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WAEC Subject Combination for Medicine & Surgery 2026
The exact O'Level credits every medical school in Nigeria expects before they will look at your application.
🔬 The 5 Required WAEC Subjects
All five must be at grade C6 or better. Unlike some allied health courses, Medicine does not accept a substitute for Physics — it is compulsory at almost every federal medical school in Nigeria.
Dentistry & Dental Surgery (BDS)
Identical WAEC combination to Medicine. Many students without Medicine admission use the same credits to apply for Dentistry instead.
🏫 What Specific Universities Require
The general "two sittings" rule does not apply to Medicine everywhere. UI and UNILAG, among the most competitive medical schools in Nigeria, strictly require all five credits — English, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics — from a single sitting. Several other federal universities offering Medicine are known to enforce the same one-sitting rule. Combining WAEC and NECO results across two sittings, which is normal for most courses, can get an otherwise strong application rejected outright at these schools, so check your target university's specific policy before you rely on a second sitting.
If you don't get Medicine: Anatomy and Physiology, standalone degrees at several universities, use the same or a very similar WAEC combination and are common alternative pathways when direct Medicine admission is not secured.
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Sittings rule: Medical schools accept your five credits from a maximum of two sittings. A weak grade in any one of Biology, Chemistry or Physics is usually enough to disqualify an application, so treat all three as equally important.
🤔 Common Student Questions
Yes. Medical schools accept a mix of WAEC and NECO credits from up to two sittings, provided every required subject is covered at C6 or better across the combined results.
No. At the vast majority of federal universities offering Medicine, Physics is required on its own and cannot be substituted with Mathematics, even though Mathematics is separately compulsory as one of the five core subjects.
A D7 is a pass, not a credit, so it will not satisfy the requirement. You will need to resit Chemistry and score at least C6 before a medical school will consider your application, regardless of how strong your other subjects are.
The core five — English, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics — are near-universal for MBBS in Nigeria. Small differences can appear in how schools treat Further Mathematics or additional science subjects as advantages, so always check your target school's specific admission page.
Yes, largely. Anatomy and Physiology, both standalone degrees at several universities, use the same or a very similar WAEC combination and are common alternative pathways when direct Medicine admission is not secured.
No. Both schools strictly require all five credits from a single sitting for Medicine, unlike most other courses where two sittings are accepted. If your Chemistry or Physics credit came from a resit in a different sitting, confirm this specific rule with your target school before applying, since it can disqualify an otherwise strong application.
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