Tag: study

Medical School Interview Questions

~ thepinoydoctor ~ 2 Comments
Since NMAT results are now out, the next step to your #RoadToMD journey is the medical school interview. Most of medical schools (except UST-FMS) include personal interview to screen their aspirants before accepting them in their medical school. Medical schools do this to see the personality of the applicants and to know if the applicant has the potential to survive medicine as well as to know how well the person carry themselves in pressured situations. 
You are probably looking for some ideas on what are the common questions you’ll encounter to your medicine interview to your medical school of your choice. Well you went to the right blog ‘coz I’ll spill all the questions that I know, encountered and heard about different medical school interviews. Trust me when I say that they can ask anything under the sun and can caught you off -guard. They  actually do this on purpose to know you more indirectly so beware of those kind of questions. 
This blog will be ***updated*** from time to time for additional medical school interview questions in order to help you guys more and future readers to prepare for the most important interview of your medical career, yet.
This will just be a run down of the questions I know, heard of and actually encountered. Feel free to share your experiences and questions in the comment section.
  1. Why do you want to become a doctor?
  2. Why do you want to study medicine in this school/university/institution? 
  3. Are you comfortable working with a team?
  4. How do you work in a group?
  5. How do you solve conflicts in your group?
  6. What if you don’t like one of your groupmates?
  7. What do you think are your traits for becoming a doctor?
  8. How do you see yourself in 5 years? ….in 10 years?
  9. What if this school/university/institution, did not accept you, what are your plans?
  10. Have you experienced working under pressure? State your experience.
  11. How do you handle pressure?
  12. Tell me about your college thesis? 
  13. What are the results and your thesis findings?
  14. What are the conflicts and problems did you encounter while working on your thesis? How did you resolve them?
  15. How do you cope with stress?
  16. Did you apply to other medical schools? Which ones?
  17. If you get accepted in this medical school and in other medical schools, where would you study and why?
  18. Tell me something about your family.
  19. Who will pay for your tuition?
  20. What are your parents jobs?
  21. Since your mother/father is a *mention parent’s job*, do you think they can continuously send you to medical school?
  22. Do you drink? Smoke? Have taken/tried illegal drugs? 
  23. What are your strengths?
  24. What are your weaknesses?
  25.  Why should we choose you among the applicants? 
  26. What are your advantages over other aspirants?
  27. Tell me something about yourself.
  28. What can you offer this school/university/institution?
  29. What if you parents/financier suddenly dies, who’ll pay for your tuition and other medical school fees? 
  30. What is your NMAT percentile rank?
  31. What is your GWA?
  32. What are your hobbies?
  33. What are your thoughts about Dengvaxia?
  34. Name some current programs of the DOH.
  35. What are your thoughts on the vaccination problem right now?
  36. Any thoughts about the measles outbreak?
  37. What do you think of the VAT-free medicines for hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol?
  38. What will make you quit medicine?
  39. Which branch of medicine are your most interested in and why?
  40. What is your study habits like?
  41. How many times do you need to read a material before you can actually master it?
  42. Do you consider doing research after earning your license?
  43. Name a health advocacy that you’re actually passionate about and tell me why you choose it.
  44. Why did you apply in this school/university/institution?
  45. Any thoughts about the current administration?
  46. Where do you plan to practice medicine?
  47. What are your motivations to become a doctor?
  48. Who are your role model/s on becoming a doctor?
  49. What are your best qualities as a doctor?
  50. Any plans of considering public health and/or community medicine as your area of focus? Why? 
  51. Tell me about your family
  52. What’s a typical day with your family like?
  53. Do you have relatives who are doctors?
  54. If you have relatives who are doctors, where are they practicing now?
  55. What’s the most difficult crisis your family ever faced?
  56. How did your family resolve and handle the said crisis?
  57.  Tell me about your alma mater.
  58. Do you have a regular study schedule that you follow?
  59. What’s your favorite subject in college? Why?
  60. What’s you GWA?
  61. How did you come up with the said GWA?
  62. Are you active in co-curricular activities? Like what?
  63. Are you part of an school organization?
  64. What is your role in the organization?
  65. Mention a time you had a difficultly in college.
  66. How did you overcome this difficulty?
  67. What are you hobbies/activities/interests outside school?
  68. Do you consider training/practicing abroad?
  69. Any thoughts about the relevant social issues now like RH Law, Divorce, Abortion and Sin tax?
  70. Who’s your role model and why did you choose him/her?
Feel free to practice on answering these questions but make sure that you’ll sound as natural as possible during the interview and not sound rehearsed. Another effective thing to practice this is writing the questions and your answers, this way you can re-read your answers from time to time which will help you have an automatic answer for every questions thrown at you.
Beware of the follow up questions as these are critical questions and breaking point that the interviewers really considers. These questions can caught you if you’re lying or not so make sure to be honest in every answer that you give and really stick to it.
I really hope this post will help you in acing your medical school interview/s and get in to the medical school of your choice. Good luck pinoy doctors!

NMAT Series: Torn between enrolling to a review center and self studying

~ thepinoydoctor ~ Leave a comment
Holidays are over and it is time to get back to crunch time to study for the coming NMAT. Many of you are thorn between enrolling yourself to a review center or just do a self study – trust me when I say I know the feeling because I’ve been there. I’ll give you some helpful factors to consider which option will work best for you. 
I did both – enrolled myself to a review center and buried myself with self study materials, reviewers, resources, books and anything that I found will help me prepare for NMAT. 
My thoughts about NMAT review centers depends on which review center will you enroll to. There are a lot of review centers available in the market in this day on but I believe not all review centers will help you achieve your goal %ile rank and sadly, some are just pure business. I know review centers can slash you a good amount of money so be careful to choose for a ‘worth the price’ sessions that you are looking for. If you have the resources to enroll yourself in review classes, go ahead but if not might as well hit your books as early as now to study for the NMAT. I am telling you, NMAT is no joke and it is not a piece of cake. 
Review centers are good if you need a little push to study and be productive because they have specific time and day of classes that you need to attend to (though not mandatory) and several sample tests even take home tests to work on will be given.  All of the review centers are in a classroom setting so if classroom setting works for you, a review center will definitely help you. Another good thing with some review centers is that they give tips on how to answer the questions and problems easier, faster and correctly which I will share with you guys on my blogs to follow for the NMAT series (so make sure to subscribe to my blog, you wouldn’t want to miss it – trust me). 
Be aware of review centers which will just give you incomplete/incompetent review materials, hold classes that will just answer the sample questions they provided and that’s it, review done and you can bid your hard earned money good bye. It is a sad reality for review centers. Trust me, it happens. Aside from enrolling myself to a review center, what my friends and I did are share notes, review materials and techniques that the review centers taught us which really came in handy during the actual test. So if you’re on a tight budget, it wouldn’t hurt to ask your friends (who enrolled in a review center) for the review materials, sample exams and most especially the techniques in answering the NMAT questions (which is what I found most useful tool in acing the NMAT) they acquired from the review centers. 
Doing self study will require a huge amount of efforts because you have to look for the right review materials, notes, and blogs that give out reviewers. Luckily, today there are lots of sources you can get the reviewers from, like some facebook page and groups such as the pinoy doctor, non-premed doctors/future doctors, Philippine NMAT: October 2018. These page/groups provide tips, review materials, sample questions that are really useful that you may think twice if you still want to pay for a review center that much money wherein you can just be motivated and use the available resources and save your money for other things when you’re already in medical school. These groups can also be your support group because all of its members are aspiring doctors and always willing to help you with anything like answering a problem that you’re not sure of and other NMAT and even medical schools related questions.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, I worked my hardest to self study and thank God, it worked for me. I spent all my vacant hours studying for NMAT everyday and have a strict schedule set just for studying – no phones, no other electronic devices that might distract me from studying. It takes discipline to do this. I even made my review materials posted in the walls of my room which I found very effective. You might want to consider doing this too – it may be a little ‘extra’ but whatever works, right?
I hope this blog post helped you decide which option is suitable for you and if you have questions, feel free to comment down or send me a message and I’ll be glad to help you with it. Thank you.

NMAT Series: What does your percentile rank means

~ thepinoydoctor ~ Leave a comment
National Medical Admission Test (NMAT) results are out and I hope you reached the score you  aimed for. You might be asking what’s the passing grade, the answer is none. There is no passing grade for NMAT, only acceptable NMAT score. Acceptable NMAT score varies on the medical school in the Philippines but the lowest score one needs to qualify is 40 percentile rank, for example, University of the Philippines – College of Medicine (UPCM) accepts applicants with 90 and above percentile rank. Before enrolling, make sure to check the requirements of the medical school of your choice and ensure that you have their preferred NMAT percentile. 
The NMAT is a combination of an IQ test (part 1) and of special area test (Part 2) which will I’ll discuss in another blog. I’ll also blog on how to ace the NMAT with useful tips that I used when I took it so make sure to follow my blog so you won’t miss it. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to miss it as I’ll spill all the beans and every piece of advise that will be really useful in taking this test.
NMAT score is not easy to understand, I know. In this blog, I’ll simplify the explanation for us to understand it better. Your NMAT score is in a form of percentile rank therefore all the test takers are arranged based on their rank in the exam. So if you get a score of 75, it does not mean that you got 75% of the exam correct, it means that you scored better than the 75% of the total takers.  To understand it better, think of it this way, the score you get means that your raw score is higher than that percentage of the takers. Example if you get a percentile rank of 95, it mean that you scored higher than 95% of the test takers and you are in the top 5% of the NMAT takers. Another example, let us say you get 40 NMAT percentile, it means 60% of the takers got higher scores than you while you bested the other 40% of the takers. The highest NMAT score one can get is a 99+ which will surely give you a huge advantage on the med school of your choice.
A lot of people are asking if how many times one is allowed to take the NMAT, the answer is unlimited. NMAT can be taken as many times as you like until you are satisfied with your score. It is not true that your scores will be averaged on your third try or more. That is a complete myth. I am not sure where this news came from but based on what I know, it is not averaged on your 3rd or so on try of the test. This created confusion and worry to the people and I want to clarify that it is not true.
I hope this blog helped you in understanding your NMAT score and feel free to comment below if you have questions and I will be happy to answer it to the best of my ability. Thank you.
Disclaimer: The author is not in any way related/connected to the CEM NMAT Committee This post is only based on personal experience and understanding of the author.

PLM Series: Applying to PLM College of Medicine

~ thepinoydoctor ~ 10 Comments

There is no doubt, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) College of Medicine is one of the medical schools which get a lot of applicants every year not only because of its quality education but of course for its lower tuition fees compared to other medical schools here in the Philippines. Admit it and we all know how expensive medical education can get. At PLM, students are ‘categorized’ or ‘bracketed’ based on criteria set by the medical school – read it here.  

For me, PLM CM has the most tedious process in all of medical school applications, they have a lot of requirements, an entrance exam and an interview which I will write about on the coming weeks (so make sure to follow my blog so you won’t miss out). A sad, unique rule in PLM med is that you are NOT allowed to re-apply if you didn’t get in the first time. So you might want to step up your game when you are planning to apply here and make every requirement a strong point so you’re chance of getting accepted increases. It is really competitive to get a slot here.
PLM Med is NOT limited to Manila residents however, based on my observation Manila residents get prioritized but as long as you comply to the requirements, I don’t see any reason why you don’t get the chance to get in.

Below is their criteria for admission from their website:
1. Must be a natural Filipino citizen
2. Must have complied with all academic preparations
3. General Weighted Average of 2.50 or its equivalent or better
4. Must have an NMAT of 45 or above
5. Must have no failure in any subject in the undergraduate course
6. Must have no record of having been dropped from any medical school
7. Must have no record of having been denied admission in the PLM-CM
8. Must have no record of conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude
9. Must pass the MCAT
10. Must have passed a panel of interview
11. Willing to sign a memorandum of agreement to serve in the community designated by the College
To tell you frankly, an NMAT of 45 does not guarantee you a slot. NMAT scores of your fellow applicants are way higher, 90 and above, trust me. From what I heard, 70 and below NMAT percentile is still not good to get you in and there are only rare cases where an applicant gets in with this NMAT percentile. However, NMAT is not the only basis for admission, all I’m saying is a high NMAT score can give you a good head start.
If you qualified on their basic criteria, the next thing you need to do is to get your transcript of record (TOR) evaluated by the dean’s office as soon as possible, feel free to go to their office and they’ll be more than happy to check your TOR. This is to check if you have the complete units for their medical school, see below:
Sciences: 35 units

Chemistry: 10 units
Inorganic Chemistry: 5 units
Organic Chemistry/Biochemistry: 5 units

Natural Sciences: 15 units (5 units should at least be Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy or Human Anatomy and Physiology
 

Physics: 5 units
Microbiology or Elem. Genetics: 5 units

Mathematics: 6 units
Algebra: 3 units
Elementary Statistics/Biostatistics: 3 units
   
Language and Communication: 9 units
Social Sciences: 9 units (Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, History, Anthropology)
Humanities: 3 units (Art Appreciation, Logic, Philosophy)

If you have the complete units, then you are good to go but if not, you need to complete the units first before you can apply. Yes, they are strict with this. It is best to get this step done as soon as you can so you’ll have ample time to take the supplemental subjects needed (I made a post where to take these – here). PLM allows ‘to-follow’ of the completion of units as long as you sign a waiver that they’ll be completed before the confirmation of slots (usually around June). I advise that you do this before the second semester starts so you can still enroll your supplemental subjects on the second semester and get it done before the PLM College of Medicine school starts.
To apply, see below steps from the school website:
1. Submit original and duplicate copies of the following for initial screening:
    » Birth Certificate (NSO copy)
    » Official Transcript of Record/Special Order No.
    » 2 Letters of certification of Good Moral Character
    » Certificate of General Weighted Average from the Registrar/College
    » Diploma/Certificate of Graduation
    » NMAT Result
   » Manila Voter’s ID/Voter’s Certification issued by the COMELEC (for applicants who are residents of Manila only)
    » Student’s residence certificate (cedula)
    » Baranggay Clearance in the place of residence
    » NBI Clearance
    » Any other document to prove Manila residency
    » Parent’s latest Income Tax Return (ITR) and/or Affidavit of Support and ITR of benefactor
    » Enrollment form for supplemental subjects required
    » Self-addressed stamped envelope
    » Long brown envelope and long file folder
2. If qualified to take MCAT, get certification from the college and pay MCAT fee at the Cashier’s Office.
3. Get application form and MCAT permit at the College of Medicine office.
4. Take the MCAT exam as scheduled and present yourself for interview. Interview schedule will be given after the MCAT exam.
Note: Application will not be processed unless documents are completed.
The MCAT fee (2017) is P3,500 pesos – the most expensive medical school application fee I heard of (so far) and also, bring two (2) 1×1 photo with white background to be pasted on your MCAT permit and application form.
As I’ve mentioned above, I’ll write a separate post for the MCAT and the interview process. I hope this helps and feel free to comment any questions you have and I’ll try my best to answer your queries. Thank you and good luck!

PLM website

Disclaimer: The author is not in any way related/connected to the admissions office of PLM CM. This post is only based on personal experience of the author.

Medicine is Ageless

~ thepinoydoctor ~ Leave a comment
They say “age is just a number” when it comes to love and relationships, well this infamous phrase is applicable even in the field of medicine. I know a lot of you are doubting yourself to proceed with becoming a doctor because of your age, you believe it is ‘too late’ for you to pursue your medical career.
Let me tell you this, the time will pass anyway (whatever you do, time will pass) so might as well be whoever you wanna be – a medical doctor. It’s better to be old and happy rather than be old with full of regrets. Imagine yourself, saving lives and feeling the high of being a doctor versus the feeling of being stuck in a job where you drag yourself everyday to go to, which feels so much better? I want you to think of those who are doubting themselves too because of their age and be an inspiration for them to keep going and get that MD.
As cliche as it may sound but it is never too late, there’s no timeline in life in general. Everyone runs at their own pace, in their own perfect time when it is about to happen, it will happen. Trust the timing of your life. You might feel that you’re being left behind by everyone else where in fact they are just following their own life timeline. You must remember that life is not a race so as being a doctor. This is not a race wherein the one who gets to the finish line first wins because in medicine, there is no such thing as a finish line. It is a lifelong commitment to be better and help those who are in need. It is an endless learning.
I honestly do not understand why some medical schools have a maximum age (35 y/o) set to pursue such an old profession. On the other hand, I commend those medical schools which allow any age to enter and pursue their dream of becoming a doctor. I heard stories of students who started studying medicine in their mid 20s, late 20s, mid 30s and 50s and I admire them so much for their motivation to becoming a doctor. I have so much respect for these people and I look up to them whenever I lose hope. I gained strength from these passionate individuals to continue and fight this battle. I hope this entry will help you too as much as it helped me. I pray that you do not give up on your dreams just because of your age.
Whatever your reason is for pursuing medicine with your current age is valid. I want to tell you that there’s no right or wrong age to become a doctor, because medicine is ageless.

Supplemental Subjects for Medical School

~ thepinoydoctor ~ 18 Comments
Do you want to be a doctor but afraid that you finished a non-Science degree? Here’s a good news for you, medical school is not limited to those who have a degree related to Science, becoming a doctor is already open to non-Science degree holders. However, some med schools (e.g., PLM, ASMPH and SLCM) require several units to qualify for admissions. 
If you want to take several Science units to apply for the med schools mentioned above, don’t fret because here’s a helpful guide on where you can take these supplementary subjects before you enter the war zone of medical school.
1. University of Santo Tomas (UST) – College of Science / College of Rehabilitation Sciences
If you want to take basic science subjects like Biology, Zoology, Physics, Chemistry (Inorganic, Organic, Biochem), Microbiology and Comparative Anatomy, you can apply to UST – College of Science or if you need to take those subjects which are for 1st year medicine proper like Pharmacology, Physiology and Anatomy, UST – CRS is for you. All you need to do is to apply as a non-degree student – no need to take the USTET. See below requirements to be submitted to the dean’s office of the said colleges.
  • Letter of intent addressed the dean including the subjects and units you need
  • Good moral certificate
  • Photocopy of Transcript of Records (TOR)
Once you submitted these documents, you’ll be asked to fill up an admission memo (yellow). The admission memo will be approved by the dean, the registrar and the secretary general. Processing this can take days or a week depending on the availability of the signatories, so better follow up from time to time for progress.
Studying at UST can be a bit pricey because of the tuition and you’ll be required to wear the college uniform even you’re a non degree student but guaranteed that the quality of lessons and facilities are good.
Note: UST College of Nursing and Faculty of Pharmacy do not accept non-degree students.
2. University of the Philippines – Manila (UPM)
One good thing about enrolling at UPM as a non degree student is getting a quality education for a cheaper price (yes, non degree students are not covered for the free tuition fee for state universities) compared to others, also you do not need to wear uniform so if you are on budget, you might want to consider this option. You do not need to take the UPCAT to enroll as a non degree student. Requirements are as follows:

  • TOR
  • Diploma
  • Chest X-Ray results
  • Letter of intent addressed to the secretary including the subjects and units you need
3. De La Salle University – Manila
You can apply at DLSU College of Science with regards to the supplemental units you need (Biology, Zoology, Physics, Chemistry, Microbiology), just drop by the College of Science to ask for the subjects offered for the coming sem and they’ll be happy to assist you and even make you a class schedule. Despite not requiring to wear a uniform, the tuition fee is a little steep yet at DLSU website, you can find a tuition calculator for you to have an idea on how much you need to pay for the subjects you are planning to enroll. Also, a medical exam will be required before you can enroll here.
4. Philippine College of Health Sciences (PCHS) – Recto, Manila (beside FEU)

If you’re a PLM med aspirant, you probably stumbled the name PCHS over some blogs or forums as a school where you can take your supplemental units. They have 2 types of learning option – classroom or module based. Module based learning is flexible and perfect for those who are working and planning to take units at the same time however, this is a little expensive compared to the classroom learning style. At PCHS, some classes are scheduled during Saturdays which is also in favor of the working medical student aspirants. They are also lenient with admissions as they allow to admit students even the if school already started yet, this is case to case basis and with the discretion of the profession teaching the subject. Just ask the professor nicely to allow you to join the class amidst the semester given that you’ll catch up with the lessons.

If you plan to enroll here, you just have to visit the admissions office and you’ll be endorsed to the dean’s office for a quick and basic interview. The dean will help you reach out to the professors and will confirm if the subjects you are needing to take are offered for the semester. Afterwards, you can go to the accounting window to get your fees assessed and just pay before the deadline. Non degree students do not need to wear uniforms.

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The problems you may encounter in applying as a non degree student are the limited slots offered since you’ll be mixed with the regular students of a particular course and the conflict of schedules of the subjects. So better know the schedules and the subjects offered prior the sem you plan to enroll.
I hope this helps and feel free to comment any questions you have and I’ll try to answer it as soon as I can. Good luck!