Marjorie Tan 
“The path towards LET isn’t really a stroll in the park.”
This is how the 23-year-old new topnotcher of Samar State University, Maria Sharalene Lamoste, an alumna of the College of Education from the Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in Science, described her journey toward the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).
“It’s all-in emotionally, mentally, physically, and even financially exhausting,” she added.
Lamoste shared that she did not even hope for the all-mighty topnotcher spot, “but just enough to have the three-letter title at the end of my name.”
One simple routine
On her preparation process, she recounted, she “never wholly applied those ever-available fancy and systematic study methods,” rather, she crafted her personalized learning scheme that catered to what and how her mental cognition is capable of processing and storing information. For her, it was simply by “allotting reasonable time to each of her competencies.”
Lamoste also described her typical day during her review process as only one simple routine in detail. As she is not a morning person, she wakes up at 9 or 10 in the morning, allots two hours for rewriting notes, answers practice questions, and reads through the internet and books for the general education.
“After such, another consecutive six-hour long repetition of the same course of events for the professional education and specialization with each having roughly around three hours, and the cycle repeats by the moment Nyx envelops the zenith all the way to the horizon,” of which, she admitted, she did not religiously follow.
Additionally, she also emphasized the importance of balancing her rigorous study and personal time, particularly her spiritual life, in her successful preparation for the LET.
“A Sunday visit to God’s haven is a routine I deemed to never falter,” she stated.
Breadth, not Depth
As a Science major as she is, she incorporated some scientific principles as she advised future examinees and aspiring teachers that “The LPT thoroughfare must not have to be some kind of crooked pressure cooker. As science postulate, in a high-pressure environment, every atom in our body dissipates, mayhaps a figurative alignment to how pressure dismantles an individual’s dream and dismembers a person’s hope.”
She also urged them to “plan your time ingeniously and practically. Organize your learning materials (print and digital) and learning sources, better if you have a separate note where you can clearly and intricately account into detail what materials you’ve done reading or writing so far, or go all out and make a day-to-day brief outline of your daily proceedings. Ultimately, it’s not about the depth, it is about the breadth.”
“You are your own archenemy, for this isn’t a boxing match between you and the board exam, rather a fight of your hope, dreams, expectations, and aims against your own doubts, complacency, indolence, and self-bounded limitations,” she imparted.
Foundation
Reflecting on her time at SSU, she was reminded of the invaluable role it played in shaping her journey towards her biggest achievement yet.
“Foundation — the first word that comes to mind when my alma mater is the headline. SSU, especially the College of Education, cemented the foundational support that we, the product of the latter, need to be able to reach the paramount of knowledge that necessitates us to stay afloat the profuseful downpour of new information. SSU honed us to not just be the best, but the greatest version of ourselves the world could ever see. Simply put, SSU paved the way towards the journey of becoming a duly licensed professional teacher,” the topnotcher hailing from the ‘Home of the Champions’ further elaborated.
D-Day
When asked about her reaction upon learning that she topped the LET, she admitted that she is yet to absorb everything that transpired within that faithful day. She described it as “so surreal and baffling feeling… really, it was emotional and poetic.”
Maria Sharalene Lamoste, a resident of Brgy. Caparangasan, Gandara, Samar, ranked 10th in the recent March 2024 Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) with a 90.80% rating out of 85,980 examinees.
