Give the step-by-step reasoning process and then the final answer. Tate finishes high school in 1 year less than normal. It takes him 3 times that long to get his bachelor's degree and Ph.D. How many years did he spend in high school and college?

Show your work and conclude with the exact phrasing "Therefore, the final answer is [answer]." where [answer] is just the final number or expression that solves the problem.
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He finished high school in 4 - 1 = 3 years. It takes him 3 * 3 = 9 years to finish tertiary education. So he spends 3 + 9 = 12 years on this education.
The final answer: 12.