Relevant

A common opinion is prospective medical students should have a sound basic knowledge in biology and chemistry.

That argument, unfortunately, does hold water. In many countries (notably the States), secondary school teaching on neither chemistry nor biology is necessary for the admission to a medical school. For visitors from my institute, you may like to know our founding professor of ophthalmology got his MD from a renown medical school in America. His first degree was, notably, on music, and his knowledge on chemistry and biology was as good as Sherlock Holmes' on the solar system.

The logic is simple: As long as the candidate is smart and hardworking enough, he could always pick up missing background basic knowledge on any subject. And, if you consider chemistry or biology essential, there are so many other subjects that could prove relevant for the study of medicine: psychology, statistics, sociology, economics, computer science - just to name a few. Another remarkable example, also from our own university, is our previous professor of endocrinology. After A-level examination, his application for studying medicine was accepted because of his exceptional knowledge in Latin.

Alas, and that turned out to be enormously helpful - when he began to study anatomy.