Author: eurekaaa

Taking the NMAT

Posted on by eurekaaa

By now you should already know that all Philippine med schools require their students to take the NMAT. But just as a DISCLAIMER: This isn’t a guide on how to get a high score because quite frankly, I don’t remember much about my study strategy. This is a more of a recollection of my own personal experience.

I read so much about people going to review centers and studying for months. Personally, I didn’t enroll in any and just used the reviewer books that you buy at National Bookstore. I went through each of the small booklets once and did the practice test, but that’s about it. On the other hand, I know of some people who literally studied the night before and did well. But you know, that’s their thing – you have to know what’s your thing. Pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses and work from there.

Since this is an international med student targeted blog, let me just compare the NMAT to the MCAT really briefly.

The NMAT is completely different in that the first part of the exam actually deals with your “mental abilities,” so to say. This part encompassed basic reading comprehension & mathematics, as well as weird things like predicting the next pattern and finding hidden images (totally weird, huh). It was pretty fun, but also quite mind-boggling. The second part dealt with the actual science subjects: Biology, Physics, Social Sciences, and Chemistry. If you did well in undergrad, this part is going to be a breeze.

The MCAT on the other hand is something people literally HAVE TO set aside 3 months of their life just to study. I don’t know very much about the MCAT since I didn’t take it, but I know for sure that it’s 5x more difficult (if not more) than the NMAT, just based on the amount of time people put into it.

Another thing worth noting is that the NMAT is scored on a percentile basis whereas the MCAT uses raw scores, which are converted to a scaled score. Basically, the NMAT is not just about how well you did, but about how well you did in comparison to everyone else that took the test that test day.

It’s worth taking a look at the top three schools you want to apply to before anything, because the NMAT cut off scores vary. From what I can recall, schools such as Ateneo and St. Luke’s require a +90th percentile. But for other schools, such as mine (OLFU), they didn’t really have a strict cut off. In fact, some people didn’t even take their NMAT until midway through our first year.

My original plan was to apply to UST, St. Luke’s, and DLSU, but ultimately decided that OLFU was the best choice. As an incoming second year, I can say with confidence that Fatima was the best choice coming from an international student standpoint – I’ll elaborate more later. Cheers!

Motivation

Choosing the Philippines

Image | Posted on by eurekaaa

A lot of people have asked me: “Why Philippines?”

I’m sure many of my family & friends wonder why I choose to spend the next four years in a developing country instead of the United States. And sometimes, I still ponder about why I made that decision as well – especially when I’m riding the jeepney (main form of transportation in the Philippines) instead of conveniently driving my own car to buy groceries. But as we all know, dreams come with sacrifices.

I’m also sure many of my colleagues wonder if I chose the Philippines because I couldn’t get into a U.S. medical school. Firstly, I didn’t apply to any U.S. med school, let alone take the MCAT. I chose the Philippines because I wanted to, not because I had to. Secondly, so what if someone is choosing Philippines because they couldn’t get into the U.S.? That doesn’t make them any less hard working.

When people ask me “Why Philippines?” I think my best response would have to be “Why not?” Here are my top 3 reasons for choosing the Philippines (in no particular order):

  1. FINANCIAL REASONS
    I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be in debt for the rest of my life. The average cost of U.S. med school tuition per year is supposedly about $60,000 for non-residents. The average cost of Philippines med school tuition is about 300,000 php ($6,000) + an international foreign fee, which varies per school. Nonetheless, it’s significantly less than how much you’d have to shell out in the states.
  2. THE PHILIPPINES IS WHERE MY HEART IS
    Although I was not raised in the Philippines, I visited quite often while I was growing up. It was a little more difficult for me to be immersed in the culture because I couldn’t speak Tagalog, however, I enjoyed each visit regardless of the language barrier. You see, that’s my main point – regardless of the language barrier, I still felt the love & hospitality that the Philippines had to offer. Moreover, as I grew older I began to realize that there was so much more to the islands than what I was exposed to as a child. There’s so much more history to be learnt, customs to be experienced, adventures to be undertaken. So I thought to myself, why not make medical school an adventure? After all, #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines.
  3. MISSION: MED SCHOOL
    This comes down to the very title of my blog: “Mission: Med School.” My title is a play on James Bond’s “Mission: Impossible,” because medical school seems well… impossible? Well not really, but I thought it was clever haha. But more importantly, it’s a play on the word “Mission.” Oh man, that’s an entirely different blog post but essentially, it gives insight on my ultimate goal in life: to do missions around the world. By the grace of God, the end goal is to do work with Doctors Without Borders and eventually start my own non-profit organization. Attending med school in the Philippines will provide the perfect experience to prepare me for what is ahead.

This post mainly targets international (particularly U.S. based) students who are looking to pursue their MD in the Philippines. During my decision making process I searched endlessly through blogs & forums to help guide me, but it was quite difficult. I can only hope that this blog will help provide the kind of guidance & inspiration I longed for as an undergrad. Cheers!

About Me

Posted on by eurekaaa

Greetings,
Thanks for stoping by haha. I think I should provide a little introduction for myself. I’m 23 years old, born in the Philippines but raised on the beautiful island of Guam. I graduated with a B.S. in Biology from Guam nearly two years ago (yes, I took a gap year). And now, I’m currently an incoming second year at Our Lady of Fatima. All that follows will be about how I got to this point, what I’m currently up to, and some of the opportunities that lie ahead. Hope you stick around for my journey. Cheers!