Have you ever heard a medical student say he/she was preparing for 2nd MB examination? Have you seen posts on Facebook about passing 2nd MB exam and wondered what the fuss was about? After all every other student write and pass exams right? Well this post is for you. 

   

   In After Forever and a Day, I told you that I just passed my 2nd mb exam, now let me tell you a little about 2nd mb.

  We were taught in Biochemistry that a rate limiting step is the slowest step in a metabolic pathway or series of chemical reactions, which determines the overall rate of the other reactions in the pathway. Well, if medicine is a metabolic pathway, 2nd mb is the rate limiting step. 

   

   Even before I got admission into the university, the fear of 2nd mb was drilled into me. Everyone advised me to study really hard so that I won't fail it. The day I went to process my payments after I got admission was the same day the 2011/2012 set checked their 2nd mb results. As soon as I stepped into the building, I knew something was up. The tension was palpable. 

  

   Medicine and surgery in Nigeria is a six years course. In the course of study, a student has to sit for and pass 5 mb examinations in order to become a medical doctor. The general science and general studies exams taken in the first year of study (pre-med class) is seen as 1st mb. Then the entirety of the second (pre-clinical class 1) and third year(pre-clinical class 2) is used to prepare for the 2nd mb exam which consists mainly of Biochemistry, Physiology and Anatomy and all their sub courses (Embryology, Histology, Molecular biology, Neurophysiology etc.)

  

 3rd, 4th and 5th mb exams are written in the 4th, 5th and 6th years of study respectively. So basically what makes 2nd mb different or difficult is the fact that it determines a student's continuity. This is because a student must necessarily pass the time 2nd mb exam in order to continue his/her study. Failure to pass can lead to withdrawal from the college of medicine.

  

 I'll be sharing my experience and lessons learnt before and during the exam period in consequent posts. In the meantime, join me to thank God for seeing me through.

  

 Does (did) your course have a rate 

limiting step? Tell me about it.

PS; MB means medical board.