Her family then moved to Edinburgh when she was still young, after her father was appointed as the headmaster of the Church of Scotland Normal School.
[4] In 1910, at the age of 14, she passed Higher Piano, and in 1913 was named the dux of the music classes at Edinburgh Ladies' College.
[4] Calderwood studied at the University of Edinburgh from 1914 to 1920, earning a Bachelor of Science (Pure) in 1919 and a Master of Arts in Political Economy in 1920.
Soon, however, she returned to Edinburgh to continue her studies under mathematician Alexander Aitken, earning a PhD in mathematics from the University in 1931 with a thesis on Researches in the Theory of Matrices.
[4] She is fondly listed by a student, Margaret Lee née Ireland (1962 BSc Mathematics) as one of her favourite memories: "Dr Nora Calderwood - what a woman who loved us so much, she could barely keep exam questions secret".