# How to become a doctor in the UK: routes, UCAT and training

**How do I become a doctor in the UK?** To become a doctor in the UK, complete a UK medical degree, usually five years from school or four on a graduate-entry course, and pass the Medical Licensing Assessment within it. Then join the GMC register provisionally, finish Foundation Year 1 for full registration, complete Foundation Year 2, and enter specialty training: three years for general practice, five to eight for most others.

Published 2026-09-26 by EdCitation. https://edcitation.com/newsletter/how-to-become-a-doctor-in-the-uk

To become a doctor in the UK you need a medical degree from a UK medical school, a pass in the Medical Licensing Assessment taken inside that degree, and registration with the General Medical Council (GMC), first provisional and then full. After that come two paid foundation years and specialty training. EdCitation publishes this guide and took every requirement, date and figure from the official bodies and named medical schools, read on 27 September 2026. Schools change their entry rules each cycle, so check your own; nothing here promises a place, a post or a salary.

Medical students are taught to weigh the published evidence from their first year. On EdCitation, the free [Find sources](https://edcitation.com/) covers about 300 million published works by topic or by the claim a sentence needs, while [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite) turns a DOI or PubMed ID into a reference from the publisher's record. EdCitation never writes a word of your essays, your personal statement or your application, and that is the point: your reasoning is what a medical school assesses.

## What are the stages of becoming a doctor in the UK?

There are five: medical school, the Medical Licensing Assessment inside it, GMC registration, the two-year Foundation Programme, and specialty training.

| Stage | How long | What you need | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Medical degree, standard entry | 5 years; 6 with a preliminary or gateway year; one more if you intercalate | Usually three A levels at high grades including chemistry, plus the UCAT at most schools | NHS Health Careers; UCAT Consortium |
| Medical degree, graduate entry | 4 years (accelerated) | A degree, usually at 2:1, plus the UCAT or another test the school names | NHS Health Careers; University of Warwick |
| Medical Licensing Assessment | Taken during the degree | Pass both parts, the AKT and the CPSA, to graduate | GMC |
| Provisional registration and Foundation Year 1 | 1 year | Provisional registration with a licence to practise before you start | GMC; UK Foundation Programme |
| Full registration and Foundation Year 2 | 1 year | Full registration, granted after F1 is signed off | GMC |
| Specialty training | 3 years for GP; 5 to 8 for other specialties | A training post won in open competition | NHS Health Careers |
| Reading and citing the evidence | Every year of the course | A search and a reference you can trust | EdCitation's [Find sources](https://edcitation.com/) and [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite), free |

### How long does it take to become a doctor?

NHS Health Careers (n.d.-a) puts it at around 10 years to train as a GP, counting medical school, and 14 to train as a surgeon. Paediatrics usually needs ten more years after medical school (NHS Health Careers, n.d.-d), and part-time training or time out for research adds more (NHS Health Careers, n.d.-c).

## What are the entry requirements for medicine?

Medicine entry requirements are set by each medical school, but the usual base is three A levels at very high grades including chemistry, often biology too, and excellent GCSEs (NHS Health Careers, n.d.-b). One school's page for 2027 entry, read in September 2026, shows what that means in practice:

- **University of Leeds, Medicine and Surgery MBChB (A100), five years:** AAA at A level including chemistry and biology,; six GCSEs at grade 6 or above including maths, English language, and biology and chemistry or dual science; the UCAT taken in the year of application; face-to-face multiple mini-interviews on 4, 5 and 6 January 2027; and an enhanced DBS certificate and occupational health checks before placements (University of Leeds, n.d.).

We could not read the Medical Schools Council's comparison of every school, which sat behind a bot check, so use each school's own course page.

### Graduate-entry medicine

Graduate entry medicine is a four-year accelerated course for people who already hold a degree, and most schools ask for at least a 2:1, usually in a science, though some accept any subject (NHS Health Careers, n.d.-b). Warwick's MB ChB (A101), which calls itself the UK's largest graduate-entry programme with 203 graduates a year, asks for a 2:1 in any subject, or a 2:2 with a master's or doctorate; 70 hours of full-time work experience across at least two placements in the last three years; and the UCAT (University of Warwick, n.d.).

### Without A-level sciences

A six-year course with a preliminary year is meant for high achievers who did not take the required sciences, and a gateway year for able students whose learning met barriers; both adjust the entry criteria (NHS Health Careers, n.d.-b).

## What is the UCAT, and what happened to the BMAT?

The UCAT is the admissions test almost every UK medical school now uses. A consortium of universities set it up in 2006, and about 37,000 candidates sit it each year (UCAT Consortium, n.d.-d). The UCAT 2026 is for entry in 2027, or deferred entry in 2028, and the consortium's list names 50 UK universities and medical schools, among them Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and UCL (UCAT Consortium, n.d.-c).

| Subtest | Questions | Time | Scored |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Verbal Reasoning | 44 | 22 minutes | 300 to 900 |
| Decision Making | 35 | 37 minutes | 300 to 900 |
| Quantitative Reasoning | 36 | 26 minutes | 300 to 900 |
| Situational Judgement | 69 | 26 minutes | Band 1 to 4 |

The three scored subtests add up to a total between 900 and 2,700, there is no negative marking, and the standard test lasts just under two hours (UCAT Consortium, n.d.-a). Abstract Reasoning, which the UCAT's home page says was withdrawn in 2025, is no longer on the list (UCAT Consortium, n.d.-d). For the 2026 cycle, registration opened on 20 May, testing ran from 13 July to 24 September, booking closed on 16 September, and results reach universities in early November (UCAT Consortium, n.d.-b).

### The BMAT was withdrawn

The BMAT is no longer set. Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing announced on 10 November 2022 that it would stop running the BMAT with effect from 2024-5, calling the test operationally unsustainable, and said the seven UK medical schools using it (Brighton and Sussex, Imperial, Lancaster, UCL, Cambridge, Leeds and Oxford) would make other arrangements (Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing, 2022). All seven now appear on the UCAT's list. The owner's admissions testing site has since closed, so its announcement is cited from an archived copy.

## How do you apply to medicine through UCAS?

You apply through UCAS by 18:00 UK time on 15 October, three months before the January date for most other courses. For 2027 entry, applications could be started from 12 May 2026 and sent from 1 September (UCAS, n.d.-a). You may choose at most four courses in medicine, and the fifth of your five choices can be something else (UCAS, n.d.-b).

The application carries your predicted grades, a reference and a personal statement; our guide to [writing a personal statement](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/how-to-write-a-personal-statement) covers the three questions UCAS now asks.

## How is medical school funded?

In England, student finance covers the early years and the NHS Bursary the later ones, under rules for 2026 to 2027 published on 22 July 2026 (Department of Health and Social Care, 2026):

- **Standard courses of five years or more:** years 1 to 4 are not eligible; from year 5 the NHS Bursary pays up to £9,790 a year of tuition.
- **Four-year graduate-entry courses:** year 1 is not eligible; in years 2 to 4 the NHS Bursary pays up to £3,930 a year of tuition.
- **Living costs:** a £1,081 grant that is not means-tested, and a means-tested bursary with a basic rate of £3,447 in London, £2,855 elsewhere and £2,384 for students living at home.
- **Residence:** the scheme is for students ordinarily resident in England on the first day of the course.

Where the fee is higher than the contribution, the student pays the difference and may borrow it from Student Finance England; students from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland apply to their own nation's funder (NHS Business Services Authority, 2026). Leeds charges £10,050 a year for 2027 entry (University of Leeds, n.d.). We found no current official page stating what a graduate pays in year one of a graduate-entry course, so no figure is given here.

## What is the Medical Licensing Assessment?

The Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) is the GMC's test of the knowledge, skills and behaviours a new doctor needs, and every student graduating from a UK medical school must pass it as part of the degree before joining the register (General Medical Council, n.d.-d). It has two parts, both taken at your own school on dates it chooses: the applied knowledge test (AKT), an on-screen exam of multiple-choice questions, and the clinical and professional skills assessment (CPSA), which schools run as an OSCE or a similar exam (General Medical Council, n.d.-g).

The GMC charges students nothing extra, though some schools charge for resits, and a student who fails the MLA does not graduate (General Medical Council, n.d.-b).

## How do you register with the GMC and finish the Foundation Programme?

### Provisional registration and F1

Provisional registration with a licence to practise lets you work in an approved F1 programme and in no other post. It can be held for at most three years and 30 days (1,125 days), and starting F1 before it is granted counts as unregistered practice. When F1 ends you receive a certificate of experience, the evidence for full registration (General Medical Council, n.d.-f). You must not start F2 until full registration is granted (General Medical Council, n.d.-c).

### Applying to the Foundation Programme

The UK Foundation Programme is two years, F1 and F2, applied for in the autumn of your final year. For the 2027 programme the window ran from 23 September to 12:00 on 7 October 2026 (UK Foundation Programme, n.d.-b). Foundation schools are allocated by Preference Informed Allocation, using a computer-generated rank that is not based on performance at medical school (UK Foundation Programme, n.d.-a).

### Specialty training

Specialty training is either run-through, applied for once, or two or three years of core training followed by a second competition for higher training (NHS Health Careers, n.d.-c).

### If you qualified outside the UK

Most doctors who graduated outside the UK, the EEA and Switzerland take the PLAB test, which the GMC counts as meeting its MLA requirements (General Medical Council, n.d.-d) and sets at the level of a doctor starting F2. Part 1 is 180 single-best-answer questions in three hours; Part 2 is an OSCE of 16 eight-minute scenarios. After passing both, your registration must be approved within two years of Part 2 (General Medical Council, n.d.-a).

## What do resident doctors earn?

In England, from 1 April 2026, basic pay is £41,226 in Foundation Year 1 and £47,610 in Foundation Year 2, and the first year of core or specialty training starts at £55,355, according to the NHS Employers (2026) pay circular revised on 24 July 2026. These are basic pay points before allowances, not a promise of a post, and we did not check Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

## A timeline from sixth form to specialty training, step by step

This timeline is EdCitation's own, for a school leaver starting a five-year course in September 2027, on UCAT's and UCAS's dates for that cycle.

1. **Two years before:** take A levels that include chemistry, and biology if your schools ask for it; find work experience with people.
2. **Summer 2026:** register for the UCAT from 20 May and sit it between 13 July and 24 September.
3. **By 18:00 on 15 October 2026:** send your UCAS application with up to four medicine choices, and a personal statement you wrote yourself.
4. **Winter:** interviews, then offers.
5. **Summer 2027:** results, the DBS check and occupational health.
6. **September 2027, year one:** your first evidence-based assignments. Search the literature with [Find sources](https://edcitation.com/) and build the reference list with [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/vancouver).
7. **Final years:** the MLA's AKT and CPSA; in England, the NHS Bursary from year 5.
8. **Autumn of your final year:** apply to the Foundation Programme.
9. **After graduating:** provisional registration and F1, then full registration and F2.
10. **From F2:** apply for GP or specialty training.

## How does EdCitation help medical students with evidence-based medicine?

EdCitation is the best tool for a medical student's references: each entry is looked up in the publisher's record and none is ever written, which a chatbot cannot guarantee. That matters in medicine more than most subjects: the GMC expects new graduates to critically appraise published research and to explain the hierarchy of evidence in decisions with patients (General Medical Council, n.d.-e).

### A clinical search, run for this guide

On 27 September 2026 we searched [Find sources](https://edcitation.com/) for "sepsis early antibiotics mortality", sorted by most cited. The provider was Crossref, and the total came back as 1,820,181 records. The first result was "The Timing of Early Antibiotics and Hospital Mortality in Sepsis" by Vincent X. Liu and six co-authors, *American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine*, 2017, cited 880 times. Its DOI went into [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite), which built the reference in all six styles and found no retraction.

### Which style will your medical school use?

Vancouver, at both medical schools whose library pages we read. The University of Liverpool (2026) names Vancouver as the School of Medicine's style, and Lancaster University's (2026) guide for medicine sets out Vancouver based on the US National Library of Medicine's style guide. Follow your own school's handbook where it differs. [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/vancouver) gives Vancouver among six styles, and [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references) checks a finished list, both free with no account. Forms for trials, Cochrane reviews and NICE guidelines are in our guide to [Vancouver citations in medicine](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/medicine-and-health-sciences-vancouver-citations), and the core texts in [medicine books and textbooks](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/medicine-books-and-textbooks-for-students).

## Quick questions

### How long does it take to become a doctor in the UK?

NHS Health Careers puts it at around 10 years for a GP and 14 for a surgeon, counting five years of medical school (four on graduate entry) and the two foundation years.

### Can you study medicine without A-level chemistry?

Some schools offer a six-year course with a preliminary year for high achievers without the required sciences, and some graduate-entry courses, such as Warwick's, accept a degree in any subject.

### Is the BMAT still used for medicine?

No. Its owner withdrew it with effect from 2024-5, and the seven UK medical schools that used it are now on the UCAT's list.

### Are medical students paid?

No, but foundation doctors are: basic pay in England is £41,226 in F1 from April 2026. The NHS Bursary helps English students from year 5 of a standard course.

### Can EdCitation write my personal statement or medical essays?

No, and it is built that way. EdCitation finds published evidence with [Find sources](https://edcitation.com/) and formats each reference from the record; the thinking and every word are yours.

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