At the undergraduate level, all students must fulfill certain requirements in order to enter medical school. These include a year of general biology, a year of general chemistry, a year of general physics, and, depending on the school, one to three courses in calculus and a course in statistics. You will also be required to take advanced chemistry courses, including a year of organic chemistry and one course in biochemistry. Additionally, many medical schools require one or more courses in psychology and sociology and one to three advanced biology courses. Two courses in human physiology, as well as courses in microbiology and molecular biology, are helpful for the MCAT exam.
Medical students are required to take four core science courses in their first two years of study, including gross anatomy, in which students dissect a human cadaver; biochemistry, often considered the most difficult; pathology, or the study of disease, which has its foundations in microbiology; and histology, which has its basis in molecular biology and genetics. These heavier courses are paired with lighter courses including a clinical continuum in which students practice the basics of interviewing and examining a patient. Other lighter courses typically required are human development, neuroscience, foundations of psychiatry, physiology and pharmacology. After completing these core requirements, medical students participate in two years of clinical rotations where they shadow and assist a doctor in a particular medical specialty to get a taste of the specialty and the tasks it requires.
Future brain surgeons must complete a residency in neurology in order to apply for a neurosurgery residency. These apprenticeships typically last three years. According to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the training requirements of a neurology residency are flexible and may vary from hospital to hospital, but all neurology students should receive increasing responsibility for inpatient and outpatient care in a clinical setting with clear learning assignments and objectives as they move through each year. Students also receive training in psychopathology, diagnosis of psychiatric conditions and the treatment and side effects of treatment for different illnesses.
In the third year of a neurology residency, aspiring neurosurgeons apply for a neurosurgery residency, which lasts seven years. During this residency, residents will have to assist and gradually perform without assistance a certain number of neurosurgical procedures. According to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, among the 430 procedures a neurosurgical resident should complete are 50 craniotomies for brain tumors, 25 lumbar discectomies, five pediatric spinal procedures and 10 arterial line placements for patients with epilepsy.