Which year of MBBS is easy? A year-wise analysis.

Easy? MBBS is the most stressful and most difficult degree out there. Every year of the long 5.5-year period is torture in its own way. You will barely have moments without academic stress. You will have nightmares from exams, you’ll wake up thinking you’ve missed an internal or a post-end.

Your younger cousins might come up to you and talk about how difficult the NEET/JEE phase is, and you’ll just have to lie through your teeth and tell them that something easier is coming up. Even when you know that they’re going to go crazy over the next 5.5 years.

The postings, the practicals, the 75% attendance, the size of one book, the number of books, the number of freaking subjects in MBBS. Your mind will be in ‘AHHHH’ mode all the time except for the day after you complete your university exams. It’s calm for 5-10 days, then it switches back to the AHHH mode again. It’s chaotic and scary. It is a hell of a ride that comes with the best reward ever.

But, the result cannot make you undermine the torture that you’re going to go through, both mentally and physically. The result is great but so is all the effort that goes into it.

Which year is the most difficult then?

Well, I can give you a comparison between the years. I can tell you what your major concerns will be in each year. When you will have time for yourself and when you will not. We can go over the various responsibilities in each year and then decide.

Year-wise analysis of MBBS:

Let’s start with the first year.

First Year MBBS

The first year is a big shift. NEET to MBBS, trying to fit into the life you’ve always dreamt of. Most people move to another city, this comes with excitement, yes, but it also comes with a lot of responsibilities.

Moving into the hostel is freeing yet scary. There’s homesickness, difficulty in adapting to the watery food, adjusting to the common washrooms and toilets, having someone in your private space all the time, and talking to people from all over the country. If you find a good roommate then it is a lot easier as opposed to living with someone who does not suit you

College is an entirely different story. First day of anatomy, you’re taken to the dissection hall, where you face cadavers that you will be expected to dissect over the year. Anatomy thus expects you to dissect cadavers and handle real human bones. It’s a very big moral responsibility. Physiology will expect you to prick yourself with lancets, and test your blood. Biochemistry will expect you to pee in containers and then analyze your urine. It’s all a part of sensitization that’s very very awkward and scary at first.

The subjects feel like a lot. It is a big jump from the NEET syllabus, the books are so thick and difficult to read. I felt alien in my body during the first year, felt like I was pretending to be someone else like I didn’t fit into all this. Like it was meant for someone smarter or sharper than me.

Overall, the academic jump, the homesickness, and the exposure to real medical expectations made the first year very difficult for me. The only solace was my newfound friend’s group.

Second Year MBBS

Friends group, I said. Well, when you decide on your friends based on first impressions and then you have to live with them, uhm, it does not last. The differences that were being sidelined in the first year came up. People find new people. The things that you like about a person start irritating you. Any effort cannot keep your big group together. You either fragment into smaller groups or find new friends altogether.

The subjects- Pathology, Pharmacology, and Microbiology are the foundational subjects. These form the base of the entire MBBS curriculum and are thus very demanding. With the onset of clinical postings and additional pressure from PSM and FMT, the second year becomes an academically challenging year too.

Earlier it was called the ‘Honeymoon phase’ because people (parents don’t read further) started dating this year and it was also of the longest duration. But now with the new guidelines, where it is 13 months long, I’m sure it will lose its tagline.

Overall, academically challenging and emotionally difficult phase. 

Third-Minor Year MBBS

The third year is relatively chill in my opinion. The subjects are easy, you’re used to the posting schedule and the medical aspects. You are done with friendship breakups (and relationship breakups), you are done with parties and exploring the city. 

But, the PG stress starts, and people join offline PG coaching classes, start studying Third-Major subjects, and start taking up projects to decorate their CVs. This is all a personal choice though.

Overall, a relatively chill and laid-back year. But it is just the quiet before the storm.

Final Year MBBS

The chaos returns. 9 subjects, of which medicine alone is equivalent to 10 subjects. The stress of the postings, they expect you to know everything. You start feeling guilty about being dependent on your parents as you hear news about your school friends graduating and getting jobs. The stress of clearing exams, the PG stress, and the added newfound pressure of money. You realize that reading ahead in the third year did not help because you’ve forgotten everything. Did I mention that everybody is looking up to you, your family thinks you are a doctor already. They will keep shoving X-rays in your mouth, and expect you to diagnose based on ‘You know us beta, you should know what is happening to us.’ 

It is plain torture till the Universities are done. The academic pressure is through the roof in the final year.

Internship

There is some calm after the final year, you go on a small trip have some fun, and then gear up for an internship. Remember the ‘AHHHH’ that I mentioned? Well, here it comes again. If the internship is not already physically taxing enough, with its night duties and its no-holiday-for-you rules; there’s the PG pressure to make it worse.

You juggle hospital duty with studies and prepare for the NEET PG exam. It’s a bittersweet year. You are also happy that you got through the degree, but you’re also so devastated that you will be leaving it behind. The people, the hospital, the disgusting hostel. The memories keep flooding and you keep both anticipating yet cursing the end. The ride has almost come to an end. The tired faces hold stories that you wouldn’t find in the best libraries. You leave with heavy yet smiling hearts.

Overall, it’s very difficult but you don’t want it to end.

So, back to the question.

Which year of MBBS is easy?

Just to give you an answer, I’d say the third year is the easiest. But honestly, there’s no timeline to it, it can be the second year for some people too.

All I know is that MBBS is an incredibly difficult degree, yet it is the best experience one can have. It is a transformative journey, you cannot come out the same person you went in. You come out much stronger and much fitter to face the life ahead.

All the best, dear friend.

PS: Did I mention the stench of formalin?