It's been six months, since I took the licensure exam for electronics engineer. It was a tough journey, but in the end, all worth it. A few more weeks, and it's the board exam again. I thought of sharing everything that I've been through.
It was a struggle in trying to regain my study momentum. February 2016 is the last time when I actually studied for academics. This is the "review" subject, in which passing this is required to graduate. All that remains is the thesis, which took us a lot of tries before passing.
We finished our thesis around March 2017, and were set to graduate on August 2017. Thinking that we can take the October 2017 board exam, we started reviewing on late April. That is more than a year of no studying. Regaining my study momentum after more than a year of not studying is quite difficult, but as the weeks passed, I'm getting the hang of it again. Then came the month of June, when we found out we can't take the board exam, because our TOR won't make it in time for the application deadline. Say goodbye to the study momentum that I just got back. We had our review moved to the next exam period, which starts on November.
Because of not doing anything for many months, and no funds for my hobby, I decided to look for a temporary job, until the review season starts. On September, I started working in a BPO industry, as a a technical support representative. I'm still working when November came, because I can only resign on January, four months after starting.
It's one big challenge, as I am at work during midnight, until the morning, and I have to go straight to the review center after my shift. After class, upon going home, I would go to sleep, and the same cycle happens until the weekend. Thankfully, with the help of my supervisor, I was able to have my schedule accommodated, with my shift only landing on weekdays, and on fixed times too.
January came, and I'm able to focus on reviewing after I had resigned, or so I did. On this month, I hosted an event, a birthday celebration for an anime character that we love so much. Some of my rest days were spent in meetings to make this event successful. Only after this event, I was able to start focusing on studying. I announced to my friends that I would go on a hiatus, and focus on studying, and to make a return on April.
The days went by, but I'm still not very serious on studying. After class, we would go on the nearby internet café, and play Rules of Survival, as it is one of the popular games at that time. I'm also an active player of Fire Emblem Heroes. I'm still living my daily routine, but with more time allotted in studying.
I only started studying seriously around 45 days before the exam dates. I'm still living my daily routine, but with less time playing and much more time studying. When Holy Week came, I was not able to do our usual activities, because I was studying. We even have classes during Black Saturday and Easter Sunday, as the exam is just days away.
The day before the exam, a mass was sponsored by the review center, and I volunteered for the choir, saying that this would be what I would do in place of the Holy Thursday and Good Friday activities that I missed.
The days of the exam came. Among all the exams, I'm pretty confident, with having sure answers of at least 60% of the items. The next week, the results came out, and I am among those who passed.
Of course, the exams are difficult. Even I have items in which I just guessed the answers. Like what some of our professors said, no matter how prepared you are, there might still be items that you cannot answer. But don't let these affect your confidence. If you lose confidence on the first exam, it would affect the other exams. Do not let the spent months of studying go to nothing.
It was a tough journey. Now I'm on the next chapter of life, which is finding a job.
