The Idiot's Guide to First Time PRC Board Exam Registration

I'm not sure if all board exams have similar ways or whatever but I'm through with my "first-time" LET (Licensure Examination for Teachers) Registration and I wanna enlighten guys seeming to be like what I used to be, looking towards this uncharted land of what-may-be of the all mighty PRC (Philippine Regulation Commission), lost, dazed, confused, and clueless, to sorta at least easy things up for 'em.

On your registration day, this is what you've come for. The sacred receipt of destiny.

Here are the four trips I took to get my golden ticket to 

LET wonderland.

Herein are tips and other info that might come in handy in your own LET journey.

1. Prep the papers

It'd be ideal to have your papers ready before you even pay PRC a visit. Para walang hassle whatever. Have them all photocopied. Secure and separate the original copies from the photocopies. Organize each set with a paperclip. 

NSO copy Birth Certificate

The PRC will require a few stuff to certify your qualification to take LET. They wanna know you're born human and you're no terrorist scum colorum or non-existing matter whatever so, they'll need your not-expired NSO (National Statistics Office) copy birth certificate. With that, they're convinced that you're not a mere figment of synchronised minds' imagination by the community thriving in your thought bubble habitat. They also wanna make sure of your gender. You might look like a mafia thug with papers marked 'f'. 

Transcript of Records

To take LET, you gotta be someone who graduated BEEd (Bachelor of Elementary Education) or BSEd (Bachelor of Secondary Education - yes for all else, the 'S' in BSEd doesn't stand for 'Science': Please stop the idiocy) or some other college degree but had taken a certain number of education units; so, PRC requires your TOR (Transcript of Records) to certify your graduation. It has to be marked "For PRC purposes only" or "For Board Exam Purposes Only" or something similar somewhere in that very precious set of papers.  If your graduation whatever is not stated in your TOR, they'll need your diploma.

S.O. (Special Order)

This didn't matter to me when I registered because I graduated from an accredited school, NDDU (Notre Dame of Dadiangas University).  The only Special Order I had that day was an epic Tortang Talong and Balbacua meal at Don Mico's. You see, Government schools and institutions/programs accredited by recognized accredited agencies under the FAAP are exempted from SO. But graduates of New Schools/Degree Programs must submit School Recognition and/or Permit to Operate.

Cedula - Current Community Tax Certificate

PRC would really like to affirm that you're no hallucination. They wanna make sure that other people have seen you too. They gotta confirm that you're not some form of enema or enemy-of-the-state mercenary or a suicide bomber of sorts. Remember the word current - it means your cedula for this year, not last year. 

Passport-size colored pictures with white background and complete name tag

They're gonna need two copies of this and it makes me think that the PRC is a very suspicious institution. You gotta feed its paranoia. It might have issues of sorts. It might be schizophrenic. You have to assure them of reality - that they're not in some limbo state. For all we know, we're all sleep walking in our waking lives or wake walking in our dreams.

For married females, original and photocopies of NSO-issued Marriage Contract (if NSO copy is not clear, bring copy from Local Civil Registrar)

2. Online Application

Work your way through this: http://www.prc.gov.ph/. In fact, almost all you need to know is in that site. But they don't tell the hazards and there's no first-hand-account story of how registration is in a lost registrant's view. That's why you're reading this blog post.

Anyway, you really have to fill out the online form. You really have to. Better have it done even before you pay PRC a visit.

3. Refugee Camp

The season of registration in PRC Davao is a time of battle. Some Retakers, First-time registrants, and Professional Teachers trying to get renewals come a day before their transaction - desperate creatures. They start laying down manila paper or whatever make-shift mat on the concrete of the PRC's parking lot, in line, at 11 pm, so they can sleep the wait over. 

Some come in groups and assign units, taking shifts, to hold the line position. Some of their members are assigned to fetch and deliver sustenance from a sari-sari squat store/photo studio in the right side of the area and others to entertainment.  Some are assigned to secure their materials and ultimately their mobile territory - do not mess with these guys: they're stressed, they lack sleep, they're as lost as you, and they will eat your face off for the slightest hint of threat of singit-singit. Alas-onse palang anjan na sila tas darating ka ng ala-una para lang singitan sila? Ano ka? E kung di ka ma-chop-chop sa singit mo, ewan ko lang. As long as they don't count you as a danger, you can ask them about anything you need to know. Most of the guys who come to register in groups are friendly people - that's why they're not alone in the first place.

Surely, in a group is the best way to survive this harsh environment. But if you're going alone, you can still survive with your commensalism (An association between two organisms in which one benefits and the other derives neither benefit nor harm) or mutualism (Symbiosis that is beneficial to both organisms involved) techniques.  In fact, any non-damaging symbiosis may be applied. 

Some dominant refugees will try to make a system out of the chaotic ant colony that starts its becoming by 4 am. During my visit to PRC, they've devised a control priority list for the line that leads you to ultimately get a PRC registration priority number. They let everyone write their names by order of arrival so the first ones on the list get the first priority numbers and so on to the last - the nth person who arrives - nth 'coz it varies - some legends say PRC only gives 200 priority numbers per day as they only serve 200 registrants per day, some say else, I've seen our batch's numbers go past 200 yet everyone, i think, was served. 

The first one hundred were given priority numbers scheduled for that same glorious day - kaya dapat ready na mga requirements kasi baka magkaganito ka rin sa first ever PRC trip mo - o ha. The rest of us had other schedules. 

I came at 3 am, was 102nd in the control priority list and received a pink slip dated June 19, 2013 and marked no. 37.

Remember these during your refugee camp:

Sunglasses

Umbrella

No Toilets

4. Ang Mga Babae sa Bintana

Heto na yung pinakahihintay mo na moment - this is when you submit your papers and pay for whatever to get the receipt that you will show the whoever in your exam site on the exam day so you can take the test.

Kung wala kang photo, may squat sari-sari store/photo studio sa left side ng parking lot if you're facing the road. Kung di ka pa nakaphotocopy, yung P sa figure sa baba, photocopyhan yan.

In this phase, you'll be facing at least 2 or 3 of the lady officers beyond the mysterious glass windows of the receiving office.  Practise your breathing exercises 'coz these girls can be very short-tempered and you simply cannot allow yourself to go all hypertensive and whatever sorta anything that would kill you encore.

They would remain unticked if you:

1. ..are not a noisy bunch in the crowded and tension-filled room

2. ..won't be makulit and keep on asking questions sa window nila

3. ..have organised your papers and are following the registration steps correctly

Do the exact opposite and you'll face the mystical entities from the deepest corners of the hell of heaven itself. They can skin you alive with silent shrieks that can disintegrate brain cells. They have the capability to sublimate you with just one stare. They are gods who have been dwelling in the mysterious PRC dimension for more than a million eternities and they know oh so well what to do with the naughty and the nice. The naughty shall experience the deposition of their dreams to stone-cold, hyper-compressed, nega-existing nothingness.

This is PRC Davao's Right Wing floor plan (at least I think so). It is full of mysterious areas.

These are the things that you gotta do (ref to the figure above):

1. Pay for this PRC envelope thing at F. "F" nalang kasi Folder and you have to Fay some Fera. Prepare 105 Php. Clear envelope yan na may lamang PRC-marked brown envelope, no.2 Mongol pencil na virgin (di pa natasahan), PRC-marked mailing envelope na may resibo sa loob and another resibo na nasa labas nito na may nakalagay "55". Wag mong pakialaman ang buong set na yan until step 14.

2. Enter through any of D1, D2, or D3. "D" stands for "Door"

3. Write your name and priority number on the back of one of your passport-size photos.

4. Drop it in the small box in the panel right around W2 or W3. "W" stands for "Window" 

5. Ask for "the form" from W2 and wait right there. She will hand it to you after some time. Only do this when nothing's going on in that window or else the babae sa bintana will suck your soul.

6. Sit down, keep calm, fill the form out. Dapat daw walang mali ang pag-fill out. You would get to use another picture. You'll need some paste to attach the photo and a stamp pad for thumb marks (there supposedly is one by D2 or D3) - if you don't got em, commensalise! 

7. Keep calm and arrange your papers. There are arrangement guides all over the room. Di ko namemorize basta una yung finill-out mo na form and then parang yung Birth Certificate, TOR, S.O. if needed then Cedula. Ihiwalay mo yung originals sa photocopies pero dapat same ang arrangement.

8. A Babae sa Bintana will call your priority number together with 9 or so more priority numbers. You will be asked to form a line for submitting papers on W3.

9. I-submit mo papers mo. Ichecheck niya kung swak sa originals ang photocopies at ibabalik niya sayo ang originals. Umalis ka na agad para di mairita yung babae sa bintana. Wag nang mag-thank you basta wag ka lang mag-strong. Kasi teritoryo nila yan, sila ang may karapatang mag-strong. Di ka palang nila i-entertain, edi wala kang exam.

10. Keep calm, breathe.

11. Tatawagin name mo with 9 or so other names. Ipapakuha yung papers mo sa W2. Kunin mo agad.

12. Magugulantang ka kasi may registration form na yung set ng papers mo tas nakaorganize na xa for some mysterious reason.

13. I-check mo kung may mga mali sa info mo or whatever and then pirmahan mo, thumb-markan mo fill-outin mo yung mga blank na mga date-date whatever - this is to certify that the info put in is correct.

14. Ilabas mo yung PRC mailing envelope at yung isang resibo na nasa loob ng plastic envelope - oo, yung binayaran mo ng 105 Php. Isali mo sa papers mo. Wag na i-attach. Ipatong mo lang.

15. Pumila ka sa W2. By this time kasi, kayong mga tinawag na names ang priority nilang asikasuhin. So time to shine mo to. Prepare a 1k Php Bill para sosyal at hindi messy.

16. Ibigay mo yung papers with yung mga pinatong mo. Tas i-gesture mo yung 1k na as if ibibigay mo. Magtitinker-tinker yung babae sa bintana ng stuff with your papers then all of a sudden, kukunin niya yung pera mo. Umalis ka na agad.

17. Keep calm and meditate. Wag kang kabahan. Isipin mo nalang ang love life mo, mga magulang mo, maga-abresa ka ba after this, whatever, magpaka-existential. Basta wag ka lang too far out kasi tatawagin ang name mo. Baka mag-hallucinate ka tas di mo na mapansin.

18. Tatawagin ang name mo. Go to W4.

19. Take your Receipt! May nakalakip na sukli na 100 Php yan. So all in all, ang nabigay mo sa PRC is 1005 Php.

20. Vacate immediately.

AND THEN MAY PASSES KA NA FOR LET!

Wait ka ng one week or something before the exam 'coz they'll give you info kung san ka exactly magte-teyk.

Hanap ka na ng info kung anong whatever proper attire things.

May Guidelines sa likod ng resibo mo!

P.S.: Come early kasi you'll be sorry 'pag dumating ka na tapos nang tinawag yung number mo!!!

So ako, magrereview sa All-Star