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Becoming a doctor isn’t easy. We doubt there’s anyone who would disagree with that, and we get the feeling that everyone likes it that way. You probably prefer your medical professionals be overqualified to underqualified — delivering babies is a bit more complicated than delivering pizzas, right?

So, it’s only natural that doctors have to take a buttload of tests (that’s a metric buttload, of course), both practical and written. But one hospital in Japan that’s looking to hire some doctors from upcoming graduating classes has gotten creative with their practical tests. One step even includes folding a five-millimeter (0.19685-inche) origami crane.

At least Ant-Man will know who to call when he needs a tiny glider…

Kurashiki Central Hospital, located in Okayama Prefecture, is looking for new doctors and is currently seeking students in their fourth, fifth, or sixth year of school. Only 40 potential MDs will be allowed to take a test for placement, so it seems like the pressure starts extremely early for this job, and that’s exactly how the hospital administrators seem to want it. In addition to a written exam and interview, medical professional hopefuls will also be required to take a three-part practical test as well. Though the “missions,” as the hospital refers to the practical tests, are certainly unusual, there is a method to their madness! We think…

But what are the missions? Let’s take a look!

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Yeah, we weren’t kidding about that Ant-Man glider. Okay, maybe were joking a little bit, but the fact remains that if you want to be a doctor at Kurashiki Central hospital, you’ll have to be really good with tweezers. We think…how else would you fold such a tiny crane?!

▼ First, invent a shrink ray. Second, hope you didn’t forget to invent a way to reverse it!

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Well, that’s certainly not an easy feat, but it’s also only the first mission. Because once you’ve finished with your crane, it’ll be time to…tiny5

Yep! You’ll have to put a bug back together — and we are definitely not talking about the Volkswagen vehicle!tiny3

This bug is not nearly as cute as the car, but it does look like it has almost as many pieces. Though the bugs for the actual tests will only have 13 pieces, they will be pretty small! Again, we’re not sure how you’d actually get all the pieces to stick together, but fortunately the bug is a bit larger than the paper crane — it will be roughly 35 millimeters (1.378 inches)! You can almost use your fingers for that!

▼ Not that you’d want to. Ew!

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And once they’re done playing with the wildlife, both paper and real, potential doctors will get to make themselves a nice little snack.

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It’s tempting to think that the English description of the third mission involves a bit of a mistake. One grain of rice? Surely they jest! Just look at the photo below!

▼ Not the best photo, is it? They should have used a different lens. Unless…

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▼ Oh.

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Yep, they were serious about that single grain of rice!

In case you’re wondering, the grain of rice is supposed to be about five millimeters, which was small when we were talking about the origami crane, but seems even tinier now. We bet the judges won’t even let them eat their own sushi either!

Oh, and did we mention everyone only gets 15 minutes per task? Actually, we’re a bit surprised they’re allowed that much time. If you’re going for impossible, you should just go for broke and make them do everything in 15 minutes!

If you’re wondering why the hospital has come up with these seemingly absurd tests, they actually have a really good reason: They love ants and want to provide better service for their smallest patients.

▼ “Aw, thanks guys!”

Ant_head_closeupWikipedia (Steve Jurvetson)

Oh, wait, that’s not right!

Actually, this is more of a way to test how the future doctors perform under pressure. Obviously, being a doctor involves lots of screaming patients, hopefully just because they’re bored with waiting and not because they’re bleeding all over your nice new shirt. But in the event there is blood splurting everywhere, you want to make sure the MD is calm and collected. Not only do they have to be calm, but they have to be calm and work with extremely fine skill and movement. We’re not sure how analogous folding a crane is to surgery, but we imagine it’s not entirely dissimilar. Still, the most important point is to test the mental fortitude of the students — the hospital only wants people who has nerves of steel and who never give up.

And if they can make tiny origami cranes as a party trick, all the better!

Sources: ITMedia, Kurashiki Central Hospital, Naver Matome, Iroiro
Images: Kurashiki Central Hospital