5 Unavoidable WAEC Subjects For Medicine And Surgery

Waec subjects for medicine and surgery

Are you about to write WAEC? Then it’s expedient you know the WAEC subjects for medicine and surgery! In this post, we’ve discussed everything you need to know and yes, some extra tips and guide on acing the exam, and many more! 


Not all science subjects are interesting. 

Obiora, a brilliant lover of mathematics at the Kings High secondary school, had always wanted to become a cardiologist. 

He had been performing great in other subjects but one thing has been bringing his grades low; chemistry! 

When it was time for registering WAEC, Kelvin omitted chemistry and registered Geography instead; what a wise decision🙂. 

And you know what happened? When he was applying for medicine and surgery in UNIZIK, he was immediately disqualified because he didn’t offer chemistry in his WAEC.

Obiora was shattered. He had only followed his intuition and hadn’t known the WAEC subjects for medicine and surgery

Now, Obiora is full of regret; poor him. He wished he had someone to counsel him about the importance of Chemistry and everything about WAEC subjects for medicine and surgery. 

You don’t want to be like Obiora, do you? 

Of course not! That’s precisely why you’re here; to learn all about the subjects to offer in WAEC for medicine and surgery. 

Now here’s the deal; asides from giving you all to know about the SSCE subjects for medicine, I’ll also give you the following;

  • Killer Tips on passing WAEC brilliantly
  • Ultimate Advice for writing WAEC as a medical aspirant 

All that is what you get to learn from this guide! At MedicsDomain, we care about your success and want you to reach your dreams!  

Let’s get started right away. 

Why You Need To Write WAEC

Before you acquire an admission slot for medicine and surgery into your school of choice, there are some requirements you need to ace. 

Like you know; JAMB is one. WAEC is also another. And, there’s the post-UTME screening too! (for some schools). 

These three are the major scoring factors that determine whether you’ll grace the gates of medical school this year, or not. 

However, my focus in this post is the WAEC subjects for medicine and surgery. But before we go to that, here’s why you need to write WAEC;

1. To Register for JAMB

JAMB is the chief in charge of students admission

They conduct the Unified tertiary Matriculation Examination which acts as a crucial screening factor for admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria. 

JAMB also sets a minimum score each year to allocate eligible students to their respective institutions; university, polytechnics or colleges of education. 

However, before you start the process i.e register for JAMB, you need to write your WAEC exams. 

You can apply for the UTME using awaiting results (if your results aren’t out). But be rest assured that you’ll update them later as soon as you get them. 

2. School Admission 

Asides from writing the UTME, your medical school of choice will require uploading of your WAEC results for screening. 

Every university in Nigeria have their unique requirements for O’level results. And we’re going to talk about that, later in this guide. 

3. For Scholarship Purposes 

Imole Noble, an educational foundation in Nigeria has last year, announced their scholarship application. 

And guess what? One of the major criteria to get the scholarship was that students must have a minimum of 5A’s in their WAEC exams. The worth is 200k!

What about NlNG scholarship! They also use WAEC in scoring applicants to give them scholarship. 

It’s not only these but they’re also several other scholarships who uses WAEC exams as a major factor for awarding scholarships to students.

4. Applying for Jobs 

Your WASSCE exams isn’t a one-time examination like the UTME. It’s instead a certificate showing that you’ve acquired value and have met their academic goals and standards. 

Even when you apply for jobs, some of the requirement is that you present iul your SSCE results.

In all, writing WAEC is very crucial; no fuss about this. Now that I’ve briefe you about this, let’s move over to the goal of this post; the WAEC subjects for medicine and surgery. 

5 Compulsory WAEC Subjects For Medicine and Surgery 

Generally, there are 19 WAEC subjects for the SSCE. However, the requirement for everyone is to select a minimum of 8 subjects and maximum of 9. 

Furthermore, out of the pack, you’ll need to laser-focus your attention and strengths to these 5 WAEC subjects for medicine and surgery;

  • English language 
  • Mathematics 
  • Biology 
  • Chemistry 
  • Physics 

These subjects mentioned above are your 5 core subjects that you need most for your application to study medicine in Nigeria

Asides that, there are also other subjects you need to do, and there are rules behind the selection. Let’s look at them below. 

9 WAEC subjects for Medicine and Surgery 

Asides from the 5 WAEC subjects for those in medicine and surgery, you need to choose;

  • One of Literature-in-English, history and geography
  • Agricultural science or one vocational subject 
  • Civic education 

So that sums up that your 9 WAEC subjects for medicine and surgery may look like this; 

  • English 
  • Mathematics 
  • Biology 
  • Chemistry 
  • Physics 
  • Data processing 
  • Civic education 
  • Geography 
  • Further mathematics 

5 Killer tips for Passing WAEC Brilliantly In One Sitting 

Everyone writes the SSCE examination; student from art, commercial, and  sciences. However, since you’re applying for medicine and surgery, you need to;

  • Do things differently 
  • Set a higher target 
  • Go all the way in to ace the exams with flying colors.

So, here are our killer tips for passing the WAEC exams with flying colours;

1. Start Early on the WAEC Subjects For Medicine And Surgery

One of the distinguishing things about WAEC exams is that it’s different from your regular examination which just asks questions from one term. 

They instead access your knowledge on everything you’ve been taught, right from first term SS1 to your last term in SS3. 

So if you want to do amazingly well in this years WAEC exams, you need to start your preparations early enough! 

Truth is that; it all starts from your SS1. And if you’ve not been too serious till now, there’s still time! 

Simply ensure you understand what your teachers teach in class, and also try to learn them instead of cramming. 

Learning them will help the knowledge stick, and save you the hassles during revisions! 

2. Cover all topics from the syllabus 

If you’ve been familiar with solving WAEC past questions, you’ll know this; there are some topics and areas that aren’t taught in school. 

So what do you do? It’s for you to get the WAEC syllabus for the different subjects and feed on them yourself! 

It’s going to be a bit hard trying to learn new things; I know. But put in the effort and you’ll be glad you did.. 

Check through the metals and non-metals in chemistry. Have you learnt everything you need to know? What about evolution in biology? Have you learnt everything? 

Find out all the areas that you’re missing out due to your school’s schedule, and read them up!

3. Close Up Your Loopholes 

Be honest; There are some subjects and topics that just comes naturally to you. It may be biology or electrolysis or any topic. 

And you know the sweetest part? 

Reading these areas are super easy! And when questions are thrown at you, you can easily conquer them. 

But… WAEC doesn’t care about topics or subjects you like. Instead they follow a particular syllabus and asks questions on each area. 

So, here’s what you should do; find out the areas that you are weak at, and close up your loopholes. Ensure that there’s no topic that you haven’t read. 

How do you find your weak areas? That’s super easy! Simply start by solving past questions regularly, and after each year, note down the topics the questions you fail arrive from. Those are your weak areas! 

4. Solve Past Questions Regularly 

I had a mathematics genius in secondary school who I had always looked up to. Bring any question from mathematics and he was always ready to devour! 

It somehow seemed like magic to me because he was too good. He’d do past questions with his friends and score 57/60, failing only three and in most cases two! Who does that? 

However, when I asked about his secret to doing so well in mathematics, I discovered it was his regular solving of Past questions. 

So here’s the deal; solve WAEC past questions like your life depends on it. And no, I’m not referring to just solving for passing sake, but for you to understand more about your subjects and how the SSCE exams are. 

This way, your main exam will be a breeze, and you’re sure to ace them with A’s.

5. Practice Theory 

Have you checked your essay writing skills? Do you know how to attend to different WAEC essay questions perfectly? 

Sure, you might not know. But one way to be certain is to keep practicing! Take a notebook and try to answer essay questions on the topic. 

One easy hack is by solving essay questions on topics immediately after reading. Let’s say you’ve reading electrolysis in chemistry, now what you should do is to go to Chemistry WAEC subjects and search for theory questions On the topic, then try your hands on them. 

Bonus: Ultimate Advice For Writing WAEC As A medical aspirant 

To get into a particular medical school in Nigeria requires you to meet up with some requirements. 

Some of them include that you must have a minimum of credit passes in 5 core subjects in one sitting. 

And you know what that means? It entails that you must have a minimum of C6 in every of your 5 WAEC subjects for medicine and surgery. 

So if your result is like this;

  • English- B2
  • Mathematics- A1
  • Biology- A1
  • Chemistry- A1
  • Physics- D7

No matter how good the rest of the pack are, you will be inelegible to apply for medicine and surgery if you have less than C6 in any core subject. 

Although, not every medical school require you get the minimum of C6 in one sitting; some universities like Unillorin, accept two. 

Whichever one it is, here’s my advice for you:

Focus More On the 5 WAEC Subjects for Medicine and surgery

There are 8 or 9 subjects you need to read for to ace your waec with flying colors, yes, but you’ll need to give special attention to the core 5 because they are very crucial to your admission. 

In fact, you could get F9 in a trade subject and still get into Medicine in any university provided that you have a minimum of C6 in your core 5. 

But, while reading, study for the long term. Try to understand the topics in them as they’re an investment to getting a good results and also admission slot in WAEC and medical school respectively. 

Final Words On The WAEC Subjects for Medicine and surgery 

WAEC exams is one of the important things to do in the pre-admission process into medical school. And in registration, you’ll need to know what to write and what not to.

That’s why this guide is here! We’ve explained all you need to know about the WAEC subjects for medicine and surgery. 

We’ve also included a bonus guide that’ll help you navigate through your SSCE like a genius! 

Is there anything we’re missing out! Have you got any thing to contribute, let’s discuss using the comment section below! 

Don’t forget to share this awesome piece with your friends, and colleagues. 

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Anaso Emmanuel
Anaso Emmanuel

My name is Anaso Emmanuel and I’m the founder of MedicsDomain; an SEO Expert, Content Writer and an Enthusiastic learner. To the outside world, I’m an ordinary Medic but secretly I use this blog to help aspirants get into medical school, provide insightful guides and connect with others like me.