There's a big difference between doing well on tests as a young person and being a professional scientist. If you love it and you are willing to take the risk, just do it. Don't worry about whether you have the ability or not. Just see what happens. Learn. The worst thing that can happen is you' learn some science and you put it to use in some other career. That doesn't seem like such a bad outcome to me.
Welcome to the August 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number — based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good — and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic.
Here is a link to the Mindscape Big Picture Scholarship. Please consider donating!
Support Mindscape on Patreon.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.