If you have been out in the job market for a while and have decided that the time has come for a career change, you may be excited about the possibilities that lay before you. And if you have decided that you want to go back to school to be a doctor, you may also be unsure of what you should do to make the dream of being a medical professional a reality. There are several steps to take when you are thinking about going back to school to be a doctor. Get to know some of these steps to take, and then, you can get started on your journey to become a doctor as soon as possible. 

Look Back at Your College Records

Before you sign up for any classes or start preparing yourself for the MCAT, you will want to take a quick glance back through your college records. You will be specifically looking for what science and mathematics classes you took in college. Most medical schools have very strict requirements regarding the courses you took in these areas prior to being accepted into medical school. 

Looking back at your college records will help you to determine how many prerequisites you have already met and what courses you will need to take before you take the step of applying for medical school and taking the MCAT. 

Consider How Well You Remember the Courses You Did Take

Depending on how long it has been since you took the prerequisites for medical school (or how much you really paid attention in those classes), you may not remember the content of those courses very well. If this is the case for any of the coursework that may appear on the MCAT or that will be needed in medical school, you may want to do one of two things. 

The first option is to retake the courses entirely. This can give you a greater chance at information recall and can even teach you new information that you might not have been exposed to the first time around. Taking the course over will also mean, in science courses, that you will get back into a laboratory environment as well. This hands-on experience will help to further ingrain the information in your mind and give you an advantage moving forward with your studies. 

The second option is to hire a tutor to help refresh you on the concepts learned in the courses you do not remember well. The benefits of choosing the tutoring option include lower costs and the ability to pick and choose which aspects of the course you relearn. For example, you may remember some facts about basic chemistry but need a refresher on some of the more complex equations and processes, which you can focus on in your tutoring sessions. 

Take an MCAT Preparation Course

As you go through the process of determining what prerequisites you still need to fulfill and start taking those courses, you will also want to look ahead at the MCAT. The MCAT is one of the biggest factors on your medical school application, and your score can determine whether or not your application is even considered. Because of this, you want to be sure that you are well prepared for the exam. 

One of the ways that you can do this is by taking an MCAT preparation course. These courses are designed to give you strategies and knowledge that you will need to succeed on this important test. In the courses, your instructors will go over each individual section of the test. You will be give practice questions and tests to work with as well as basic test-taking strategies to put to use on test day. 

Now that you know some of the steps to take when you are thinking about going back to school to be a doctor, you can start making your plans as soon as possible.