Career Aptitude Test for Becoming a Doctor?

[mrtumus]

Is there any test that one can take to see if they really want to be a doctor. I recently took a career aptitude test and my personlaity themes were Realistic and Social. My top 5 areas of interests are

Health Care services
Medical Sciences
Military
Teaching and Education
Mechanics and Construction

Some of my career choices were Physical therapist, Nurse or a surgeon there was also teaching for the disabled. I Was surprised there was no PA since that was what I was going for.
Now I am just confused on what to do. I always wanted to be a surgeon but evetually I decided not to thinking I wasn't god enough but taking this test the fact that it said one of my career choices are a surgeon just got me to realize how much I want to be a surgeon. See because I think I might fail and the time commitment I was settling to become a speech learning pathologist. It involved teaching and helping others which I love to do. BUT after research I realized it isnt as easy and rewarding as thought to be. Too much paper work and little time with patients. Any advice my fellow pre meds?

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[Mad Jack]

Dude, did you just take a career aptitude test seriously?

 

[Law2Doc]

Dude, did you just take a career aptitude test seriously?

Agreed. If you put more faith on such a test than what you know in your own head, that probably tells you something. Much of being a doctor is being able to make hard decisions without enough information.

 

[db4277]

Is there any test that one can take to see if they really want to be a doctor. I recently took a career aptitude test and my personlaity themes were Realistic and Social. My top 5 areas of interests are

The best way you can test your interest in medicine as a career is by shadowing physicians and asking meaningful relevant questions.

 

[DermViser]

 

[cidem2065]

You should try getting your fortune told instead. Much more useful in forming opinions about yourself.

 

[idm6]

"Doctor" encompasses such a wide variety of specific jobs that I don't think you can generally measure someone's aptitude for becoming one. If a test tells me that I should be a doctor, does that mean I should be a private practice pediatrician? A trauma surgeon at a busy level I trauma center? A researcher at a big city teaching hospital? A family doctor in an underserved rural area? Or is the test supposed to say "people with these 359 unique sets of characteristics are all pretty well suited for some medical specialty/subspecialty, so we'll tell all of those people to become doctors."

Beyond basic intelligence and willingness to work hard, it really just comes down to whether you really want to be a doctor or not. If you do, there is probably some specialty that will fit your set of skills and work environment expectations. But an aptitude test based on self-reported characteristics won't tell you this.

 

[karayaa]

"Doctor" encompasses such a wide variety of specific jobs that I don't think you can generally measure someone's aptitude for becoming one. If a test tells me that I should be a doctor, does that mean I should be a private practice pediatrician? A trauma surgeon at a busy level I trauma center? A researcher at a big city teaching hospital? A family doctor in an underserved rural area? Or is the test supposed to say "people with these 359 unique sets of characteristics are all pretty well suited for some medical specialty/subspecialty, so we'll tell all of those people to become doctors."

Beyond basic intelligence and willingness to work hard, it really just comes down to whether you really want to be a doctor or not. If you do, there is probably some specialty that will fit your set of skills and work environment expectations. But an aptitude test based on self-reported characteristics won't tell you this.

+1
the field is too diverse - there are too many options and opportunities to pursue. There's room for people of all personalities, values, etc

OP, why do you want to be a surgeon?
How much time do you want to spend w patients? How do you know (eg have you shadowed?)

 

[wholeheartedly]

As noted above, shadowing and experience in a clinical setting is going to be your best test.

 

[Holmwood]

Is there any test that one can take to see if they really want to be a doctor. I recently took a career aptitude test and my personlaity themes were Realistic and Social. My top 5 areas of interests are

Health Care services
Medical Sciences
Military
Teaching and Education
Mechanics and Construction

Some of my career choices were Physical therapist, Nurse or a surgeon there was also teaching for the disabled. I Was surprised there was no PA since that was what I was going for.
Now I am just confused on what to do. I always wanted to be a surgeon but evetually I decided not to thinking I wasn't god enough but taking this test the fact that it said one of my career choices are a surgeon just got me to realize how much I want to be a surgeon. See because I think I might fail and the time commitment I was settling to become a speech learning pathologist. It involved teaching and helping others which I love to do. BUT after research I realized it isnt as easy and rewarding as thought to be. Too much paper work and little time with patients. Any advice my fellow pre meds?

It seems you want to go into the medical field on a general note. Have you really considered all the health professions available and researched each of them well enough to reach a reasonable conclusion?

And by research, I mean both the pros and the cons.

For instance, you should really look into the day-to-day struggles of a surgeon. It is not considered a life-time specialty for a reason. It's horrifying, and humbling to read about.

Furthermore, too much paper work and little time with patients is a problem Physicians face as well, not just the speech-learning pathologist.

On a side note, career aptitude tests are silly. They told me I would be 80% satisfied if I went into engineering. I hate math, why would I do engineering.