One page, school to practice
The route into emergency physician
Assembled backwards from the job: the degrees that lead there, the subjects those degrees require, the exams and when they are sat, and what the whole thing costs in years. Print it.
1. Subjects, chosen at fifteen or sixteen
Aggregated across every degree that leads here. Anything marked required closes the door if you skip it.
Saudi curriculum track
مسار الصحة والحياة— Health and Life Sciences
A-Level
- Biologyrequiredfor Emergency Medical Services, Medicine
- Chemistryrequiredfor Emergency Medical Services, Medicine
- Physical Educationhelpsfor Emergency Medical Services
- Psychologyhelpsfor Emergency Medical Services
- Mathematicshelpsfor Medicine
- Physicshelpsfor Medicine
IB Diploma
- Chemistry HLrequiredfor Medicine
- Biology HLrequiredfor Medicine
- Biology HL or SLhelpsfor Emergency Medical Services
- Sports, Exercise and Health Sciencehelpsfor Emergency Medical Services
- Psychologyhelpsfor Emergency Medical Services
- Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches SL or abovehelpsfor Medicine
Advanced Placement
- AP Biologyhelpsfor Emergency Medical Services, Medicine
- AP Statisticshelpsfor Emergency Medical Services, Medicine
- AP Psychologyhelpsfor Emergency Medical Services
- AP Chemistryhelpsfor Medicine
- AP Calculus AB or BChelpsfor Medicine
- AP Physics 1helpsfor Medicine
2. The degree
More than one route usually exists. They are not equivalent.
Not from this degree — that requires medicine — and a route some paramedics do take later, with full knowledge of what it costs.
Two to four years depending on whether you take the diploma or the bachelor's, plus an internship year in the Saudi system. The choice between them sets your classification for the whole career.
Undifferentiated patients, shift work, and decisions made without the full picture.
Five to six years undergraduate outside North America; four years of medical school after a first degree in the US and Canada. Then residency, which is where the real length is.
3. Exams, and when to sit them
Registration deadlines fall weeks or months before the exam. That is what people miss, not the exam.
- Driving licence and emergency drivingDuring training
An absolute requirement in every system, and one people forget to plan for.
- Physical and medical assessmentAt entry
This job involves lifting people in bad positions. Back and joint conditions can be disqualifying, and the medical standard is real.
- Qudurat and TahsiliGrade 11 and 12
The Saudi admission composite.
- Several periods across the yearQudurat (General Aptitude Test), open from Grade 11. Computer-based and paper sittings both run.
- Final months of the school yearTahsili (Scholastic Achievement Test), sat near the end of Grade 12 once the syllabus is covered.
- Spring and summer of Grade 12University applications through the unified admission portals and each university's own portal.
- SCFHS classificationAfter the internship year
Governs scope and pay, and follows the qualification — which is why the diploma-versus-bachelor's decision matters far beyond the extra two years.
- UCATJuly–September of the application year
Required by most UK medical and dental schools, and several rank applicants on it directly. Booking closes in September, weeks before the mid-October application deadline.
- July to SeptemberUCAT testing window, sat at a test centre.
- September to JanuaryLNAT testing window for most law courses.
- OctoberMost Oxford and Cambridge subject tests — TMUA, ESAT, PAT, TSA.
- JuneSTEP, sat alongside A-Levels as a condition of a Cambridge or Warwick offer rather than for shortlisting.
- Tahsili (science)End of Grade 12
Frequently the heaviest single component of the Saudi health-college admission composite.
- Several periods across the yearQudurat (General Aptitude Test), open from Grade 11. Computer-based and paper sittings both run.
- Final months of the school yearTahsili (Scholastic Achievement Test), sat near the end of Grade 12 once the syllabus is covered.
- Spring and summer of Grade 12University applications through the unified admission portals and each university's own portal.
- QuduratFrom Grade 11
Sit it early; the best score counts and an early attempt is diagnostic.
- Several periods across the yearQudurat (General Aptitude Test), open from Grade 11. Computer-based and paper sittings both run.
- Final months of the school yearTahsili (Scholastic Achievement Test), sat near the end of Grade 12 once the syllabus is covered.
- Spring and summer of Grade 12University applications through the unified admission portals and each university's own portal.
- MCATAfter two or three years of a US bachelor's
The US graduate-entry route. Nothing you do at seventeen prepares for it directly, and it is worth knowing the road has this on it.
4. After the degree
Training, licensing and the years between graduating and practising independently.
United Kingdom
- schoolA-levels including Chemistry and Biology2 yr
- undergraduateMedical degree5–6 yrs
- trainingFoundation training2 yr
- trainingEmergency medicine specialty training6 yr
- licensingSpecialist registration0–1 yrs
- practiceEmergency medicine consultant0 yr
LicensingFull registration with the medical regulator, then specialist registration following training and examinations.
United States
- schoolHigh school with strong sciences4 yr
- undergraduateBachelor's degree with pre-medical prerequisites4 yr
- postgraduateMedical school4 yr
- trainingEmergency medicine residency3–4 yrs
- practiceAttending emergency physician0 yr
LicensingState medical licence and board certification in emergency medicine.
Saudi Arabia
- schoolSecondary school, science track3 yr
- undergraduateMBBS including internship6–7 yrs
- trainingSaudi Board of Emergency Medicine residency4–5 yrs
- practiceEmergency medicine consultant0 yr
LicensingSCFHS classification through the مقيم / نائب / أخصائي / استشاريprogression, with board certification required for specialist and consultant grades.
5. What the route costs
Not tuition — time. The years spent training are years not spent earning, and that is the largest cost of a long route by a wide margin.
United Kingdom
School-leaving to independent practice: 13–14 years.
The shortest route needing no degree written up on this site is management consultant at 3 years. Someone taking that route has been earning for 11 years by the time this one starts. At their entry pay of £27,000–35,000, that is roughly £297,000–385,000 of earnings deferred.
United States
School-leaving to independent practice: 11–12 years.
The shortest route needing no degree written up on this site is aircraft maintenance engineer at 4 years. Someone taking that route has been earning for 8 years by the time this one starts. At their entry pay of $48,780–62,630, that is roughly $390,240–501,040 of earnings deferred.
Saudi Arabia
School-leaving to independent practice: 10–12 years.
The shortest route needing no degree written up on this site is air traffic controller at 4 years. Someone taking that route has been earning for 8 years by the time this one starts. At their entry pay of SAR 140,000–220,000, that is roughly SAR 1,120,000–1,760,000 of earnings deferred.
How that figure was reached, and what it leaves out
It is arithmetic on the sourced figures elsewhere on this site — training years multiplied by the shortest route’s entry pay — not a measurement of anything. It ignores what trainees earn while training, which in medicine and several other routes is a real salary. It ignores the pay you reach afterwards, which for long routes is usually higher and can overtake the gap entirely. And it excludes tuition, deliberately: Saudi public universities charge nationals no tuition, and fees abroad vary so widely by country and university that any single figure would be misleading. Treat it as a sense of scale for the years, not as a calculation of whether a career is worth it.
Everything on this page is assembled from the career page, the majors that lead to it and the exams those majors require, so it cannot say something they do not. Entry requirements change every year — confirm on the course page for the year you apply.