09/10/2026
Sharing with you another testimonial from the top 4 of the September 2026 CE Board Exam: Engr. Karl Famador of FEU! Read his full story below:
Journey with GERTC
What quote best describes your review journey, and why?
“When fishermen cannot go to sea, they repair their nets.”
This quote was shared with me by Engr. Timbal during my review journey, and it really stayed with me.
There were times when I felt shaken by my assessment rankings. I had always aimed high and never diminished my dream which is, I wanted to be Top 1 in the Board Exam. But there were moments when my results were not where I wanted them to be, some results even falling out of the Top 5 ranking, Top 10 ranking, and I am not always number 1 in the assessments. Naturally, there were times when I questioned whether I was really capable of achieving the goal I had set for myself.
But this quote reminded me that not every moment has to be a battle. There are times when you have to step back, identify your weaknesses, and work on yourself. I used this to somehow calm myself, and have an analytical approach on where I went wrong. Whether I am listing down mistakes, listing formulas, or listing correct procedures. In a way this is my version of the “repair”, wherein I constantly just improved my mistakes/weaknesses and believed results will follow.
And upon realization, this quote is very powerful since I took 1 year to review for the board exam instead of taking it in March 2026 right away. I realized that I could use the additional time not as a form of delay but a chance to “repair my net” wherein in this 1 year, I can confidently say I repaired my net so much, I was not scared of any topic. But instead of thinking that I am not good enough, it is an opportunity to repair my net which is to improve my weak areas so that I don’t have any weaknesses which led to me not being scared of any topic.
Why GERTC?
I chose GERTC because I knew that MSTE was one of the areas I was weakest in, and I wanted to address that weakness directly.
During my first review cycle, I realized that I could not simply rely on the subjects I was already comfortable with, I realized in order to top the boards I must not have any “weak subjects”. I had to be honest with myself about where I was struggling and find a way to improve those areas. This was also one of the reasons I decided to take another review cycle. I wanted to use that time to improve the parts of my knowledge in MSTE specifically, a subject that I admittedly felt that I am still not strong enough.
One defining moment in choosing GERTC was when I saw the March 2026 Board Exam results. Two of the Top 1 of that batch got a 95 in MSTE. At that time, I honestly thought that getting a score like that in Math was almost impossible because of its reputation of being the hardest subject, and somehow they both got a 95 in that area. So I gained some courage to ask them if they have any tips. I was met with a response that “I owe it to GERTC”, from this statement I am instantly hooked and applied for a review scholarship here because I really want to improve my knowledge in MSTE.
That mindset was one of the reasons I chose GERTC. I wanted to be in an environment where I could strengthen MSTE, especially Mathematics, and challenge the limits I had placed on myself.
For me, choosing GERTC was not simply about choosing a review center. It was part of my decision to improve my weakest area rather than a mindset of “This subject cannot be reviewed”. And I can confidently say that mindset is false, and GERTC made me realize that MSTE can definitely be improved and not purely based on luck. So in a moment of realization, if I wanted to achieve my goal of becoming a topnotcher, I knew I could not only improve the subjects I was already good at. I had to work on the subjects that made me doubt myself the most.
And in the end, after Ranking 4th out of all board exam takers. I realized that if I did not attend GERTC as my primary review center in my 2nd cycle, I think I could not achieve this once in a lifetime milestone.
What is your message for aspiring future Civil Engineers and those who aspire to top the Board Exam?
To all aspiring Civil Engineers, especially those who dream of becoming a topnotcher like I once did, I encourage you all to have a high goal and never lower your standard for that goal. Yes you might not exactly get that goal but remember the saying “Aim for the stars and if you fail, you will land on the moon”. So if there is a bit of error in your goal, you will still land quite near it. For me it was aiming for Top 1 but ended up in Top 4, yes I did not meet my ideal goal but I am still so happy with my rank. For me having a goal is something to work towards even during the moments wherein I heavily doubted myself.
I started my review journey with a very clear goal, I wanted to be Top 1. But along the way, there were many moments that humbled me. There were assessments where I was not in the Top 5, not in the Top 10, and sometimes not even close to where I wanted to be. This really affected me to be honest and sometimes question if I am still worthy.
But I learned that a weak result is not the final result. It is information.
Instead of asking myself, “Maybe I am not good enough,” I learned to ask, “What should I do to improve?” That mindset allowed me to turn every mistake, every mediocre score, and every weakness into something I could work on.
I also want future topnotchers to know that you do not have to always be perfect. You just have to have the hunger to never stop improving. For me, that meant taking another review cycle when I could have taken the exam earlier. It meant admitting that MSTE was one of my weakest areas and deliberately working on it instead of accepting the mindset that it was simply a subject that could not be mastered.
My biggest lesson from this journey is that confidence is not something you need to have before you begin. Sometimes, confidence is something you build after repeatedly proving to yourself that you can improve and eventually you will feel worthy of passing/having a topnotcher spot.
So dream as high as you want. Aim for Top 1 if that is what you truly want. But when the results do not immediately match your expectations, do not let one assessment define what you are capable of becoming.
Keep studying. Keep Solving. Keep analyzing your mistakes. Keep improving your weaknesses. And when you are not in battle, repair your nets.
