PLM Series: The "secrets" (ways) to get in to PLM Med that no one tells you about

This is the final part of my PLM College of Medicine series. If you haven't read the first 3 blogs about PLM College of Medicine, below are the quick links and I would suggest you to read these first.

1.PLM Series: Applying to PLM College of Medicine

2.PLM Series: Braving the MCAT

3.PLM Series: The College of Medicine Interview  

You're probably here reading my blog because the list of accepted of applicants is released and you didn't find your name on it. It's okay, in this blog post I'll give you tips on how you can still get a chance to get in to PLM Medicine. However, this is NOT a "sure in" or an "express pass" to get in but just ways you can do and try to make it. Who knows? There's no harm in trying.

As soon as the list of accepted applicants is released, don't waste any time and write your reconsideration letter to the college of medicine and send it to the dean's office right away. Yes, they do accept reconsideration letters and not everyone is aware of this - most people thought that once the list is out, it's over but it is not. I know a couple of people who got in to PLM through reconsideration, given that PLM took forever to release the list of students most of them (made it to the first list) are already enrolled to other medical schools. This comes to your advantage, it is truly applicable in PLM admissions: matira ang matibay maghintay.

Your letter should include why you should be reconsidered and emphasize your GWA and NMAT which could be an edge for you over other applicants who are also asking to be reconsidered. Also, mention why you always wanted to go to PLM med and why they should reconsider your application. Keep your letter short hence concise because the dean will surely receive lots of letter and he/she won't take much time reading a really long letter so keep it direct to the point and impacting.

Aside from a reconsideration letter addressed to the dean, make three (3) more letters addressed to the Executive Vice President of PLM, Mayor of Manila and Vice Mayor of Manila and hand it to their respective offices as soon as possible. Personally, I never thought the Manila's mayor and vice mayor offices accept these kind of letters but they do and they are aware of it so this is not something new. Submit the letters asap as there's a deadline/quota/cut off when they can accept applicants to recommend to PLM However, for the vice mayor's office, unfortunately, they only accept letters from Manila residents so if you're not a Manila voter, they won't entertain your request unlike in the mayor's office but again, there's no harm in trying. These offices will sort of endorse you to PLM and will give you a code which will help them identify your request once you make your follow up through call, three (3) working days later.

Just be patient and be diligent in calling for follow ups in the mayor's office and the dean's office of the PLM college of medicine for updates. It is not common that they will release a 2nd list or a 3rd list of accepted applicants unless there's a lot of vacant slots from the first list. They normally contact reconsidered applicants through text  messages and will ask you to come to the dean's office and voila! Welcome to PLM College of Medicine. Just make sure that you come to the time instructed to you and your requirements are complete so you won't have any delay.

Another way you can try is to seek help/ask for tips from students of the PLM CM especially those medical scholars/sororities and fraternities who are helpful during the entire admissions period. Trust me when I say that they will be more than willing to help you with your inquiries and support you emotionally so do not be shy to reach out to them thru social media or mobile numbers (if you have any) for tips and tricks that you can do to still get reconsidered.

Lastly, on your letter to the dean, if someone from PLM can piggy back your reconsideration letter by placing some endorsement/request/signatories in your letter, this might be considered by the dean and weigh better.

Again, this is NOT a sure way to be accepted to the college of medicine just taking your chance to get in to their medicine program. It is critical because you only have one shot to make it to PLM College of Medicine because they do not allow reapplication unlike in other medical schools.

If you have questions, feel free to comment or send me an email. Thank you and good luck pinoy doctors!

Medical School Interview Questions

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: Test Day Tips

NMAT is just around the corner and you are probably a little nervous and wondering what will happen on the exam day so I created this blog post for you to have an idea of what to expect as well as what to bring and not to bring on this big day.

I must say that the they are really strict when it comes to the items that you can bring inside the testing room. To avoid stress, bring only the allowed items.

Here are the MUST brings:

1. NMAT identification form, this will serve as your pass to enter the building/testing room.
2. Valid ID (School ID, driver's license, passport or any gov't issued ID), bring at least 2.
3. Printed exam permit, available for download 1 week before the exam day.
4. Photocopy of Transcript of Records (TOR), required only from college graduates.
5. Pencils! (Mongol No. 2 or HB) with/and erasers, bring at least 2 pencils with you. Do not forget your sharpener.
6. TRANSPARENT plastic envelope, this will serve as your "bag" in the testing site.

Personal tips in the exam day:

1. Report to the testing center early (before 7 AM), especially if you are unfamiliar with the testing site. Consider your travel time going in to the venue - though NMAT is scheduled on a Sunday.
2. Attend to all your personal needs like eating breakfast, washroom breaks etc. BEFORE 7 AM as you will have to fall in line to enter the testing site - lines can be long so, go to the venue earlier so you can relax before you take the test.
3. Do NOT bring your mobile phone if you are going to the testing site alone as CEM is extra strict with the items allowed inside. ALL items NOT allowed will be left outside the building, yes outside the testing building! and there will be NO baggage counter available on site, you do NOT want your valuables being left outside the building on its own.
4. Calculators or any other gadgets are NOT allowed.
5. Wrist/smart watches are NOT allowed (based on my experience - Oct. 2017).
6. Only the transparent plastic envelope with the 'must brings' mentioned above will be allowed in the testing building. YES, this is for all the test takers' strict compliance.
7. Wear comfortable and decent clothes. Wearing of slippers are NOT allowed.
8. Bring a jacket/cardigan with you as the room is air-conditioned. Being cold should be the least of your concerns while taking the test.
9. I recommend you to buy lunch BEFORE you enter the testing site and leave it to your dorm/someone you know who'll not take the exam as it is a hassle to buy food during lunch break because there will be A LOT of people in UST and for sure all of the food establishments are full. Buying lunch early will save you time and stress which can be allocated to eating and relaxing during the quick 1 hour lunch break.
10. Bring drinking water though most (if not all) buildings in UST have drinking fountains in them and remove its label.
11. There will be a scratch paper on one side of the test paper, NO other papers/scratch will be allowed.

There you have it for my test day tips for NMAT. Feel free to ask questions and I try to answer all of it. I would like to hear from you and good luck!

*This post is based on my experience of NMAT in Manila (UST).

Anatomy: My First Cadaver Encounter and Dissection

Anatomy is one of the foundations of medicine. It tackles the different parts that compose a human being; this tackles what you are made of.

In medical school, it is one of your major subjects in your freshman year which will then should come in handy as you go through deeper and deeper into studying medicine. Anatomy is not for the faint heart because you will encounter a corpse of a real human being called as cadavers. Cadavers are preserved human body commonly from the morgue of the hospitals. I believe these are unclaimed dead bodies which are either sold or donated to the medical school from their partner hospital.

As I enrolled to my anatomy class, I fully conditioned myself for the cadaver dissection. This way I will not be stunned and shocked by the things that I will about to see during the entire semester. I prepared myself that what I will see is an actual human body (dead) and I have to get through this if I want to become a doctor and a surgeon someday. Days before the actual class, I can't help but to feel really excited to see, touch and dissect a human body. It feels like you are one step closer to your goal. On our first day, we are just asked to bring the necessary materials required for this class like scrubs, face mask, surgical cap, hand gloves and of course our dissecting kit.

Comes the day of the dissection, the cadavers are in one big room side by side in their own dissection table inside a black body bag. The room is kind of cold of it's just me feeling that I am in a room full of dead human bodies. Each cadaver accommodates ten students (this really depends on your class size) for dissection.  

We begin to unzip their bags and I can't help but get more excited. At first, I avoid looking at the face because I think this is where I would be creep out but it can't be avoided so it's something I just learned to deal with over the next few minutes. Of course, the texture of the skin is already a bit dry and the smell really is hard to endure (at first) since it is full of formalin to preserve the body long enough for the whole semester to finish. Most of the cadavers are males since the breast part of the female cadavers are full of fats which will need to be removed to get a full view of the internal organs. In my experience, there's at least one female cadaver in the room reserved for studying the female reproductive organs. 

Before every dissection, we begin by saying a short prayer for the cadaver to say thank you for letting him/her be an instrument for us to study the wonders of the human body. It is also important to pay respect to the body and avoid playing with it and goofing around it while doing dissection. Since our topic that day focuses on the back bone, of course we have to flip the cadaver! The cadaver assigned to our group is a big man therefore he is heavy it is my first time to actually touch a cadaver and we have to lift him and flip it. All of the body juices and formalin started to leak and can't help but feel it in my hands even I'm wearing gloves. The smell became stronger and stinky to the eyes. Well it comes with the job. 

The dissection begins and it is somehow scary to do the cut because it is your first time to almost everything that's happening around you but we pushed through. It is quite enjoyable and I'm sure all of the med student aspirants out there would understand and agree to me about this. It is a wonderful experience really and I never thought that dissecting can be that tiring. You really need to make efforts to learn in anatomy and also be careful in everything that your scalpel cut into as it may be an important vein or nerve that is necessary later on. 

Afterwards, everything should be back in place and cadavers should be zipped again to their respective body bags 'til the next anatomy class.

On my next blog about anatomy, I will share my experience while taking practical exams which is a timed exam and a moving exam at the same time. It's fun but nerve-racking.

What's your first cadaver encounter and dissection like? Feel free to comment below.

How to Ace your Medical School Interview

It's that time of the year again, where aspiring medical students flock to different medical schools to apply for the next academic year. Most if not all medical schools conduct interview/s with their applicants as part of their screening process. The interview helps the admissions committee to see the applicants' emotional quotient (EQ) and how well the aspirants interact with people which is a key characteristic of being a doctor.

In this blog post, I will make a run down of what are do's and what you should avoid during the interview proper. I will also give out tips on how to prepare for an interview and how to ace your medical school interview.

In preparing for the interview, make sure that you look presentable - hair, clothing, overall appearance. I won't elaborate on this much as being presentable is self explanatory. Just remember that first impressions last and you would want to be remembered as someone who is presentable rather than someone who didn't make a good impression to the admissions committee. After all, they're the ones who will decide whether you get in to the medical school of your dreams or not.

Make sure to read about the school you are applying for, just the basics and at least have an idea about the institution you are getting yourself into. Knowledge is power and it is always impressive for the interviewers that you have at least something to say about the school. It will give them an impression that you are really interested in their program. Also, read about current events especially those which are related to the health sector as interviewers are doctors themselves and having knowledge about what's happening around you is a good plus point for you. I remember, during one of my medical school interviews I was asked about my thoughts on the Dengvaxia fiasco and the act of the President kissing an OFW. Since I am pretty much familiar with the issues, I just breezed out over these questions. 

Also, in preparing for the med school interview read about what are the usual questions being asked like "Why do you want to be a doctor?" "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" "How do you handle stress/pressure?". In my experience, these questions are so common and asked almost to every medical school interview I've been. Knowing the usual questions will give you a good head start and even prepare for the possible answers to these questions. What I did is write all the questions in a notebook and tried to answer all of them again and again. I even wrote my answers down so I can read them over and over. However, be careful not to sound rehearsed during the actual interview and make sure that you sound all natural while answering the questions thrown at you. This is important!

Days before your schedule, make sure that you are familiar with the location of your interview. You wouldn't want to be lost and stressed minutes before your actual interview, first impressions matter remember?

On the night before your interview, prepare the clothes you'll be wearing, the things you need to bring for the interview, set your alarm and go to bed early. This way, on your interview day you'll be more relaxed and will give your brain enough energy to think clearly and answer well all your questions which is really the key to ace the interview.

On the day of your interview, be confident in answering every question asked your way but do not be cocky or a know-it-all type of interviewee. Being articulate will also make your interview look good as you will sound quick witted and know what you are saying. My key secret to any interview I go to is to make it conversational, meaning I just treat the interview as I am just communicating with a friend or a colleague but in a little formal way. Keeping this in mind helps you relax and sound more natural. Also, take your time while answering the question and do not talk fast. Make sure the interviewer was able to understand what you are saying by talking moderately and loud enough.

Below are some of the handy and useful interview tips that I myself used during my interview session.

Interview day tips:

1. Wake up, eat your breakfast and prepare to go early.
2.  Double check your things to bring for the interview.
3. Arrive at least 15 minutes before your schedule.
4. Greet and initiate a hand shake with your interviewer/s.
5. Always smile and maintain eye contact.
6. Relax and answer honestly (answer from your heart).
7. Avoid checking your watch or the clock for the time as this is disrespectful.
8. Avoid fidgeting as it's a distracting action.
9. Grab the opportunity to ask questions to your interviewer when he/she asks if you have any questions or if you need clarifications about anything related to the medical school admissions.
10. At the end of the interview, don't forget to say 'thank you' and to shake the hands of your interviewer/s.

You only have a one time chance and a few minutes to show the admission committee who you are, what your potentials are and why you are worthy to wear that white coat in the future so make sure to make your interview count. Go ace your medical school interview! With these tips in mind, no doubt you'll ace your medical school interview.

There you go for my tips on how to ace your medical school interview. I will create a separate post for all the medical school interview questions that I encountered and heard of. Good luck future doctors and I hope this helps. Any questions, feel free to comment below or send me an email.

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

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.