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Saturday, August 19, 2006
3 Cebu students in Top 10 of board exams for doctors
By Jujemay G. Awit
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
No amount of superstition will make a medical board topnotcher, but hard work will.
Three doctors who are graduates of Cebu colleges made it to the top 10 of the medical board exams, whose results were released via the Internet last Thursday.
Erwin Novilla and Juan Maximo Lasco of the Cebu Institute of Medicine (CIM) placed third and seventh, respectively, while Beodaldy Bombeo of Cebu Doctors’ College (CDC) ranked fourth.
None of them followed any rituals or superstitions in taking the exams last Aug. 6 and 13. But the three said they reviewed daily and prayed.
It was Novilla’s girlfriend who broke the news to the 27-year-old after receiving a text message from a friend Thursday afternoon. But he could not believe it and waited for the results that were posted online past 7 p.m.
He had religiously attended the free review at the CIM to prepare for the exam. During the examination, Novilla said he had with him the pencil and eraser that his girlfriend gave him. These had been “blessed” during the mass sponsored by CIM a week before the exams.
Bombeo too did not believe initial text messages that he was in the top 10. “Binuang!” was his initial reaction. But after being bombarded with phone calls and text messages, he finally went online for the results.
He could not believe how well he did, saying it was a difficult exam.
Bombeo told Sun.Star Cebu he reserved 10-12 hours a day just to study. He sacrificed nights out, saying he could not enjoy them while thinking of what was ahead.
The “ecstatic” Lasco gathered for a cookout with his friends Thursday night, anticipating the release of the results.
But he was not ready to see his name in the top 10. His immediate reaction: “Jumping repeatedly and shouting like hell.”
Classmates Lasco and Novilla both said all they wanted was to pass the board.
“What was more important to me was that there would be a representative from CIM in the top 10,” Novilla revealed to Sun.Star Cebu.
He explained that a number of people were apprehensive about CIM’s performance, considering the new curriculum that the school introduced.
Novilla and Lasco are pioneers of CIM’s new problem-based learning (PBL) approach.
CIM Dean Josefina Poblete explained that PBL, a method widely used by graduate students abroad, involved giving the students reports that they had to research on.
It was introduced in several medical schools but some backed down, saying it was not working for Filipino students. CIM, however, proved PBL’s critics wrong.
Poblete also revealed that they had an 88 percent passing rate this year.
Novilla, in an interview with ABS-CBN, revealed that his struggle was mostly on the financial burdens of his education.
Lasco, for his part, is a son of Mayor Paulo Lasco of Tubigon, Bohol. An aspiring doctor since childhood, he wants to specialize in cardiology.
Both Novilla and Bombeo want to be surgeons.
But before embarking on their future careers, Lasco said his immediate plan for the future is to “party, party, party.”
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 19, 2006 issue)
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