SWU graduates top dentist licensure exam
WHEN she was six, Rosette Gaditano Pagpaguitan was scheduled to undergo her first tooth extraction.
It didn’t push through because she cried, just thinking of the pain she would experience.
It was her fear of tooth extraction that later convinced Pagpaguitan to take up a dentistry course at Southwestern University (SWU).
Pagpaguitan topped the national Dentist Licensure Examination with an average rating of 84.40 percent.
Her classmate Lloyd Sumampong Nacua ranked second with an average rating of 83.23 percent.
Another topnotcher from Cebu is Rogin Sidayon Liza from Cebu Doctors’ University (CDU), who placed seventh with an average rating of 82.90 percent.
Nearly half, or 446, of 900 examinees passed the December 2015 Dentist Licensure Examination (written phase) and 425 out of 440 passed the practical phase in Manila this month.
Pagpaguitan was attending Mass at the Sto. Niño Church in her hometown in Bontoc, Southern Leyte when her brother called yesterday to tell her the good news.
“It was during the homily when I received my brother’s call. I thought it was an emergency so I went outside the church to answer his call,” the 24-year old topnotcher told Cebu Daily News.
The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) released the results of the exam on its website yesterday.
“All I wanted is to pass. The examination was really hard. But God answered my prayers,” she added.
For nine weeks prior to the exam, Pagpaguitan attended a novena every Thursday at the National Shrine of St. Jude in Manila.
She had her review at the University of the Philippines-Manila from July to August.
“I just understood everything that I read. And of course if you study hard, you also pray harder,” she added.
Pagpaguitan graduated cum laude last March 2015. She graduated valedictorian at Bontoc Elementary School and was class salutatorian at St. Therese Educational Center of Leyte.
Pagpaguitan is the youngest of six children in a family of medical practitioners.
Her parents are teachers in a state university in southern Leyte while her brothers and sisters are doctors.
She has no plans yet on what to do after the results came out.
“So far I am not thinking of going abroad,” she said.
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