Board Exam Aftermath

After months of intensive review with bouts of caffeine tolerance, I, along with approximately 70 thousand other nursing graduates, took the Nurse Licensure Examinations last June 30 and July 1,2012. I was assigned to take the test in J.Zamora Elementary School in Pandacan, just a few blocks past Nagtahan bridge.

It was quite a unfair for us who were assigned in a classroom where the ventilation is au naturale,.assisted only by a lone electric fan which hung on the opposite side from where I sat. I don't know if anxiety went into play but I think the humid atmosphere actually worked on my advantage since I have this tendency to spend almost 15 mins of the time allotted to take a quick nap. The wooden chairs, which seemed to have withstood the test of time and countless vandals, were all we had as our desks. Basically, it's like one of those classrooms that you see in most elementary schools.

As I entered the examination room, I can't help but notice the different uniforms of the people form various schools. More so, the age range of the examinees which was highly variable. Some of them looked young enough to pass as my batchmates while a few seemed to be in their 30's or 40's. Seeing them made me smile though, it made me realize how some people give importance to education even in their latter years.

The entire exam was generally okay. One thing about the nursing board exams is that it doesn't seem to measure what you know per se but more of how you should think as a nurse. There were a handful of challenging questions, particularly in the third part of the test which I think was the most difficult of the five parts. But I think the exam was pass-able.

My classmates and I meet up every break time. To an extent of weird humor, instead of reviewing for the next set, we rather amused ourselves with the bizzare questions that situations that appeared in the exams. I do not know why we still afford to be a merry bunch while everyone is either staring blankly or walking aimlessly along the hallways.Probably, UST had instilled in us the value of finding humor in the most difficult situations. Or maybe it was just reaction formation.

Me, Patrick and Kariza. Photo taken as soon as we went out of our examination room.  :)

It'll take a month before the results are out so I can't help but feel anxious about it every now and then. I'm very optimistic about the results though. Please pray for me and all the deserving people who took the test :)

Why It's More Fun in PRC

There’s no turning back. That’s what I realized after receiving my Notice for Admission (NOA) for the Nurse Licensure Exam on June 30 and July 1. The entire process of application went around 3 hours, which was faster than I expected (I was assuming that most government offices have slow processing time) This was also contrary to the rumor that when you arrive at 6am, you finish application at 6pm.

I arrived around 6:30am at the PRC and met with some schoolmates. I got some of the requirements photocopied from the shops in front of PRC where they charged 2 pesos per page! Over sa mahal! The line was really long, around half a thousand people infront and countless others behind us. The place was looming with vendors, who seemed to be too well concerned with the applicants. They advertise themselves as one stop shops who sell almost about anything you’ll need in your application. Ballpens. Paste. Long brown envelopes. Cedulas. Metered stamps. Pati katauhan mo pwede mo na rin yatang bilin dun.

Unfortunately and stupidly, my classmates and I became one of their customers. We got into buying their fake metered stamps and envelopes which cost around 35 and 20 pesos a piece. Later on, we got to know that the official ones have signatures in blue ink in them. They were sold inside the PRC building for just 22 pesos! Tengene.

I can’t believe that some people can live with such conscience, earning their keep from fooling people. But what’s more unbelievable is the fact that the PRC doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it. There were no signages outside their building that went like “Wag bumili sa mga tao sa labas” or “Bumili lamang ng metered stamps sa loob ng PRC”. We reported the incident to the one who sold the official metered stamps inside the building, he said “Ganyan talaga, maraming manloloko diyan sa labas”. This means that the administration of PRC is very aware of this trade yet they choose to be apathetic about it. Nagbubulagbulagan ba. Even the guards, who are supposed to be in charge of the security of the office and its applicants, don’t even warn the applicants about the practice of these illegal vendors.  Does their job description limit only to fixing the applicants’ lines and checking our bags as we enter their premises? If fixers are being taxed with monetary penalty and jail time of God-knows-how-long, why can’t these illegal vendors be charged with the same weight?

Like an old Filipino saying goes, “Walang manloloko kung walang magpapaloko”, so I guess we were also to blame for that incident. Pero wala rin naman maloloko at manloloko kung walang pumapayag na may manloko, tama diba?