For training scholars from 0xp, note that several topics actually use skills that have a practical use and that can be trained other ways, in particular, a bunch of engineering topics uses mechanics, many medical topics using surgery or diagnostician, one topic uses organizer, and a few topics use record keeper.
Yes, you are right, engineering and medical school should be really easy to set up. I actually forgot about record keeper and organizer, it is neat to remember.
But the main challenge is to train mathematicians or chemists or other "pure" scientists. And that is where focused discussions can help.
Btw, instead of dumping all the observations about scholars getting credits in this topic, I will just set up a table and will be collecting the data for a while, and upload it later. I think you could also make a summary of your observations, it would allow for easier analysis later.
I will be recording an academic topic, scholar's skill level, and the progress of the credits (record current progress number every time the credits increase or decrease).
EDIT: my chemist ponders Combustible Materials, but this topic is not displayed in learning. It might be just a rare bug of the script or dfhack. The number of times pondered seems to reset normally.
