Guidance & Counseling Board Exam Tips

I took two board examinations in my life, one for Psychometrician last 2014 (first board exam for Psychometrician in the Philippines), and the second one was last 2018 for the Guidance and Counseling in which I place 10^th.

A couple of students have asked me on how to topped or passed the board exam

1. Read a lot. I make it to a point to reward myself after finishing a book. I had a lot more time to study during my Psychometrician board exam, because basically that’s all I did for the 2-3 months review.
   But reviewing for the Guidance and Counseling board exam was a challenge because I am employed so I had to read after my work, although I always try to apply the theories in my work to strengthen my memory of it.

   (All week I am into Reality Therapy then the next week I am into Cognitive Behavioral theory and so on)

2. Manage your time well.  There are only 4 subjects for Psychometrician while 6 for Guidance and Counseling. I divided the number of months I have per subject.
   I remember sacrificing my psychometrician mock board exam in the review center because I did not study for the mock board exam but I continued with my timeline instead. I had to study each subject for two weeks, and aimed to finish reading everything at least a month before the board exam.

   For my Guidance and Counseling board exam because there are 6 subjects, I started reading a year before the board examination while I was studying for the comprehensive examination for graduate school.

3. Take notes. I take notes while reading, I post things on my wall, and a month before the board examination I just have to review my notes. I use different colour of pens so my notes are really colorful, so that I can associate my memory with the color (hopeful).
4. Watch videos and lectures online. Sometimes I get so busy with my work and I just want to rest after work, so I just watch videos in youtube till I fall asleep. When I’m travelling I convert videos to audio format and listen to it while travelling or out of town.
5. Find a motivation, a good one. I have very weird motivations. For my first board examination, it motivated me thinking that my parents spent too much for my review, I was afraid of failing the people whom knew that I will be taking the board exam.So in my Guidance and Counseling board exam, I did not tell my friends that I will be taking the examination, so that I’ll feel less pressured.

   I wanted to do it for myself, for my career growth, for my parents who were always supportive of me, for my boyfriend then (fiancé now) and his family.

6. Keep yourself away from toxic environment. 2018- there were a lot of movements in our family. My brother married and was living with my sister-in-law in our home, my mother was adjusting in her retirement, and both my parents had started doing business in a cafeteria after retirement. There were a lot of concerns with everyone’s adjustments, and I have always been the mediator in the family, so even if I was working away and was living in an apartment in the city they would call and consult me from time to time, and they would request for me to go home to settle arguments that they are having at home to a point that I had decided not to go home for a month and ask them politely not to call me or tell me any problems that they are having. I told asked them to call my older brother or my younger sister instead.Ps. Everything is all good now, my parents are now building a new bahay kubo in the mountain, and started gardening.

7. Borrow & share ideas, & notes. I borrowed notes from those who took the board exam ahead of me & I shared notes to others who will be taking the board exam with me as well.
8. Pray. Studying will give you confidence somehow and will prepare you for the examination but prayers will enlighten you. I always pray that I will remember what I am studying at the right time, and that it would come out at the board exam.

 

#1 Suggested reading:
Encyclopaedia of Counseling (Rosenthal)

Write your email in the comment section so I can email you some of the materials I used as well.