a lot, so I can say that. If you're a researcher reading this - in any discipline - please do share your research story in the comments! Including dragons slain is optional, but please do talk about the projects you've done and what you learned along the way. If you'd like to read my EPQ (fair warning: it's cringe) you can do so here - http://s3.spanglefish.com/s/5288/documents/epq/space2.pdf Thanks to Sonja for the video idea! If you have a suggestion for what I could make a video about, please put that in the comments too :) ---------- II ---------- I am Simon, a fourth year PhD candidate at the University of Exeter. I upload videos on bits of science which are relevant to what I do, and sometimes just because they're really cool. Vlogs from Oxford students - http://www.youtube.com/oxvlog My twitter - http://www.twitter.com/simonoxfphys My facebook - http://www.facebook.com/youtubesimon My insta - http://www.instagram.com/simonoxfphys My goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/simonoxfphys Thanks to Vlogbrothers for their sponsorship of this video. Money from the Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck contributed to equipment used in this video.