I hear this line of thought a lot from folks at your age and think of it more as a ding on society less than on you. My thoughts on this subject: don't let your

I hear this line of thought a lot from folks at your age and think of it more as a ding on society less than on you. My thoughts on this subject: don't let your performance on tests with well known answers (synthetic environment) let you believe you can't perform well on a test without well known answers (real world environment). There is a low correlation if any! Secondly and most importantly, if I were you, I'd forget about data science for the time being. Why do you want to do data science -- because it seems cool? Yeah, that's how I felt when I was your age. But after many years of experience in the industry, let me give you a word of advice -- environmental and market factors win over everything. And as far as the market goes, there's no better labor market to enter than the generalist software engineer market. You want to enter a market where the supply is high so you can get a good entry level job where you can work with smart people and grow a lot. Really, the first job or two is always the hardest. You may have to move to somewhere in Europe (perhaps Berlin or London or something), or the US to do so. Once you get experience there, it's a lot easier to move laterally into a data science job if you want to because you'll have real world experience problem solving. But my guess is by that point, you'll have lost your appetite for data science because you'll see the field for what it is -- a field that draws in people who want to deploy shiny solutions in need of a problem where there's way more labor supply than demand, which won't be good for your career. Make practical decisions. I guarantee you're smart enough. That's not the limiting factor. The limiting factor will be your decisions and chosen directionality from this point forward. And personally, I think you'll have a much higher chance of setting your career up for success at this crucial early career juncture by becoming a generalist software engineer. Personally, I really enjoyed working in startups in my early career because they taught me a lot of lessons (some the hard way) -- but working at a nice mid sized or large company is probably the way I'd recommend. Best of luck!