Tips and Tricks that Might help You to Pass the Exam

Passing the Board Exam was never been easy so here’s so tips that might help you to pass the exam.

CHOOSE THE BEST REVIEW CENTER

For me choosing the best review center will certainly give to an instant edge. Pick the one that has a lot of passing students. Because that is an indicator that they know what they are doing. I have to admit also that I learned as much during my review as I did in college especially in the application side. In my case I picked the one that finish early, so that I still have time to self review and digest what is taught in the review center. In contrast to other review center, that their review will last a week before the exam, so the don’t have sufficient time to learn more beside what they learned from the review center.

WHILE YOU ARE PREPARING FOR THE EXAM YOU SHOULD HAVE THE FOLLOWING: 

1. SCHEDULE – I’m suggesting to you to have a calendar in your room and then make an outline of your exam as a basis of your schedule. This will also help you not to cram during the review. Just make sure you have the discipline to follow your schedule. 

2. REVIEW MATERIALS- Gather all the material that you will be needing during the review, you can borrow from your classmates and friends or buy some books and review, but usually the review center also provide some reviewer, but in my case that is not that is not enough since they are only distributing some handout or guidelines. 

3. ASK SOMEONES HELP – Ask some people who already took the board and ask some advice from them, surely they will give you very helpful tips and advice that you can use during the review or even in the actual examination. Also ask them about the recent examinations like what certain problems in a particular that appears in the examination, and the technique that they used when they took the exam. Ask any thing by the way it’s good because you are learning and at the same time it’s for free. 

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.The important thing is not to stop questioning.” 

-Albert Einstein 

4. A STUDY AREA – This one depends on the person, are you a kind of listening to music while studying or do you want a quiet place while studying like me. In my case I like studying at night because I am sensitive in noise, I am very much easily destructed and irritated by the noise so what I did is make the day evening and evening a day for me to be able to study, because that is the time that all the distraction are gone. 

5. BE OPTIMISTIC- Optimism is a springboard that enables you to bounce back to your most desired success in passing the board exam. It is a mindset as one Philosopher’s said “I think, therefore I am”. Indeed, when you feel positive that you can pass the licensure, you really can. Research claims that the more the person envisions success, the more it becomes achievable. 

“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character” says Albert Einstein. 

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. All things being equal, the person with a positive attitude WILL get the promotions and the person with a negative one will not. Work on your likeability factor daily. 

6. RELAX – Our brain is not a computer processor which can process 24/7. If you feel so much stress as if no matter how hard you review, nothing comes in, it’s the best time to stop and relax. Try to spend time with your family, friends and special someone. Though you are not learning relative lessons from them, you got motivation. This will help you once again to pursue what you have started. 

“One thing I have observed is that noisy people are not productive. They toot their own horns their voices are loud but they do not perform well.

The quiet ones are the dangerous ones. They may be silently accomplishing much and because they are productive, they do not have time to indulge in useless revelries.

Be excellent in what you do and here is one important advice I want to share with you: Make a noise quietly. 

Pile up Stock Knowledge – My professor told me that many honor students even from reputable and highly respectable school also flunked the examination (that will somehow boost my confidence as you know I am one of the average students) and they are many, in other words, the outcome of the examination doesn’t rely on intelligence alone, and I agree on him. May be because they are over confidence and/or even lack of preparation. The licensure examination is not a quiz bee thing where the most intelligent individuals are most likely to prevail. This is a marathon contest and the one blessed with immense PATIENCE and GOOD STUDY HABITS are favored. I reviewed almost a day learning the elements of the examinations and concentrating on problem solving, I focus in solving 50 math problems a day math is the foundation so you need to stick into it! After the 50 problems then I proceed to another subject, there are times that I am so lazy that I only solve 20 or even 10 and there are times that I feel so inspired that I can solve 60 or even 70.. But it doesn’t matter! All it matters is you do it EVERYDAY!! Yes, stock knowledge is the key in passing any given licensure examination, and it takes a lot of perseverance, patience and hard work to do it. Keep on moving by reading as many as you can and if necessary solve a lot practice a lot of solving problems until your brain is dead! 

ONE THING THAT I LEARNED IN LIFE IS..LIFE IS SUPPOSEDLY HARD, BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT GOD INTENDED TO DO TO STRENGTEN US, HE WANTS US TO STRIVE HARD AND PRAY HARDER. I REMEMBER WHAT C. S. Lewis says: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

The question is, are you listening? 

Do not rely on luck – Extreme luck comes in a blue moon when trying to pass the examination, but I believe that you create your own luck. Why? Simple, the more you review the more you are exposed to a lot of knowledge and when the time calls for you to make a guess, you are actually making an educated guess. Make an “Educated” Guess for multiple choice questions that you don’t know the answer for, try to make an educated guess by eliminating the possible answers that don’t fit the question. For example if you meet a question that has A,B,C,D for choices but you know that it isn’t answerable by choice A and C then you only have to take a guess between B and D. Which gives you a 50% chance of getting the right answer. Way better than a 25% chance right? (more chances of winning ika nga ).So when you are better prepared and indeed battle ready, your answer in every questions have strong chance of extracting the coveted right answers. 

Have Faith – I believe that prayer helps greatly in helping you pass an exam (along with hard work). It is very okay to ask for divine providence all the time, but God only help those who help themselves. While you pray do all your job, review hard as you could and for sure God’s blessings will be with you when you take the examination. Let me tell you a story, I have classmate in review center (I will hide his name a.k.a. john rey) he is a very lazy student and always absent, and he is always saying that he will just pray to God for the exam and he’s not study our lessons or even look at it anymore, to make a long story short he pass the exam not only passing the mock exam but one of the highest, I really don’t know what happened and even have an idea, may be he sneak a pick to my classmates paper or something else but the moral lesson of this story is he never run out of Faith, he always believing that something good will happen and if you “believed” that is the time miracle happened! Amazing isn’t it? Therefore PRAYER IS VERY POWERFUL so you better pray! There are great prayers available which ask for intercession from saints for helping you pass exams. One such saint is St. Joseph of Cupertino, the patron saint of exam takers. And St. Jude, the patron of the hopeless where my classmate mark went every Thursday beside Malacanang Palace (kahit na bumabagyo). You may also go to Baclaran church every Wednesday, may be you can see me and my friend arjay, praying the novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. 

Motivate Yourself – Always say to yourself that you need to pass the examination with all your might and capabilities, you’re future is at stake here. And always remind yourself to the people who inspire and motivate you the most to study hard, like your family, special someone, and God. 

Do Not Pressure Yourself With the Expectations of Other People - You are determined to pass the examination, and what will people speak of your performance is irrelevant and non sense they are not the ones that feed you or shouldered your collegiate fees and expenses and gives allowance. You cannot please anybody. This is your fight not theirs and be sure you are giving your best shot work hard. 

Before the Examination - Most examinees usually relax themselves three days before the examination or even 2 weeks as my classmate said. One day before the Examination be sure that you have the necessary materials with you that you will need in the examination. 

During the Examination- relax, and take a deep breath often. Answer the easy ones first, but be sure that you have answered every questions 30 minutes before the given time. Don’t get carried away with those examinees that pass their papers at an earlier time. Use your time well, these people are not genius, but rather lacks preparation with the examination and as a result they made guesswork with the test. 

“GENIUS IS 99% PERSPIRATION AND 1% INSPIRATION” 

Books will be your constant companion during your review, love them and you’ll learn a lot from them. Be persevering and you’ll reap inevitable rewards soon” 

“A person who does not invest will never amount to anything.

Before you profit, you should first invest.

There is no short cut to success.

Short term gains equals long-term pains.

Start investing in yourself today.” 

DON’T BE AN AMNESIA BOY/GIRL DURING THE EXAM 

Let me tell you a story. My classmate, kuya robin and I was thinking what if we have amnesia during the board exam, and all of our hard works in memorizing all the formula and the lessons that we studied day and night were all gone. Seriouslythere are people who go on mental blank and amnesia state in such a situation of duress. Let us try to avoid that, future board exam taker, passer and (if you follow my advice and devise your own effective ways) topnotcher!

You will not earn it without hard work of some sort, if not during the review sessions, at least in the last 5 years of our college life you were trying so hard to make the grade and master everything. Or even in the last 2 months after the review (sa PATTS) or 2 weeks of the preparation, where you were not able to talk to anybody else because you are cramming everything in. 

But we avoid cramming because it’s not dignified and it’s not kind to one’s body. It’s the worst harassment you can possibly inflict on yourself: to cram your ass out, especially during the board exam. Some people find it effective, and I respect that. But my recommendation for long preparation is a tried and tested thing, believe me brothers and sisters. 

Give it your all. Do it right the first time .Do it now! Baka mag-double or triple take ka pa nyan, sayang naman yung time mo. The chances of passing the exam diminish each time you fail it because it lowers your morale more and more. But never lose hope! Meron akong kilala, 7 times syang nag take ng exam bago pumasa, tiwala lang talaga! 

“There are things we should be serious about and there are things we can take lightly. It is the wise person who understands the difference and does what it right all the time.One wise person says: “I always knew that looking back on my tears would someday make me laugh, but I never knew that looking back on my laughter would someday make me cry.” 

Even with early planning, you still run the risk of being so nervous during the exam (remember there is no single person that never been nervous during the exam). Physical conditioning will have to come in last in our series of tips here. What I will discuss now is more important, if you are at the 6 months before or more stage of your preparation. 

Let’s cut to the chase, how do we not have amnesia on an exam? Engr. Renigen has put the best tip succinctly and clearly: 

Kulitin mo yung sarili mo dun sa formula!

Mag practice ka ng mag practice! 

Matuto kang mag derive ng formula para konti lang mememoryahin mo! 

(if you have a Math-intensive exam like ours). 

And if I may add: … kulitin hanggang halos isuka mo na yung concepts at formula.At wag kang makakalimot mag dasal sa Diyos! 

In a nutshell and in more dignified-sounding words: Formula, terms, concepts, strategies, techniques and other important things in the board exam field of study MUST, SHOULD, WILL be familiarized. 

I shall use my 2 review buddies as an example on how to apply what sir. Renigen taught us: 

We have a review session together with my 2 classmates, (I will hide their names as binz and dovs because they are very private person) in dovs house for 3 days, so we studied together, we studied same review materials, we share what we knew, asking some question to each other. But did you know the difference between the three of us? dovs had 5-6 hrs of sleep, and I had 8-9hrs, and binz had 10-12 hrs of sleep. He studied A LOT! We have a study session and I ended up sleeping halfway through a math problems and binz is already sleeping even though he never gets started. But dovs will continue. And we did not just solve during our review classes in PATTS or rely only for what the review center can offer or give to us, we have what we called a little extras of making kulit of our self with everything that needs to be mastered for the board exam. 

Math was one subject and only 10% in board exam. I answered 1001 Engineering Math Problems books besides from what they gave us in the review center because it is already in the complete package though I know that this is not enough so I search some extra reviewer, I even enrolled to a calculus class online in Stanford university (but unfortunately I received an e-mail that saying that our class will be move on January instead of August). It all sounds so simple right? But will actually reach that point where I want to throw the books and forget about taking the exam! BUT CONTINUE! Kulit yourself to the point of brain death! 

I firmly believe that this is what sets the dividing line between the passers and the topnotchers. The passers follow their feelings and only solve when they feel like it. They only aim to pass the exam, so the extra effort matters so little to them. 

The top notchers are driven to top. They take a break and then get back to it as soon as possible. 

“Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength….” 

Feelings did not matter for me, then. I had a calendar that says solve 50 problems in Math everyday. And spend the rest of the day dividing the other subjects. In engineering, Math is the foundation. So we stick to the foundation. 

Index cards with terms and formulas are really useful for me especially when I am in the vehicle. Manila paper posted on walls containing the important terms, laws, etc. This is my Principle in Studying for the exam:

Read everything at least three to five times. 

The first time, to comprehend. 

The second time, to improve recall. 

The third time, to help you summarize. 

The fourth time, to help you memorize. 

The fifth time, to make it so much a part of you already that even without the book, you know it BY HEART. 

“if you hear you forget, if you see you remember, but if you do you understand” -PAPARO 

Try to solve as many problems as you can, practice is the key! There was a point in time that some problems were just naturally embedded that during the mock exam, I did not even have to solve those types of questions. I just had to look at the choices or input it directly to the calculator and I found the logical answer. That’s a golden time saver when you are having an exam under time pressure. (specially now na 100 items na yung questions sa board exam). 

What did I do when I felt tempted to throw away the calendar of my review schedule? I have, on the other side of the bedroom wall a sign. It was a letter to myself which I prepared so that I will read it when I am feeling down and discouraged and unable to solve or stick to my calendar: 

“Victory belongs only to those strive hard and pray hardest” (Promise me to be a winner) 

It was the REMINDER of the things I envision myself to have even before I started the review. It was my peg that defined the mindset I cultivated the entire time. And many times during my review, I will felt so swamped, so lost and so confused kung ano ang uunahin ko. But never give up. 

I also wrote a bunch of notes on my bedroom wall to console and restrain myself from not having Internet during the review, It’s like putting my self in exile, or worst from not being able to talk to my friends on facebook (I feel like dying), and from not even being able to watch all the movies I wanted to watch, or television shows that I really like. From that bedroom wall of ambition and the backdrop of steady hard labor, it materialized. I had spiritual and moral support too from people who really special to me, but let’s save that for another time.

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