Viva Or Trauma: King Edward Medical University Student Shares Her Story

“The first girl came out horrified. She was pressed on badly. The second went in, same story. Then the third, the fourth, the fifth. I, terrified of what was about to happen, had my tears rolling down.”

No, it’s not an excerpt from a psychological horror thriller. It is simply the trauma through which every medical student has to go through during their course of medicine degree.

A King Edward Medical University student has recently opened up about her viva voce exams in the institute. The student (whose name has been kept hidden for sake of her privacy) recalls her medical student days as a slow trauma which solidified over the years into something beyond healing.

“People being asked of things they had never heard of, students being told right in middle of their answers that they’re pathetic and open invitations to meet again in supply. It was all there,” she writes.

According to the King Edward alumnus, the professors taking viva exams take pleasure in torturing the students. They ask impossible questions just to manifest their superiority and enjoy their misery.

A viva to be held in morning does not begin before 5pm as the examiners take break after break in the name of refreshments, lunch, prayer or just to attend a phone call. When it finally begins, the examiner opens pdf of textbook on his laptop yet asks questions like “Qibla badal gya tumhara?” and “data darbar pr dhagay bandh kr ati ho na Tum”

No one in their right mind would ask such questions during a medical oral exam. But this remains the reality of Pakistan’s top medical college.

“I couldn’t bear it. I had studied so many nights. So many nights. No, not possible. This simple interaction of 2-3 mins made me give up the idea of trying my best. It all goes in vein, I learnt that day,” the student writes.

When the students of medical colleges are subjected to such irresponsible and condescending behavior of their seniors, how can we expect them to be any different in their professional life?

Doctors’ “butcher-like” nature is hard-wired in them when they are accustomed to seeing the ones at top preying on the weak to feed their unsatisfied ego. If we want doctors with a positive energy and healthy approach towards their patients, the system, through which they’re produced, needs to be molded into a more considerate one.

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