PSYCHOmetrician Board Exam

So, I decided to take the board exam

I decided to pass my requirements on the very last day of submitting requirements.

First hurdle: I WASN'T ALLOWED ENTRY BECAUSE I WAS WEARING SHORTS
I begged the security guard if he could let me in but he was very strict. So, I went around the area and looked for any clothing shops that could be selling leggings or anything. I had to walk a few blocks (take note, I was in an unfamiliar place) just to find a thrift shop. I bought a pair of joggers for 50 pesos and headed back to the PRC office.

Second hurdle: I FORGOT TO GET MY NBI CLEARANCE
When I got to the office and lined up, I overheard some people talking about the requirements needed for the board exam. I was eavesdropping and as she was mentioning the requirements one by one, I heard "NBI Clearance" and my expression quickly turned bad. I called my friend to confirm if we really needed the NBI clearance and she said that we did. So, I called up my mom asking her how much an NBI clearance is and if there were any office nearby aside from the main office at UN. As I left the office, I asked around if there were any NBI offices nearby. One of them directed me to a mall that was a few blocks away. I quickly headed towards the place and got my NBI clearance. I'm lucky that all I had to do was have it renewed and that my name was unique (else, I could get my NBI clearance after a week).

Third hurdle: I LACKED 2 MORE DOCUMENTS
When I got back, I was pretty confident that I had all my documents already. Now all I had to do was wait in line for my turn. It took me 2 hours until I got to the processing window. When it was finally my turn, I showed my documents and the guy asked for my "Certificate of Good Moral". I told him that it was there, but then he told me that I needed 3 in total: one from school, one from church, and one from the barangay. I only brought the one from school because I thought that the other 2 were just options. Good enough for me, the guy was nice enough and told me that I could come back the next day with the complete set of documents, all I had to do was pay for the fee that day.

I hated that day. I was so tired, hungry, and I had to miss work because of that.

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I can't take any review classes because their schedules are always conflicting with my work; which results to me having to resort to self study. I don't mind doing self study, since I saved the PDFs, PPTs, from my previous subjects. However, its still going to be difficult since I don't really have a scope of what is going to come up in the exam. There are 5 major components: ABPSYCH, INDPSYC, ASSESSMENT, SIKOPIL, and THEOPER. The one I believe that I will have most difficulty with would be INDPSYC because the professor that I got didn't tackle theories of Industrial Psychology rather, she talked about the experiences she had in the workplace. I wouldn't say that I didn't learn from that class (in fact, I did learn a lot!), but I don't think that her lessons would help me during the exam. Also, I have a friend taking up the review class in school and she was generous enough to send me the PDFs that they're using in class.

COUNTDOWN: 12 DAYS UNTIL THE BOARD EXAM

I'm currently studying ABPSYCH and I've only tackled 3 topics. I'm taking longer than expected and my work is consuming most of my time. Maybe not work, but the commute going to and back is what takes up most of my time. I'm thinking of bringing my laptop everyday and just study at a coffee shop after trapeze so that I don't waste time waiting for the bus and use it instead for studying. It would be costly though, considering that I'm going to have to eat dinner out everyday and drink coffee too, but this too shall pass.

crazy people everywhere

July 28, 2014

On my way home from school while riding a jeepney, this man jumps in with a glass filled with ice and water, and sits across me. As soon as he settles in, he starts shouting all these things like "Ezekiel chapter.." "In  the book of Solomon!..." "the american...BRITANNICA! ... is the bible! ..." etc. His voice was deep and frog-like. This was enough to make the people beside him scoot away from him ( he was also swaying his glass side to side violently). Unfortunately, I couldn't move coz our side was full. Also, this guy kept looking at me and kept trying to start a conversation with "dun ka nag-aaral noh? *points back to vito cruz*" which made the trip a little bit uncomfortable for me.

Most of the passengers were trying to avoid the gaze of this guy, and some were even snickering. I mean, if you had to share a jeepney with this guy, wouldn't you be scared? or wouldn't you find it comical? If there's one thing I'm sure of, it would be that everyone on the jeep thought of him as "crazy". 

"crazy" is a term we often use to describe people who defy the norms which may be comical, stupid, or scary. I used to steer clear from them out of fear, but after taking up psychology, I learned to understand these kind of people. Its sad that the government isn't doing anything about these homeless people who may or may not be suffering dementia. 

Probably the worst experience I had was when I saw a homeless woman by the sidewalk and I saw that she was wearing a ring on her ring finger. It was really shiny and it didn't look like the cheap ones you'd see anywhere, it look pretty decent and expensive. Maybe she just picked it up somewhere, or maybe she's part of a syndicate, but maybe, she was actually married. And now she's sleeping on the streets.

What if she had kids? 

what if her husband died and then she got so depressed that she ended up that way? 

What if her children abandoned her because they didn't have money to take her to a doctor? 

Of course, there is no way for me to verify these "what ifs". But the thought that maybe one of these "what ifs" may be true is just excruciating. During this experience, I thought of my lola and lola puy. What if my family didn't have the money to bring them to a doctor? would we have done the same? 

I hope not. But then again, there's no way I can verify this.

In other news:

The jeepney I took had one of those "DJ Drivers" (Drivers who love playing their music so loud that they can't hear you when you make "para"). But this one was different because he was playing songs like "safe and sound" ,"stay the night", "birthday -katy perry", unlike the others who would play OPM or mixes that are just.... really bad :( It really made the trip going home less stressful!  :D

 I really wish we had more jeepney drivers who have good taste in music. I'd pick that jeep over any other jeep any day... haha! :))