A THOMASIAN topped this year’s Pharmacist Licensure Examinations with a 92.27 percent score, leading five other Thomasians in the Top 20.
Cum laude graduate Andrea Chua never expected to land first in the board and only wished to be in the top 10.
“(It was) unexpected. Masaya ako because I was able to bring glory to the University,” she said.
Pharmacy Assistant Dean Priscilla Torres said Chua and the other honor graduates were really expected to land in the top 20.
“Tahimik lang ‘yan (Chua), but I knew from the very start that she will make it in the top 10,” Torres said. She added that Chua performed very well during her review at the University.
The other Thomasians in the top 20 were Freyja Diana Almeron, a freshman at the UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, seventh (90.70 percent); Ariel Ocampo, Jr., tenth (90.55 percent); Cheryl Ong, another cum laude graduate, 13th (90 percent); Wenzel Asprec, 17th (89.67 percent); and Jhonas Aguinaldo, a summa cum laude graduate and a freshman at the UP-Manila College of Medicine, 18th (89.60 percent).
The last Thomasian to place first in the Pharmacy board was Linda Laudio in 1993.
Out of 184 examinees, 179 passed to make UST second over-all with 97.28 percent. University of the Philippines–Manila and Saint Louis University were tied at first with 100 percent passing rate. University of San Carlos (90 percent) and University of San Agustin (89 percent) were third and fourth, respectively.
Out of 1,574 examinees from all over the country, 996 passed.
Torres said the Philippine Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (Pacop) came up with an official reviewer to be used during the Pharmacy Board Review. Each Pacop-member school contributed 300 questions for each subject in the board exam. Torres hopes that through the use of the new reviewer, UST will improve its passing rate to 100 percent.
Meanwhile, the University also placed second in the Architecture licensure exams last June.
Although no Thomasian landed in the top 10, the University improved from third place to second, with 72 out of 137 examinees passing the board exams, translating to a 52.55 percent passing rate.
“Having someone in the top 10 just adds ‘glitter’ to the performance of the school. It does not necessarily follow that if you top the board exam, you’re the best architect in town,” College of Architecture Asst. Dean Tobias Bonaobra said.
Only UP Diliman fared better than UST with its 78. 26 percent passing rate. The national passing rate was 36.87 percent, with 400 out of 1,085 passing the test.
“We have the biggest number of examinees at 137. UP had only 23 examinees and 18 made it. Compared to us, we have 72 new architects. But, of course, we would like to improve the passing rate,” Bonaobra said.
Bonaobra said the college will bring back the review classes to improve the University’s performance in the licensure exams. It was in 1996 when the college last had review classes.
In addition, Bonaobra said the college has started to pattern their exams after the semi-annual exams, where the test type is multiple choice. The College will also give departmentalized exams.
Furthermore, Bonaobra said two faculty members are doing a study to evaluate the College’s performance in the board exams to determine the weaknesses of its board examinees. Girard Carbonell, Teodoro Lorenzo A. Fernandez and Karen M. Peña
