Good News: We Are Finally Medical Students!

For many teenagers, the news of becoming a medical student is everything they could ever ask for. So it’s always a surprise when they are told they are not yet medical students because they are only in 100-Level. 

This is the story of many medical students in the prestigious medical school of Obafemi Awolowo University. 

The belief is that just gaining admission into medical school levels doesn’t make you a medical student. Yes, many 100-level students in the faculty of clinical sciences of Obafemi Awolowo University get to show off to students of other faculties, they know deep down that college and their seniors do not recognize them as medical students. 

Do they finally feel like medical students when they become 200-level medical students? 

Yes, they do but not to their counterparts in the clinical classes. 

I have always wondered why this is so, that clinical students do not consider medical students in preclinical classes as nothing more than premedical students. 

Now, I don’t have to ask why anymore, thanks to my first two weeks doing pathology and pharmacology block lectures. And this is the same for the entire stalwart class. 

Our classes start at 7:30 AM every weekday and end sometimes around 5:30. We are reminded that we are only beginners at every turn, in every class, and what we did in the preclinical classes? A joke. 

Each class comes with materials that should take up to 3 to 4 hours to read normally. Some classes even come with materials that can take two days to finish. 

We have six classes every day. This means we have six materials that should take 3 to 4 hours to finish every day despite spending almost 12 hours in class. And we are expected to read these materials every day while getting enough sleep to make it to our 7:30 AM classes. 

What’s worse is that these are only just materials. There are still textbooks that we have to be read if we want to become doctors. 

Despite being bulky, the materials only cover about 10% of what the topic is all about. So each class material covers what should take between 2 to 3 days of intense reading to finish in the textbook. 

So now we know why we were never considered actual medical students while in the preclinical classes. Because now we are in clinical one, we know what it feels like, being a true medical student. It’s a roller coaster of tiredness and sleepless nights that never ends.