i'm one of the 13,125 out of 41,729

the wait of 39 days is over! the results are in. i am one of the 13,125 secondary teachers out of 41,729 examinees (31.45%). the statistics are quite sad.

what will happen to the 28,000 who did not make it? will they retake the exam? out of the passers, how many are engaged in the profession? and how many are truly competent teachers? more importantly, of the passers, how many are working as teachers and will remain in the country? although the exams separate those who have enough knowledge, one can retake the exam as many times as deemed in the guidelines.

to be honest, i did not have the resources and the time to enroll in a review class. all i had was a very good reviewer i bought from a local bookstore at random, some notes, and a stack of review materials i got from my tcp course. what worked for me in the exam were the years of accumulated learning from being a student in graduate school and in the teaching certificate program, and the actual teaching experience both in high school and the university. in other words, stock knowledge resurrected the moment i read the questions. i had a bad cold and cough then. i did not review until the last minute and even had a nightmare about missing the exam because i woke up late.

during the exam itself, i listened and followed all instructions. i did not hesitate to ask the proctors for directions i could not understand. when they said no erasures and be careful in shading, i followed it. i monitored my time and thought twice before shading any circle. i kept my composure, in between prayers, cough, and sniffles. (unconfirmed rumors said that not being able to finish the exam will make the scanner stop checking the answer sheet. i learned about that only after i took the exam.) i was even asked if i were taking the exam for a second time.

in summary: to be a successful exam-passer starts at day 1 of the class. listen to teachers and study well. keep notes, whether mental or in the notebook. during the exam, follow instructions, keep track of time, and keep poise. as for the review, well, my review school happened during my years of experience. to add more confidence, enroll in one but have an open mind that such schools do not work miracles.

now that i have passed the exam, it goes with a sad note. there's a pinch in my heart knowing that i am capable but have walked away. i am no longer teaching by choice. i already wrote lengthy entries about that angst. i am happier with what i am doing now. yet, i am excited to have a professional ID. that ID will be the symbol of almost two decades of living the life of an underachiever educator in the university and secondary institutions, unfinished years of graduate work,thousands of students who sat in front of me and learned.


the next part, sorry, i can't help it. i need to vent for the last time:
[not to mention the baseless bad words that stupid impolite rude ill-mannered moron who calls and thinks of himself a teacher - pity his current students at an exclusive boys school now - yelled at me sometime ago. again, i wrote a blog about that incident, which he and his sidekick duckling showed to some bosses. i deleted that blog already. sure, i am expecting a response like, "been there, done that!" who cares, his ID is as hollow as his brain, heart, and soul and i am assuming he has those but then again, i might be wrong.]

binondo trip again

i dropped by binondo yesterday.after my lucrative errand, i had to give in to my craving at lan zhou. here's the bowl of beef lan mei and the left overs. the noodles are quite heavy or perhsps, the dumplings had something to do with my tummy space.











then i came across these two over at a grocery.

did i just see my first ghost?

i have been having trouble sleeping the past few nights. i'm trying to see if it has something to do with my after dinner coffee. however, that has had no effect sometime so i decided to continue with it last night. it was close to 1 am and i still could not sleep. i was too brain-drained to even work and i had to allow the equipment to rest. so, i decided to settle at around that time. the mutts did not take their usual places as they seemed to be so restless and would bark sporadically at the slight meowing or cat mating noises.

while the dogs would bark, i would think of dozing while playing jewel quest on my mobile just to sleep. when i finally thought i was falling asleep, the dogs started barking and i felt the quick dash out of the room. i must have opened my eyes for a split second when i thought i saw a shrouded image watching over me. what made me wonder is that my startled reaction is that i sat up quickly and fell down upon seeing that image. in seconds, i reached out for my rosary and started to pray. half-sleep, i think i made it through the 5th mystery but i realized my prayers were incomplete.

i did not feel any shivers when i saw the image. i think, if it were indeed an apparition, it also got startled because i sat up and said, "whoa!" in amazement. this is nothing new as i have had dreams and even felt a strange presence several times when i was still sleeping in the other room and there was still that huge tree near my window, then. the dreams stopped when i asked them to leave.