Our Philippine NMAT Experience in Los Angeles (A Near Miss)

December 1, 2012.

That's the day we took the Philippine NMAT in Los Angeles, California. We thought we were going to miss that very important date!

We had quite a few memorable dates to remember in 2012: our wedding, the birth of our son, and some other notable ones, but I have to say, December 1, 2012, is also one of them!

It all began at the Honolulu International Airport...

Our nonstop flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles was set for November 29th, around 11:45PM, making our arrival in Los Angeles a little before 7:00AM the day before the NMAT. At least, that was the plan. We  decided to go to the Honolulu International Airport as early as 9:00PM, nearly three hours before our departure, with hopes of not missing such a very important flight.

We boarded the plane on time. The plane started taxiing as planes normally would do when they are preparing for take-off. Strangely enough, our plane stopped taxiing. We were hoping that this was only temporary--but no!! We ended up being stuck on the plane for over 2 hours, having de-planed around 2:30AM! There were no posted signs as to where we were supposed to go, there were no airline staff members in sight after having left the plane. Because the time was past the airport's normal operating hours, there were no airport shuttles that could take us back to the front where we could get our airline tickets reissued. So there we were in the middle of the airport with our sleepy, tired children in tow--and, we ended up walking and hauling all of our stuff from the gate to the ticketing station. It was quite a haul.

The airline did not offer to put us in a hotel or anything. Passengers were stuck at the airport, some of them were sleeping on the floor with their children (in the exact same place where a homeless man was sleeping just the night before). The line was super-long, so by the time it was our turn, it was already past 5:00AM. The staff switched over to the morning shift at the same time we stepped forward to the counter; somehow, there was a communication breakdown, and they were not aware of our situation and did not appear helpful or accommodating at all (the agent bluntly told us to wait as she had to "prioritize" other passengers who had to depart on the next flight). By then, we weren't even sure if we'd make it to Los Angeles in time for the NMAT.

Finally, we secured a flight at around 7:00AM. We departed on time and arrived at around 3:00PM in Los Angeles.

To our dismay, we had another problem: we needed a babysitter.

The babysitter we had in mind was no longer available. We couldn't simply trust our children in just anyone's care, and to complicate things even further, it was even more difficult to make arrangements when we didn't even know what time we would be arriving!

Thankfully, my mother-in-law came to the rescue. She called her boss and said she couldn't come in to work on that day. She took a flight out to Los Angeles, arrived at around 9:00PM, and left immediately after the NMAT was over. She was there for less than 24 hours.

We checked-in at the Hacienda Hotel as that was the testing site for the NMAT. We were all eager to crash in bed just to recover from our flight delay. An hour later, we got up to have a breakfast-lunch-dinner combo at the Mexican restaurant on property, since we hadn't gotten anything to eat earlier that day. It was then that we got back to our senses: the hotel room was too small and uncomfortable for our mother-in-law and our children to hang out in while waiting for us to finish our NMAT (it didn't matter even if we had planned on getting an additional room--it just wasn't comfortable). So, soon after my mother-in-law arrived, we packed up and took a cab to the nearest Doubletree Hotel. Meanwhile, we left the rest of our stuff at the Hacienda Hotel, thinking that we could easily check-out during our lunch break the next day (plus, we knew we couldn't fit our stuff in one cab--and it was raining).

It was past 11:00PM and we were still checking in at the Doubletree Hotel. The reservation agent whom I had spoken with over the phone must have not pressed the right button so we ended up arriving without a reservation. Thankfully, the front desk associate was very helpful and still facilitated our check-in process.

Enter: December 1, 2012. Dooms Day.

It was now midnight. We hadn't studied. We were tired. We were jetlagged. We were still settling in our new hotel room. We left everything in God's hands.

We arrived at the testing site at 7:00AM. The room was crowded and you could barely hear your name being called. If I'm not mistaken, there were over 100 NMAT applicants who took the test that day (most of them were Fil-Ams who had just finished their undergraduate degree). Personally, I didn't think that the content of Part I of the NMAT was too difficult; we simply did not have enough time. I could have taken the time to do the Quantitative part (it was too tempting since that's one of my favorite subjects), but since it was time-consuming, I skipped it, guessed, and did the other parts that took less time. I did go back to do whatever I could with whatever time I had left (there wasn't much).

Then came lunch time. I don't remember all of the details now but I thought we had 3 hours in between tests, so my husband and I thought we'd have enough time to check-out of the Hacienda, check-out of the Doubletree, and check-in at the Embassy Suites that's connected to the airport (this was part of our original itinerary). Wrong! I think we only had an hour-and-a-half in between tests so we had to apply critical thinking during crunch time: we did not check-out of the Hacienda during lunch time (the cab driver arrived late to pick us up, so instead, we arranged for a late check-out after the NMAT was over); we extended our stay at the Doubletree (thankfully, we were able to stay in the same room); and, by God's grace, we were able to cancel our Embassy Suites reservation on the same day without any cancellation fees. We had to make all of these arrangements while rushing to eat our lunch (at the same time, I was breastfeeding our son).

No, this wasn't the cab that we took in L.A.

We took a cab back to the testing site (it only took 5 minutes). Since we were unable to study due to our tight timeline, I found Part II to be tough--it's the type that's not too complex but needs a lot of brushing up before test day. The guys around me, being Physics majors and all, thought that Part II was easy. In the end, I was just glad that it was over and that we could finally rush out of there to get back to the Doubletree so that we could relieve my mother-in-law who had to catch her flight.

On our way out, we noticed "recruiters" from Our Lady of Fatima University; they were passing out flyers about the school (they did the same thing during lunch time).

Anyway, we arrived at the hotel at around 4:00PM. My mother-in-law's flight was at 5:00PM. By God's grace, she did not miss her flight, and she arrived home on time.

It was finally over.

We were too tired and uninterested to go anywhere with our kids in Los Angeles after the test--so we ordered room service for dinner. We left very early the next day as our flight was at 7:00AM.

According to the CEM-NMAT website, we had to wait 15 business days for our NMAT results to be posted online. That would be December 21, 2012...which was also the day the Mayans predicted that the world would come to an end.

Enter: December 21, 2012. The end of the world.

Alas! The world did not end (and our NMAT results did not arrive).

I called the CEM-NMAT Secretariat and was told that the results would be ready by Monday, Christmas Eve.

I was puzzled, since I logged-in to Twitter and saw posts of NMAT takers celebrating about their scores!

My husband decided to check for our scores the following evening, December 22, 2012, and while having dinner with our friend, we discovered our NMAT scores.

God answered our prayer!

Our NMAT scores are past the cut-off score for our desired medical school in the Philippines!

We then informed the school and started gathering our documents to submit during the application process. Part of that was waiting for the official copy of our NMAT results to arrive in the mail. They finally did on January 23, 2013.

That was our Philippine NMAT experience. It's not even the beginning of med school, yet we have already experienced challenging feats! Nonetheless, we are truly looking forward to it and hope that we could get all of our documents finalized and submitted so that we could secure an interview and eventually land a spot for both of us at the medical school of our choice!

Disclaimer:  I am by no means associated with any of the organizations listed in this blog post; I am only sharing my personal experiences and findings regarding such a process. Therefore, it is prudent to visit the official websites of these organizations directly to get the most up-to-date and accurate information.