Who doesn’t want to save lives? Traditionally, one of the safest, long-term careers in the world comes from studying medicine.

Doctors will always have a place in the world - and they tend to earn some good money while they’re at it.

But the journey to becoming a doctor can be long and arduous - sometimes fraught with detours and pre-med courses. However, this blog will show you the absolute quickest way to become a doctor, from high-school to postgraduate - and we’ll show you how to overcome any hiccups along the way.

Step One: Study the Right Subjects

Prerequisites:

• Australia Mathematics (not General Mathematics)
• UK A-Level Chemistry

Highly recommended:

• Australia Chemistry, Physics, Biology, English
• UK At least one A-Level in Biology (or Human Biology), Mathematics or Physics

Step Two: Work Experience

This step isn’t required, but can improve your chances at getting into your preferred medical course or school.

All regions:

• Volunteer at the local hospital. Research your preferred hospitals, determine the requirements, choose activities that match your interests, have ‘fallback’ interests, fill out an application and voila! You’re on your way to volunteering at a hospital.
• Alternatively, you can work in a research laboratory or volunteer in other care-related fields, such as aged care.

For more information on high school subject requirements and work experience opportunities, check out our A-Z for Aspiring Doctors eBook!

Step Three: Entry Exams

Australia/NZ = GAMSAT or UCAT

GAMSAT

• Tests your social science reasoning (emphasis on literature), scientific reasoning and your essay writing
• Cost: $AU400
• Length: 5.5 hours
• Prep time: 2-3 months
• Help? Take the Australia Council for Educational Research’s (ACER) practice tests. Prepare your essay writing - write 2-5 essays a week and have them reviewed. MedView offers a range of products to help prepare students to sit the GAMSAT.
• Target score: Lowest 54 University of Wollongong, Highest 68 University of Queensland

UCAT

• Tests your logical reasoning, basic mathematics, critical thinking, social skills, and non-verbal reasoning. Often weighted in conjunction with your academic record and interview.
• Cost: $AU298
• Length: 2 hours
• Prep time: 1 month, could potentially cram (not advised)
• Help? Take practice exams and identify key weak areas - contact a private tutor to improve your skills. MedView offer free academic assessments, 1-1 tutoring, and a range of UCAT workshops to suit your needs.
• Target score: Minimum 90th percentile in all subtests

UK = BMAT or UCAT

BMAT

• Tests your problem-solving skills, reasoning and data analysis. Also tests scientific knowledge and writing.
• Cost: £46 (UK citizens)
• Length: 2 hours
• Prep time: 4 weeks
• Help? Download free BMAT test papers and practise under test conditions. Use sample answer sheets to check your work and identify weaknesses
• Target score: 6.0+

Get in touch with MedView to learn more about the best ways to prepare for the entrance exams to improve your chances of admission.

Step Four: Go to Medical School

A medical course takes anywhere from four to six years across the UK and Australia/NZ. This usually consists of part theoretical and part clinical studies.

You will be exposed to the scientific foundations of medicine, laboratory work and clinical practice.

The University of Oxford, for example, has a reputation for making medical students write more essays in a year than other undergraduates do over their entire course.

You will also need to consider specialisation during your clinical and start networking with the right people for a quality residency that aligns with your goals.

Be proactive if you’re struggling and talk to your teacher, tutors and professors about extra help or consideration.

Step Five: Internship/Residency

In Australia, graduates usually start with a 12 month internship which exposes them to a wide range of clinical practices, such as emergency care, general practice, surgery and many others.

After this, you start your residency which can last from one to several years, depending on how you want to specialise.

From here you become a registrar. This typically lasts from two to three years for General Practice and Medical registrars, but vary wildly for surgical and other types of registrars.

You’re basically a doctor when you’re a registrar - just a junior.

In the UK, you take on foundation training which takes two years.

Much like a residency, your time will build on what you learned at school, as well as giving you hands on experience in a range of work environments.

After this, you take your Core Medical Training or Acute Care Common Stem which adds a further two years to your training. At this stage, you choose your speciality - whether primary care as a GP or secondary care in a hospital.

After those four years, you head into specialty training, which can last from four to six years or three years if you want to become a GP.

In the US, residency can last from three to seven years and most residents complete their programs in hospitals - think of the TV show Scrubs.

During this program, you will be exposed to speciality areas and a wide range of clinical practices.

Eventually - after an endless slog - you can sit the US Medical Licensing Examination which allows you to practice medicine on your own. You will also need to renew this license periodically to continue practising, which means another 50 hours of continuing education.

Step Six: Work as a Doctor

You’re a doctor. It took you the better part of a decade, but you’re a full-blown doctor saving lives now.

Congratulations!

So, how long does it take?

• Australia Min. 7 years Max. 11 years

• UK Min. 10 years Max. 15 years

  You are literally looking at a full decade of study and practice to become an independent, fully-fledged doctor.

Five Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Study Medicine

If you’re only it in for the money, you might want to consider another profession. Life as a doctor can suck: it’s very time consuming, you shoulder incredible responsibility and, as such, your personal life can suffer.

You really need to want to do medicine. Trust me, if it’s money you want, there are way better and easier ways to earn it. Like marketing, or human resources, or public sector work. But if you’re really keen, here are five questions to ask yourself before you proceed:

1. Are you smart enough?

Medical school is demanding. You will need to understand all of the body’s functions, organs, bones, muscles and how all those things interact on a biochemical level. And that's basically just the introduction.

This stuff is no joke. Prepare for long nights studying.

2. Are you prepared for the time it takes?

You will be giving a decade of your life to learn how to become a doctor. You aren’t concerned you will get cold feet half way through? Or decide it isn’t for you once you finish school?

3. Are you prepared to be stuck?

Once you specialise, it’s extremely difficult to re-specialise. You’re likely to be stuck a dermatologist, or in paediatrics, once you decide to take that path.

It’s not impossible to become something else, or transition from specialist to general practice, but medicine expects you to know what you want from the get-go.

4. Can you constantly work?

Those nightmare stories from hospitals about doctors working 24 hours straight in three eight-hour shifts? They’re true.

You will pretty much never sleep again while you’re a resident. And even if you decide to have a family, your patients will still need you. Being a doctor isn’t very good for work-life balance.

5. Are you okay with failure?

At some point, as a doctor, you will make the wrong call. That call might cost someone their life. It’s not negligence, that’s just the way it goes. You need to be okay with that responsibility.