How a Top-grade Medical Technologist is Made: Straight from the Topnotcher

“Study/review your lessons by heart, understand them, don’t just memorize and entrust everything to God.”

Acing the board exam, just like in any other course, is utterly the beginning of a victorious career. It is a monumental juncture that every student aspires of crossing someday. And it seems like RTRMF College of Medical Technology has never drawn to a close as they produce another topnotcher succeeding last year’s Franz Lenard Barreto who ranked 6^th.

Edrian Medina Lucinario garnered a rating of 89.60 percent, enough for him to land as number six among 915 aspirants of the March 2013 Medical Technology Licensure Exam. He graduated as the Academic Excellence Awardee S.Y. 2010 – 2011.

But how is this awe-inspiring feat accomplished? Lucinario shares his experience on being a top-grade Medical Technologist in the making and finally emerging as one of the par excellence there is.

•       How did you prepare for the board exam?

“I did a lot of preparation for the March 2013 Medtech board exam. One of those was planning and organizing my schedule in the entire review process (I have given myself a year for the whole preparation). After that I stayed at home and self-reviewed for almost 8 months, reading all my books, notes and reviewers. Then at the end of each subject that I’ve finished I tried answering questionnaires to evaluate my progress. Lastly, I spent my last 3 months of preparation in the review center I enrolled in Manila (ACTS review center). There they taught me everything I need to know regarding the board exam like things or lessons that I didn’t learned during my self-review, tips and strategies in answering the exam etc.”

           

•       How did the RTRMF education help you become a board topnotcher?

“I am very thankful and grateful to RTRMF especially to my Professors/Class instructors for they did not only share their knowledge and expertise to their students but they also inspired us not only to pass and graduate but to have passion and dedication in our career. They also kept us motivated, and they taught us not to give up easily especially during hard times.”

•       How does it feel to be one of the top 10?

“Honestly until now I still can’t believe that I am one of the top 10 of March 2013 med tech board exam. Kaya nga pag tinatanong ako kung paano ko nagawa yun, sinasabi ko nalang na nakachamba lang ako. Nakakahiya kasi. Hehe but of course I feel so blessed and thankful to God that he has chosen and entrusted me the responsibilities of being a part of topnotcher.”

•       What kept you going during the entire preparation/studying process?

“My loved one‘s especially my family, classmates, colleagues, friends, and my girlfriend who’s very supportive. And also my strong will to help my family and at least to repay them for all their sacrifices and all the money they spent just to send me to college and to God whom I dedicate all my achievements  in life.”

•       What are your plans after passing the board exam?

“Pursue as a medical technologist in a laboratory.”

•       What is your advice to students who will take the Medical Technologist Licensure exam in the future?

“Study/review your lesson by heart, understand them don’t just memorize and entrust everything to God.”

            Truly, a topnotcher is neither built as an overnight success nor a few months of intensive review. The roadmap to becoming a true top-grade Medical Technologist starts with a commitment to excellence and with a relentless passion for high-yield and fun learning experiences early on in the school journey. Along with, paramount among others, is the incessant faith in God to make one’s dream a parchment of reality.

PHOTOWALK feat. Santo Niño Shrine

The Santo Niño Shrine is one of the 29 presidential rest houses that the late Pres. Ferdinand Marcos had built.*

Santo Niño, a representation of the infant Jesus Christ, is the patron saint of Leyte. It is located in Real Street, Tacloban City. Paintings of the 14 stations of the Cross done by Filipino artists, wooden bas-relief of the legend of the First Filipino man-woman (Si Malakas at si Maganda); tastefully decorated guestrooms of varied Filipino motifs; image of the Holy Child; a collection of original paintings by Fernando Amorsolo; spacious ballroom; and priceless collector's items are only some of what's inside.*

PORTRAITS AND ARTWORKS

ROOMS 

 HALLS AND ALIKE

IMELDA'S ROOM feat her restroom.

RANDOM FINDS

Handmade miniature.

Whose grades are these? 

Ancient banknotes.

Jade (ornament stone) carved into a sleeping infant.

*Source:http://www.tourisminthephilippines.com/city/Tacloban/Sto-Nino-Shrine-Museum/HTML/Tacloban-Sto-Nino-Shrine-Museum-Index.html

❝ 23 on the 23rd: 23 Things AboutMe ❞

Since I just turned twenty-three last 23rd of April 2013, let me go halves on with 23 random things about me that, more or less, few people know.

1. Me Time - I can go solo watching movies, devouring in restaurants and backpacking around. That feeling being unchaperoned just gives me the most tangible form of emancipation and independence. At the end of the day, I feel resuscitated and through this I'm able to see that there's more to life more than I could ever envisage.

2. Dad's Laddie - My father is my mother too...for 23 years. Yeah, he's that exceptional. We've been through the ebb and flow of life - just us struggling through the most grueling times and savoring the summit of prosperity. I've become competent enough in the real world through him. He is my living treasure and he is, to the largest extent, my inspiration to clinch my aspirations in life.

3. Med Detour - It's a big-ticket dream, so I've never really imagined my self embarking into such career. Well, not until few weeks before I enrolled in med school when my aunt convinced me to push through. Bigtime thanks to my aunt/s and grandmother for their support.

4. Nivea Consumer - LOL at this. I'm taking this in because I've noticed that my usage of Nivea products is mounting up. I use their lip balm, sun screen, deodorants, facial moisturizers and scrubs to name a few. And no, this is not a paid ad.

5. Wishful Thinker - If I'm not enrolled in Med school, I'd probably be taking up Culinary Arts, Photography classes, Multimedia Arts or Juris Doctor-slash-Bachelor of Laws and BMus in Singing. What's wrong with that? 

6. Pseudo-scribe - Writing is really not my cup of tea. It did not rivet me at any point not until my high school days. A few classmates and I gained a pass in the school paper but I contributed not a single article. It was the same year where I bagged second for an essay writing contest. Until then, I've been persuading my self that I should be writing more often. After all, It's a sweet escape.

7. Acrophobic - I have an extreme or irrational fear of heights. But I don't get unnerved riding a plane. Is that weird? Gah. You would not want to see me agitated, dripping with sweat and go paranoiac. I really am not sure, but do I need a virtual reality for treatment?

8. Hemi-loser - Because of number seven which poses a lot of inhibitions. I don't know how to swim (but yey, I learned how to float just few days ago). I have an ungovernable gargantuan appetite. I'am a self-diagnosed bipolar. I'm not earning at my age which others basically do. But am not complaining. Next please?

9. Music Man - No, am not equipped with any skills in playing any musical instrument except for flute which I learned way back sixth grade. Music is my alter-ego. It is my personal choice of medicament. I sing. I listen and I feel a cut above. It's my free ticket to Utopia.

10.  No-Crabs-Allowed - Food allergen. But I eat everything edible and tolerable. I'm not that kind who's picky when it comes to what's being served on the table. Read third sentence of number 8 - that explains why. 

11. Tickle Pink - The easiest way to spill a sweet-talk and flatter me is to tell straight that I'm chubby, plus-sized, roly-poly or whatever-it-is but assert that I still look good. No squabbles, okay? 

12. Thin-skinned - Don't take that literally. I'm that little fragile kid who's sensitive few and far between. I don't like being badmouthed and getting humiliated through any forms and ways of low-blows and cheap shots. 

13. Mole Mark - It's my built-in identification tag ( left cheek/zygomatic area). I guess people would not recognize me easily without it. I can be pleomorphic. No. I can't.

14. Quick Slumbook Profile - My nickname is "JR". I love blue, chocolates, pizza and pasta. A taurus, RN, 3rd year medical student and Cardio/Pulmo would-be. I watch A.I. & Grey's Anatomy. I prefer boxer shorts over brief/s, sunset over sunrise, lights off than on and you on top of  a cup of coffee or tea.

15. Doll Up - My ideal dress up would be a geek or nerd alike : braces, big glasses, plaid shirts or buttoned alike all the way up, pocket protecter with pen with shirt tucked into pants that are pulled up way too high. And for final touch, master the nerd grin. Did I miss something?

16. Inside My Bag - I habitually go out with my Northface backpack (which I've paid for six months via a friend). What's inside? blue folding umbrella, G-Tech 0.4 black and red pens, markers ( a lot of 'em), wallet with enough bills to survive a day, coins in separate pocket, blue-cased Mac Air and its glitching charger, blue Polo Sport scent, lip balm, planner or notebooks alike and a hanky. I told you, I love blue. 

17. Misunderstood - Surfaced by strength of character, a superficial facade unknown by the multitude. I'm delicate and a captive of my past. Bygone, at a young age, I was donned by the thought that life is an uphill. I'm on an interminable odyssey of searching ataraxia. And through time, a persona who doubts the principle of egalitarianism. What more?

18. Blackout - Way back Grade 4, I was one of the acolytes/sacristan. (I studied in a Catholic school). I could still vividly remember that day I swooned in front of a crowd while the priest was blessing the ashes. I was rushed to the clinic and I don't have any clue what happened. It's unforgettable.

19. Minor - Minor Issues - I hate (well, a lesser degree than that) minor subjects. Especially, at times, when they have a more protracted list of requirements to be done than those major ones. They're time-consuming for no real good reason. They're always my bottommost cut. Period.

20. Melodramatic Actor - But definitely not the operatic-slash-histrionic type. Just don't be surprised if you would see me with tears playing with the warmth of every emotion as if I was the lead filming for a melancholic music video. Otherworldly. That's me.

21. Cyclical Dream - This may be partially psychologically induced. Eerie. First, I've been dreaming of winning the lottery and living the most fancy-schmancy life. That's sweet. Second, I saw my self in front of lighthearted spectators with the spotlight aimed at me as I started to sing. Great. But, just what Nelly's song says - it was only just a dream.

22. Grown-Up - Need I say more? There's no other footpath but to be mature enough. Maturity? Big word.

23.  Exodus 3:14 - "I'am who I'am..." to sum a fraction of who i am, am dignified to say I've been molded by my yesteryears into who and what I'am today. Leo Estabillo Tiu Jr. is my name. I-shall-be that I-shall-be, my existence shall not be a fleeting memory.