Once hobbled by towering stacks of books, erratic sleeping patterns and constant anxiety attacks, they boldly trooped to the starting blocks of one of the most daunting run-ups to academic glory with one simple goal: pass the boards.
But determination and hard work, coupled with a “believe in yourself” attitude, gave them a feat well beyond their own expectations.
Aira Therese Javier, Frederich Tan, Emmanuel Plan V, Kristel Ayroso and Kriszel Gatdula now share one common billing — Thomasian topnotchers, all having placed first in their respective board exams.
How they got there is something fellow students can draw inspiration from.
College of Nursing’s Javier almost didn’t make it in this years board exams, primarily because of administrative difficulties at the National Statistics Office. She didn’t get her birth certificate, a key requirement for examinees, until the Professional Regulations Commission deadline.
Her intensive review also took its toll on her a few days before exam day. It didn’t take a medical specialist to know why. She often sacrificed meals if only to cover more lessons.
The day of the exam was not as cooperative as well. The room was hot, making life worse for the tense examinees.
“I was trembling and my mind was floating,” she says. “But I paused for a while, concentrated , and eventually calmed down.”
Making up for lost time
Before the Occupational Therapy boards, Ayroso went into what she called a brief “hibernation” in the United States. She wasn’t exactly trying to escape from her exams considering that she had bought her books for review.
“I brought so many books (to the US) but I wasn’t able to even finish the only one I opened,” she says.
But she was all business as soon as she returned home.
When not attending sessions in a review center, she would spend almost her entire day reviewing at a 24-hour burger joint near Welcome Rotonda.
On exam day, Ayroso felt she breezed through the Anatomy, Physiology and Application portions. But the Medical and Surgical parts proved a lot more difficult.
“It was like I had never encountered those questions before,” she recalls.
Still, she finished halfway into the allotted time and spent the rest of the way sleeping.
She fell asleep
Physical Therapy topnotcher Gatdula’s trek to the exam’s leader board was not as easy.
She came to the point of falling asleep in the middle of the exam and desperately pleading to the God to whisper as least a single correct answer.
Little did she know that her accidental catnap was God’s way to jolt her back into the race.
She woke up with a rush of energy and concentration. She may not have heard answers whispered to her ears, but she knew she had found them.
“It was like my prayers were answered,” she says.
Mock boards
Tan, Nutrition’s topnotcher, for his part, had more pressing reasons to review. He had failed the mock board exams, registering a miserable 60 over 200. So he went back to work, going back even to the most basic lessons he had learned in his freshman year.
“Sometimes, I would finish one book in a day,” he says.
Tan also adopted a more practical way of reviewing by applying what he learned to himself.
“If you don’t eat right, you won’t absorb what you’re reviewing,” Tan said. “My professors told me not to eat too much carbohydrate-rich foods because on the day of the exam, it will make you feel sleepy, so they told me to add protein to make it balanced.”
Motivating fulcrum
All throughout the boards, these topnotchers came across tidbits of motivation and lessons.
Plan, Architecture’s topnotcher, stressed that one can learn a lot from school than in a review center.
“Generally knowledge is better taken from school,” he says. “You can’t review all the lessons all those years in a few months.”
While in school, Plan also learned the value of professionalism.
“Even as early as college, I told my friends we should act like architects,” he says.
Calling to mind the competent professors who cheered her on, Javier recalled during the exam the resonant mantra: “Since you’re Thomasians, you can do it!”
Faith, for Ayroso, was the key.
A day before the board exam, Ayroso and a best friend went on a non-Holy Week Bisita Iglesia seeking divine intervention so all her UST examinees would pass.
“At nine in the evening, we would stop whatever we were doing and pray individually,” Gatdula said.
For Tan, it was not just an all-work and no-play affair. The College of Education varsity player made Saturdays a rest day, while reserving Sundays exclusively for basketball.
“When it was Saturday or Sunday, I didn’t study. I just relaxed and watched TV,” he said.
In the end, they all proved that anyone can aspire for great heights. Whether you’re an honor graduate like Gatdula, Ayroso and Javier or just an ordinary student like Tan and Plan, anyone can definitely make it to the top, given a good review plan and trust in the Almighty.
EDITOR’S NOTE: As of this writing, Alexander Manguba, Jr. has just emerged as UST’s latest topnotcher after leading all passers in the Medical Technology licensure exams last Sept. 11.
