CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu Institute of Medicine proved yet again that it is among the best medical schools in the country after it produced two more topnotchers in the physicians licensure examination.
In the September 2018 exam, CIM graduates Martin Angelo Zanoria and Aaron Lemuel Ong placed second and seventh, respectively.
Zanoria scored 90.92 percent while Ong scored 89.92 percent.
CIM was also declared best performing school.
For Ong, passion, perseverance, and faith are what helped him excel academically and do well in the exam.
"For me, you need to have passion in what you do. You need perseverance to finish what you plan on doing and have faith in God. His ways are higher than ours and in the end, the things that are not seen are what matters," Ong told The FREEMAN.
What, perhaps, made his case commendable is the fact that he reviewed for the exam all on his own.
“I never thought about trying to top the boards but I just did my best. The exam had its difficulties but, overall, it was fair. The challenge is always whether you’ve studied enough… because God will finish the work He started,” he said.
But Ong, 27, isn’t exactly new to excelling. He graduated from grade school in 2005, salutatorian, and from the Philippine Christian Gospel School in 2009, valedictorian. At Velez College, he earned his medical technology degree in 2013, cum laude.
He said he takes inspiration from his family and friends, as well as his faith in God.
“I felt relieved and very honored to be a part of the Top 10. I’m very proud of being a product of CIM, along with my friend and fellow topnotcher Martin Zanoria,” he said.
Zanoria is in the United States as of this writing.
Dr. Corazon Meneses, CIM college secretary said, the school attributes its students’ success to its teaching-learning strategy and intensive training.
“Since the early 2000, we introduced the problem-based teaching that was proved to be effective in fostering self-directed learning for students,” she told The Freeman. — JMO (FREEMAN)