12 Things I Learnt From The Medical School...

Recently, the final MBBS results of my school was released. All of us approached the college's clinical building with fear to look at the notice board. You are never sure you've passed till you see the board.
Medicine is not for the chicken hearted. You need mental strength. It is a course you could spend years writing one exam after the other. Some give up on their own and change course.
I wish to share with you what I learnt from the medical school. Here we go.

1) SUCCESS IS GOALS.
On the night our final results were released, the Teaching Hospital environment changed. The city saw massive activities. Ladies and gentlemen gathered at cool joints to celebrate and be grateful for all the blessings life had bestowed upon them. In a certain joint, one cool guy, the wisest among us stood up in our midst and said, "Success is goals. All else is commentary"
We all nodded in agreement to his wisdom.
The exam that will take you by surprise is the one you didn't prepare for. Set goals for success.

2) THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A GENIUS IN MEDICINE.
People usually think that medical students are the most intelligent people. That is partly true. Usually, the most intelligent pool of students from various secondary schools apply to study medicine every year. But when they enter medical school, they must learn to drop the genius myth. We have seen the brightest chap who humbled WAEC and JAMB with high scores drop out from 2nd MBBS exam. Stuffs happen. Get ready for them. In the words of Donald Trump, " There will be no guarantees, but being prepared sure beats being taken unawares."

Burn the midnight candle to raise your chances of perpetual success.

3) ANY AVERAGE STUDENT CAN STUDY MEDICINE.
There is no truer statement. In medicine, your only challenge is to just make sure you know a lot. Cram everything. Read, read and read again. No flash of genius. If I have a very intelligent child, I'll send him to study aeronautical engineering, nuclear physics, or computer engineering. Truth is that an average student can pass through medicine if he can sit down and read. For nuclear physics, what will you do with those long equations? Just asking. I consider calculus, matrix, scalars and vectors, mechanics, quantum theory of light, and every other thing involving long equations to be more difficult to crack than biology.

4) NOT ALL PARAMEDICAL STUDENTS HATE MEDICAL STUDENTS; BUT THERE IS A HATE.
As a student, I enjoyed the friendship of nursing students, radiography students, medical labouratory students, and physiotherapy students. Those that like their course can give you so much fun. You can rub minds on any issue with them, from religion to romance. But there are bitter ones who wrote JAMB severally for medicine before they were offered something else. They refuse to like your pictures on facebook, and will never follow you back on twitter. When someone makes a snarl comment at you on facebook, they are the first to click like. How do you handle such people? Kill their power to hurt you by ignoring them. Get on only with the cheerful ones with healthy self esteem. They are extremely intelligent, and you can learn from them.

5) MEDICAL STUDENTS ARE NOT FLIRTS. Where do we even find the time? If you have a medical student as your boyfriend or girlfriend, you can be rest assured that he or she is not cheating on you, because we have no time for that. We do not have time to gist on Nneoma's bossom, nor Amaka's straight legs. When you have been harrassed by the consultants and residents for not answering basic questions on Hypertension or Diabetis during rounds, you'll discover that the firmness of Nneoma's bosom makes no sense to your career.

You have to read your books, because reading your books is your surest bet of leaving that jungle of academic intimidation and harrasment called medical school.

6) TIME IS PRECIOUS. NEVER WASTE IT. That's all. You'll know this on the night before surgery long and short case exams. Suddenly, you remember all you could have read, but the big day is few hours away. Never joke with your time.

7) YOU CAN PAY YOUR WAY THROUGH SCHOOL. I did it, despite the fact that I came from a middle class family where money for education at least was not a problem at all. When we were in first year, we started applying for every available scholarship. One of my guys got about 5 scholarships. We wrote for AGIP, TOTAL, SHELL, NNPC, LNGN, MTN, AGBAMI patners, Federal Government, Essay competitions that have prize money, etc. Aside scholarships, I also won national and local essay competions which had cash prizes. I put my gifting to profit. So every year, we receive lump sums of cash that are in six digits. I helped my friends and school mentees (academic children) with money. I sponsored the fellowship outreaches and Agape love weekends. I had the money.

You see, life can be so easy. Dont complain anymore.

8.) AS A MEDICAL STUDENT, PRETTY LADIES WILL FALL FOR YOU EFFORTLESSLY. USE THIS PRIVILEDGE WISELY.
When I was a medical student, I often went to school of nursing building within the Teaching Hospital to go and read. I noticed how nicely those girls greet me once they knew I was a medical student. They were all pretty, lovely ladies. I seized the chance. At every opportunity I get, I share with them timeless principles for living from the scriptures.

One day, they put a word to one of their lecturers who organised a closed door seminar for them and I was invited as the speaker. The hall was packed to the brim. Looking at the pretty faces of those student nurses, I was touched, so I taught them all I knew about life, faith and success.

Use your chances intelligently, guarded with integrity. It could be the small beginning of greater things.

9) TALK LESS, DO MORE.
I have observed that proud people do not always deliver during exams. They love to brag. Sometimes, they repeat a class even. Never engage in an academic discussion that seems determined to declare who knows most, and who knows least. Shut up your mouth and win such arguments through results. Let your results show on the board when the chips are down.

10) SMART WORK PLUS NETWORK MAKES HARDWORK LOOK ORDINARY.
True talk! I have observed that most lecturers' children pass exams at one sitting, not because they have the questions before the exam day. Far from it. They simply know the secrets of hitting it once. Their parents, who are also doctors share experiences with them and mentor them. While we are killing ourselves with Last's Anatomy textbook, the lecturer's daughter has been told that the questions always come from Keith Moore's Anatomy textbook.
We work hard, they work smart. They can connect also with their parents' connections (other lecturers) for leverage if they are ever met in a viva room with the same lecturer. You can't resist giving your colleagues daughter maximum marks in oral exams. That's network.

Smart work plus network beats hardwork.

11) YOU NEED PEOPLE.
Reach out to your classmates and lecturers. Nobody goes far in life in isolation.

In my long case surgery exam, the two consultant surgeons that examined me were not just my teachers. They were my friends. We are all in the Gilead Medical Team in my church (Winners' Chapel). They knew me to be honest, so their wives and little kids soon fell in love with me. I go to their house to eat rice and chicken on sundays, and to cool off from the stress of the past week.

So when I met them in my surgery long case, I talked with confidence. I answered all the questions they asked me. Perhaps it was my mindset that they will never ask me a question to fail me that made me attempt all the questions as if they were cheap.

I got the highest mark in sugery long case that day. I got 60/100. I know you're wondering why 60 is the maximum mark right? Well, its a tradition in medical school here in Nigeria. No one gets above 60 in oral exams, even if you quote things as it is written in texts and medscape. 60% is like 100% in oral exams. This means that your chances of failing and repeating in medical school is very high. Very very high. So when you see someone doing medicine for ten years, give him some respect. He is not a dullard. Life is frustrating when 60% is the highest you can ever get for all your sleepless nights.

Reach out in friendship to people today. Join associations. They help.

12) YOU NEED GOD.
I put this last, but it is the most important thing I learnt in medical school. You can not fail when God is with you. But even if you fail any exam and God is with you, you didn't fail at all. Your day of glory is just a stone throw away. Never ever give up. Later success will make the friends that left you to come back; this time, no longer as friends but as fans.