Question: What advice would you give to a student who wants to become a scientist?

Tríona O'Connell answered on 12 Nov 2014:

Take honours maths if you can, and remember that basic maths skills are crucial in ALL areas of science (it frustrates me when people think biology is “easy” and has no maths, because that’s definitely a myth).
Chemistry is a handy subject to do at the leaving cert too, as it’s useful for biology and chemistry and it can be tough to pick up in first year.
Talk to scientists, read science blogs, pick up science books to read (not text books, popular science books that are more like novels). Get a feel for what might interest you.
Remember that what sounds super cool and interesting in a news article might actually be slow and tedious in real life, but that can be managed, you just need to learn a little patience.
And if you turn out to not like science as much as you though, that’s ok too, because people with science degrees can have all sorts of jobs, from publishers, banking analysts, bakers, you really can do a lot fo things when you’re finished college.