The UNIVERSITY maintained a 100-percent passing rate in the recent licensure exams for physicians, but no Thomasian entered the list of topnotchers.
Meanwhile, UST improved its performance in this year’s licensure exams for architects, but slid to second place in the recent physical therapy (PT) licensure examinations and failed to keep its spot as the second top-performing school in the occupational therapy (OT) board exams.
In the medicine boards, all 24 Thomasian examinees passed this year’s “off-season” test. Last year, UST also posted a 100-percent passing rate, with 26 Thomasians making the cut.
The national passing rate was 52.53 percent (520 passers out of 990 examinees)—slightly lower than last year’s 53.25 percent (655 out of 1,230).
In the architecture boards, the University recorded a 79.15-percent passing rate with 186 Thomasian passers out of 235 examinees. UST’s mark in the January exam was slightly higher than last year’s 74.66 percent (165 passers out of 221 Thomasian examinees) and 2010’s 77 percent.
The University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman recorded a 100-percent passing rate.
No school met the requirement set by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to be declared a top-performing school—at least 80-percent passing rate with a minimum of 50 examinees. UST was last declared the Philippines’ “best architecture school” in terms of passing rate in 2010.
Only one Thomasian entered the Top 10 list this year—Armel Andre Bonifacio (83.50 percent) who placed ninth.
For four years now, UST has been the top producer of architects in the January licensure exams.
This year’s national passing rate inched up to 50.83 percent (822 passers out of 1,617 examinees) from last year’s 50.67 percent (912 passers out of 1,800 examinees).
Drop in rankings
Meanwhile, the University posted an 84.62-percent passing rate in the off-season PT boards, with 11 passers out of 13 examinees. This was lower than last year’s 87.50 percent, which made UST the country’s top-performing school.
This year, UST trailed behind Mariano Marcos State University in Ilocos Norte, which had an 88.24-percent passing rate or 15 passers out of 17 examinees.
The national passing rate for the PT boards stood at 50.49 percent or 308 passers out of 610 examinees, slightly higher than last year’s 49.44 percent or 310 passers out of 627 examinees.
No school qualified to be the top performing school in the recent OT boards. The University registered a 47.37percent passing rate with only 18 passers out of 38 examinees.
This year’s national passing rate for OT slid to 37.50 percent (27 passers out of 72 examinees) from last year’s 40.54 (30 passers out of 74 examinees).
College of Rehabilitation Sciences secretary Karen Ontangco said “interplay of factors” affected this year’s poor performance in both the PT and OT board exams.
“One factor is the student’s motivation towards his chosen course,” Ontangco said. “History will tell you that not all that took the OT board exam really wanted to take it.”
Another factor is the number of “re-takers” in the board exams, most of whom were not able to take an intensive in-house review series.
Out of 13 examinees for the PT boards, eight were re-takers and, one of them failed. For OT, 17 re-took the exam, but nine failed.
Ontangco said the college administration is now seriously taking action on the matters. A faculty development program will be implemented, and the cut-off scores for incoming freshmen were raised. Reden D. Madrid
