The route into radiologist

Diagnosis through imaging, with almost no direct patient contact.

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.

Not directly — but medical physics sits alongside radiology and is one of the largest applied physics employers.

Three to four years, with four-year integrated master's routes standard in the UK for research-bound students.

The physician who reports the images — a different profession requiring medicine, and named here because the two are constantly confused.

Four years plus an internship year in the Saudi system; three to four years in the UK. Licensed practice follows immediately.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Oxford's physics and engineering test.

• 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.

Cambridge and Imperial, for natural sciences and physics.

• 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.

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.

The licence that lets you practise, and the thing that sets your scope and pay. The classification level follows your qualification, so the bachelor's versus diploma choice has consequences for the whole career.

Most Saudi health colleges teach in English, and registration in the UK, Australia or the Gulf requires an English score that is often higher than the university asked for.

• Weekly, year-roundIELTS and TOEFL both run frequently at centres across the Kingdom; Duolingo and PTE can be sat at very short notice.
• 3 to 13 days after the testResults, depending on the test. IELTS computer-delivered is among the fastest; paper-based is slower.
• Autumn of Grade 12 at the latestWhen to have sat it by, leaving room for one repeat before offers are decided.