During your younger years, when you were being asked what do you want to be when you grow up, you may have answered them "I want to become a doctor" at least once in your life. Most of the time, you may have opted for a different career. It could be in engineering, business, marketing, accounting, architecture, and more. It is very seldom that a childhood ambition such as this actually becomes a reality because of different factors.

The decision to be a medical doctor is not a very easy thing to come up with. You need much time in school and you need a tremendous amount of money to be one. Not to mention the intellectual capacity and the patience that is needed to study well to finish this very difficult career.

How to become a doctor? To be a doctor, one will need to undergo four years of college, four years of medical school and three years up to eight years of residency training. That will be numbers of years that you will go through. If at this point you are still interested, then it is advisable to read on.

The initial step to becoming a doctor should begin to be taken during the high school years. You must get good grades in subjects like physics, biology, chemistry, math and more. You can also volunteer at nursing homes, doctor's office, and hospitals for exposure.

The next step of become a doctor is taking up and finishing a bachelor's degree that is related to the field you want to get into. You should apply and get into the correct and a reputable college. During college, you should learn English, biology, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry as these are the subjects that are most required by medical schools. The weighted average should always be around 3.5 and 4.0.

The third step is to take and pass the Medical College Admissions Test. Also known as MCAT, the latter is a basic standardized exam which is used to gauge the knowledge of scientific principles, problem-solving and concepts, written skills, writing analysis, and so with critical thinking.

After which, you must apply to the medical schools or medical school application services. The two determinants that can influence one's entry to the medical schools are MCAT scores and GPA. If a medical school's attention is caught by your credentials, they will call you for an interview.

Afterward, you must complete medical schooling for an estimated length of study for four years.

After the completion of medical schooling and becoming a doctor, then you must complete the residency training. This is a training program that centers on a particular medical specialty. The length of time that one takes for residency training depends on the type of specialty that they opt for. The first year is called as an internship or post-graduate training. Here you will learn the use of life alert machines in the hospital setting and how to develop the skills in handling them and the information they produce.

The last step is to acquire a license to practice medicine. It is needed that you are life alert during your internship and after fellowship. If you have done well and passed all of these, then you can now be called a doctor.