Hi guys! It’s been a while here, I really apologize for my inconsistency so far.
It’s over 5months now since I wrote my first professional exam as a medical student and I’ve decided to share my experience with y’all.
FIRST YEAR IN RETROSPECT.
The beginning was tough yet absorbing. I could recall vividly how colleagues in other departments call me ‘scholar Tolani, the brainy boy and the likes’ way back in my first year and to be honest I find joy hearing folks call me those names (chuckles). Sometimes, I just see some persons far away pointing at me just to tell another person ‘that’s the boy, he’s very good at physics and chemistry bla bla’, as much as all these made me feel good I still leveraged on them as a motivation to thrive more. I finished my first year on a good note with a grade point average of 4.85 which basically falls under the first class category, although some persons finished with a perfect CGPA 5.0 (all round distinctions)… That sounds crazy I guess.. Lol
THE GOOD BEGINNING OF THE COLLEGE.
Having heard about the rigor of the college from lots of senior colleagues even before resuming, I started preparing my mind for the work ahead. Upon resumption I felt I was fully prepared for school having heard news of how the college of medicine operates, the good and the bad apparently. if there’s anything I overheard from senior colleagues who came visiting when I was in my first year was that ‘the college of medicine is a different ball game, it’s way different from the main campus system’.. Lol.. Colleagues in the senior can make you feel less of yourself sometimes you know? Wink..
I finally resumed to the college of Medicine with so much vibes and passion. Deep down within all I ever wanted was to be scoring very high marks and prove my senior colleagues wrong that medical school isn’t a different ball game since I never believed in the statement. I’ve always asked myself ‘is it more than reading and passing? After a rigorous period of getting to wake up very early to attend classes and stay awake all nights to prepare for tests, we finally wrote our first test and it felt good on me although I didn’t meet my expectations but I knew I wasn’t going to fail. After writing my first test another notice came out for another test and that’s how we started writing tests upon test as though it were our daily meal..lol
MY TRANSITION STORY.
This makes you remember former. President Goodluck Jonathan right? Smiles…back to my story. It’s good to know that I’d written some tests and passed them although I wasn’t getting distinctions like I used to in my first year, however, the story changed along the line, is something wrong somewhere? That was the exact question I asked myself too. After spending about 12months in the college of medicine, I began to discover new ways to explore in a bid to be more than just an average medical student and have a strong network of good people after all medical school wasn’t going to equip me with that skill. I started attending capacity building conferences and workshops, perhaps that could help me develop and discover some of my hidden skills since I couldn’t meet up with my academic expectations again😔… I revived my writing skills this period and started writing about my experience in medical school which led me to build this weblog and trust me it’s been amazing since I started writing. However, I failed some of tests I wrote during this period as I couldn’t strike a balance between school and the extracurricular activities I was into. Unarguably I could relate how bad that sounds! I couldn’t deny I’d lost focus at some point, my mind wasn’t in those books again. I could remember how that my fellowship academic secretary called me and said to me, ‘Tolani! This is a symptom of failure’… I couldn’t even walk freely in school again thinking of what colleagues would be speaking of me, especially the ones that were looking up to me. I felt I’d disappointed a lot of people and myself. There’s even a time a colleague who I don’t even talk to came into my room to tell me how that a lot of people have been talking about my failures and that I might end up failing the professional exam if enough care is not taken. I had to force myself to sleep that particular day trying not to think about the whole scenario. I had never failed in my entire life I said to myself silently!
THE BIG DEAL.
And yes! The professional exam was a big deal to me as I’ve never experienced any before, at least it was Worth every hype people gave it. Time table for the first professional exam has been released and now is the time to forget about the past and forge ahead. The professional exam is indeed the big deal as it carries bulk of the marks of the medical school exam. Professional exam is 70% while all the tests I’d written will eventually sum up to 30% to make the continuous assessment. This is the period you see people pray every now and then on the prayer ground, some even fast for days and become more faithful to God, lol, truth is I can’t even pray for my enemy to fail considering the stress of reading volumes of books.. Although I did all those too,I realised I don’t have the luxury of time to joke with. I knew I’d to reprogram my mind to focus on books and settle for exams and amazingly that worked out for me, the mind is really powerful Trust me.
WALK OF VICTORY.
Wrote the professional exam in the best I could. It was over… no more reading all night for exams… no more trying to squeeze out the little reading time I had to prepare foods. But… there was worry lurking in my heart. The result was not released for weeks. In fact, I had terrible night mares of me failing and people making jest of me. Little did I know that those dreams weren’t real, they were just mere hallucinations. When results finally came out and discovered that I passed all my papers my heart was filled with joy, it was as though I got the best grades even when there were over 50 persons ahead of me, all I just cared about was that I passed and for me it calls for celebration.
Two things medical school have taught me so far are, being able to strike balance and resilience which I believe is applicable to every other field of studies.
Thanks for reading through. Till another time!
Bye.