₦airaland Forum

So you want to be a medical doctor, probably because you love the White coat. Stethoscope. Prestige.
But let me tell you the truth.. the kind you only hear when the doors are closed and the seniors drop their masks.
This degree is not for everybody.
And I don’t say that to sound elite. I say it because medicine will expose you, whether you pretend or not.
Here’s the honest advice no one gives:

1. You don’t survive MBBS by being intelligent… you survive by being consistent even when you’re tired of your own life.
There are people in medical school who are geniuses.
They still fail.
Not because they’re not smart, but because MBBS requires a kind of discipline that intelligence alone cannot carry.
If you hate routine, hate reading when you don’t “feel like it,” or think motivation will save you…
You’ll struggle.
Medicine is the only place where tired people still read and broken people still pass.

2. You will lose things you didn’t plan to lose.. sleep, hobbies, friendships… sometimes even pieces of yourself.
Nobody tells you this.
They show you smiling pictures in lab coats but don’t show you the classmates who cry quietly in the hostel, the ones who burn out, the ones who disappear from WhatsApp for months because life swallowed them.
But here’s the hidden truth:
If you enter MBBS with no sense of identity, medicine will give you one.. but, it may not be the one you want.

3. There’s a very real difference between “wanting to be a doctor” and “being ready for medical school.”
A lot of people love the idea of saving lives.
But they forget medicine is mostly about reading, exams, sleep deprivation, pressure, and then reading again.
You don’t become a hero in year one.
You carry textbooks bigger than your own torso.
You memorize pathways, syndromes, and diseases you’ve never seen.
It is not glamorous.
If you are chasing glamour, go somewhere else.
But if you’re chasing impact, this place will shape you into someone you never imagined you could be.

4. MBBS will teach you the value of delayed gratification more than any course on earth.
Your mates in other fields will be:
Making money
Starting businesses
Working remote jobs
Traveling
Posting “soft life” every weekend
Meanwhile, you’ll be in the library arguing with yourself about why the brachial plexus has so many branches.
But that’s the beauty.
If you stay long enough, you’ll realize medicine forces you to build a rare kind of patience, the kind that pays you for the rest of your life.

5. Medicine will humble you.
No matter how brilliant you were in secondary school, MBBS will give you at least one exam that will remind you you’re human.
But that same humility is what makes you a better doctor.
You learn that life is fragile, the human body is unforgiving, and your mistakes carry weight.
Not everyone is emotionally built for that.

6. The real secret? MBBS is not suffering.. it’s transformation.
People see only the stress.
But here’s what they don’t tell you:
Medicine forces you to become organized.
It forces you to think.
It forces you to grow.
It forces you to level up mentally.
It forces you to find your limits, then go beyond them.
There is no version of you that finishes medical school unchanged.
If you are serious, focused, and ready to fight for your future, medicine will reward you.
If you are entering because of pressure, clout, or aesthetics…
This place will expose you faster than you think.

7. So here’s the honest advice:
If you want MBBS because it’s your calling, your dream, your heartbeat.. come.
This degree will mold you like fire molds gold.
But if you’re coming because of hype…
Don’t do that to yourself.
You will quit halfway, and medicine is not something you quit without scars.

How you have time devoted for social media and prioritize it is clearly a misplscement of priority.

There are some courses that are far more intense than medicine where you have opportunities of repeated resits yet they don’t post daily on it because they understand their priority.

Your priority as a student is to study. Leave this low hanging activity for now so that years later you can actually share your experience without affecting your study time.

Btw, there are still levels in university rigor, some schools are less rigorous and can afford to mix academic rigorous with non-compelling activities but I still won't recommend such.

FreeStuffsNG:
How you have time devoted for social media and prioritize it is clearly a misplscement of priority.

There are some courses that are far more intense than medicine where you have opportunities of repeated resits yet they don’t post daily on it because they understand their priority.

Your priority as a student is to study. Leave this low hanging activity for now so that years later you can actually share your experience without affecting your study time.

Btw, there are still levels in university rigor, some schools are less rigorous and can afford to mix academic rigorous with non-compelling activities but I still won't recommend such.

Thank you for your insight I completely agree that studying should always come first. My aim with these posts is not to replace study time but to share small tips and experiences that might help fellow students along the way. I'm sure you've heard of multitasking before? Yh that's it. Plus people have different abilities, you should know that by now.

Good advise

Might have been true that the study of medicine was fraught with medical textbooks so large that just one can dwarf the whole textbooks of some specialties. However, with the advent of the Internet, AI, soft copies of most textbooks, that assertion should be archived in the dustbin of history except you still want to remain analogue in this digital era.

Having a good orientation and scope of the requirements to study medicine would go a long way in mitigating the casualties recorded during the exams. For example, while some students have flare for a broader knowledge of any subject matter, some medical exams in the undergraduate level are notebook based hence helping those who limit their study to their notes to excel more than the well rounded efficos.

One sorry and pathetic plight that transcends medical school into a doctor's work life is poor remuneration.
After all the toils in school, a doctor can hardly cope with the economic reality s/he's confronted with. While his 4 year course pairs are already established and earning fantastic salaries outside, he is saddled with a house job that is as exhausting as it is tasking and the little subcutaneous fat he manages to escape with from school is lost in his /her 1st posting as a house officer.

MBBS is fulfilling to the altruistic but the reward may very well be found in heaven like those of the teachers. ( That is, if you make the heaven).

You forgot to add that after getting the MBBS, leave Nigeria for a better place.

When I working as a front desk officer in a bank within a school environment, I saw first hand what some medical students go through. They come to the bank burnt out and murmuring about what they go through in med school. Some blame their parents for goading them into med school against their wish.

The most painful part to me is the poor remuneration after all the toiling to be a doctor.

matify83:
Might have been true that the study of medicine was fraught with medical textbooks so large that just one can dwarf the whole textbooks of some specialties. However, with the advent of the Internet, AI, soft copies of most textbooks, that assertion should be archived in the dustbin of history except you still want to remain analogue in this digital era.

Having a good orientation and scope of the requirements to study medicine would go a long way in mitigating the casualties recorded during the exams. For example, while some students have flare for a broader knowledge of any subject matter, some medical exams in the undergraduate level are notebook based hence helping those who limit their study to their notes to excel more than the well rounded efficos.

One sorry and pathetic plight that transcends medical school into a doctor's work life is poor remuneration.
After all the toils in school, a doctor can hardly cope with the economic reality s/he's confronted with. While his 4 year course pairs are already established and earning fantastic salaries outside, he is saddled with a house job that is as exhausting as it is tasking and the little subcutaneous fat he manages to escape with from school is lost in his /her 1st posting as a house officer.

MBBS is fulfilling to the altruistic but the reward may very well be found in heaven like those of the teachers. ( That is, if you make the heaven).

Thanks for sharing this perspective.
The field is definitely evolving, and those who combine the traditional methods with digital tools are already having an easier time. At the end of the day, the system may not be perfect, but developing the right strategy early can prevent many of the “casualties” you mentioned.

BeardedMeat:
When I working as a front desk officer in a bank within a school environment, I saw first hand what some medical students go through. They come to the bank burnt out and murmuring about what they go through in med school. Some blame their parents for goading them into med school against their wish.

The most painful part to me is the poor remuneration after all the toiling to be a doctor.

True. The stress is heavy and the pay doesn’t always match the sacrifice.
But that’s exactly why students need better guidance, smarter study systems, and clarity before choosing medicine. We cannot be suffering and also be confused on top of it.

christejames:
Good advise

Thank you😊

obi4eze:
You forgot to add that after getting the MBBS, leave Nigeria for a better place.

You're not wrong. Leaving Nigeria is definitely part of the survival manual for many doctors. But at the end of the day it's a personal decision.

MedAnon:
7. So here’s the honest advice:
If you want MBBS because it’s your calling, your dream, your heartbeat.. come.
This degree will mold you like fire molds gold.
But if you’re coming because of hype…
Don’t do that to yourself.
You will quit halfway, and medicine is not something you quit without scars.

What about those that choose MBBS because of their parents?

Many Nigerian Parents be like: “I want my daughter to become a Doctor because Iya risika’s daughter is a Doctor” ?

Saturnalia:
What about those that choose MBBS because of their parents?

Many Nigerian Parents be like: “I want my daughter to become a Doctor because Iya risika’s daughter is a Doctor” ?

That's a risky path to thread if you eventually bend to your parents' will