My PhD in experimental physics took seven years, which is also the average time to completion in that field. The discrepancy here may be that "PhD time" in the

My PhD in experimental physics took seven years, which is also the average time to completion in that field. The discrepancy here may be that "PhD time" in the US usually includes a masters, while it is counted separately elsewhere. That said, even if you break it down, my MS took 2 years and the PhD took another 5.