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One page, school to practice

The route into general practitioner

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

  • Chemistryrequiredfor Medicine
  • Biologyrequiredfor Medicine
  • Mathematicshelpsfor Medicine
  • Physicshelpsfor Medicine

IB Diploma

  • Chemistry HLrequiredfor Medicine
  • Biology HLrequiredfor Medicine
  • Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches SL or abovehelpsfor Medicine

Advanced Placement

  • AP Biologyhelpsfor Medicine
  • AP Chemistryhelpsfor Medicine
  • AP Calculus AB or BChelpsfor Medicine
  • AP Statisticshelpsfor Medicine
  • AP Physics 1helpsfor Medicine

2. The degree

More than one route usually exists. They are not equivalent.

  • Medicine

    The largest destination by a wide margin, and the shortest route to independent practice.

    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.

  • 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.

Saudi Arabia

  1. schoolSecondary school, science track (علمي)3 yr
  2. undergraduateMBBS5–6 yrs
  3. trainingInternship year1 yr
  4. postgraduateSaudi Board in Family Medicine4 yr
  5. licensingSCFHS classification and registration0–1 yrs
  6. practiceFamily medicine consultant0 yr

LicensingSCFHS registration is mandatory. Entry to the Saudi Board requires a recognised health-specialisation degree, a completed internship year, and a pass in the Saudi professional licence examination, whose result is valid for five years only.

United Kingdom

  1. schoolA-levels including chemistry and biology2 yr
  2. undergraduateMBBS / MBChB5–6 yrs
  3. trainingFoundation Programme (FY1–FY2)2 yr
  4. postgraduateGP specialty training3 yr
  5. licensingGMC registration on the GP register0–1 yrs
  6. practiceGeneral practitioner0 yr

LicensingGMC registration throughout, with entry to the GP register on completion of training.

United States

  1. schoolHigh school with strong science preparation4 yr
  2. undergraduateBachelor's degree with pre-medical requirements4 yr
  3. postgraduateMD or DO4 yr
  4. trainingFamily medicine residency3 yr
  5. licensingState licensure and board certification0–1 yrs
  6. practiceFamily physician0 yr

LicensingState medical licensure plus board certification.

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.

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.

United Kingdom

School-leaving to independent practice: 10–11 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 8 years by the time this one starts. At their entry pay of £27,000–35,000, that is roughly £216,000–280,000 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.

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.