On Becoming a Doctor: The Truth about Medical School, Residency, and Beyond (Graduation Gifts for Premed Students)

As a high schooler, I thought this book was great for an introduction to the medical field. I was loosely considering medicine before, but I think I am more interested now, and I think this book is great for people who are considering med school in their future or who are trying to figure out which specialties they're interested in since there is a whole section that interviews doctors from many specialties.

Quick read that allows a broad overview of many different fields of medicine, as well as the pathways to get there. Yes, many of these things can be learned by asking the right questions to a helpful physician, but this book has an element of convenience and reference to it.

I read this book to help discover if medicine was my cup of tea. I do not think medicine is for me as a result of reading. So in that sense it helped me make an informed decision. Whether you already now if you want to go into medicine or are undecided, it is an informative book that covers just about every specialty and the mindsets and attitudes required for each.

I found the author very helpful in clarifying on whether or not this is the career path one should take. Granted, it wasn't the "ah-ha" moment of whether or not one should become a doctor. But it did clarify a lot of misunderstandings about what it takes to become a physician.The author was very encouraging to those who decides to pursue this career goal.A great book for those who don't know the first thing about what it takes to become a doctor.

This book gives you a taste of everything. For example I knew there are heps of specialties I didn't know what they were. Gives nice personal perspective and timeframe it takes to master the specialty.Recommend to everyone who is thinking going into med school

Let me start my review by saying that most of the things here can be learned from shadowing a doctor or with a quick and simple google search. However, one of the unique aspects of this book is that it is full of anecdotal stories about what its like to apply to medical school, undergo the four years of medical school, survive residency, and work as a full fledged physician. It is all organized in this small book, which is divided up in two halves; one section that covers whether medicine is right for you, applying towards medical school, funding your education, residency, etc. The second half is dedicated towards interview with specialists, which could arguably be the most valuable portion of this book, since the first half can be learned via google.The author does a fantastic job of writing well. It was definitely created for someone who has no idea what its like to work in medicine, and the author is kind enough to explain certain terms in layman's words. It was interesting to see the chapter on Medical Practice (Ch 8), which discussed some of the difficulties a physician owning a private practice may encounter. It was also nice to have a section dedicated to the future of medicine. However, these topics are covered briefly and left me wanting much more. My biggest critique is that this book was created in 2009, and as of 2016 there seems to be some changes in pre medical and residency that this book has not been updated to.My biggest disappointment was the chapter interviewing Emergency Medicine Physicians. In this section, we learn about a EM physician who became a physician because his father was one prior to surviving the holocaust. We learn that this son is a writer, and the author does an absolutely terrible job at describing what its like to work in EM. When I read this section first, I was so appalled that I carried a strong bias against the author, and all of the following chapters to come.In one of the earlier chapters, I encountered a cliche character traits that "makes a doctor". "loving the subject", "caring about patients", "being a life long longer". This can be applied to almost any healthcare career, such as physician assistant (PA), nurse practitioner (NP), or even physical therapist. And even though some reviewers may read this book and decide that becoming a physician is NOT for them, this book fails to talk about other alternative healthcare careers such as nursing, or becoming a PA or NP.For those who are thinking about buying this book, don't. This book only scratches the surface of what it takes to become a physician, and I feel as though you are better off googling, shadowing physicians, and speaking to current medical students or residents rather than buying an outdated book. However, If you are certain you want to invest in this book, I'd say that the only real people who benefit from this purchase are people fresh out of highschool and have not met with a pre medical advise. In my opinion, there is very little content that I would look back to and reread, and because it isn't as thorough as I would have liked on what it means to become a physician, I am returning my copy for a full refund.

This book really has tons of useful information. I really read about things I need to do to apply to medical school that I didn't know before.

This book provides a great overview of the things you must take in consideration when deciding if becoming a docter is right for you. It gives insight into issues that won't affect you right away but you must thing about when weighing up your options. My only problem was that it is an american book, so some of the content didn't appy to me, as i am going to medical school in Australia.