DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental — A 24-year-old pharmacy graduate from Siaton, Negros Oriental has achieved what even the country's most competitive pre-medical students rarely accomplish: a perfect score of 800 on the National Medical Admission Test, on her very first attempt.
Queenie Roda Futalan, a BS Pharmacy graduate of Negros Oriental State University (NORSU), received her Examinee Report Form from the Center for Educational Measurement confirming a General Performance Standard score of 800 and a percentile rank of 99 or higher. She sat for the examination while simultaneously completing hospital duty and finishing her pharmacy coursework.
The NMAT is the standardized entrance examination required by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for admission to all medical schools in the Philippines. A perfect score of 800 is exceptionally rare even among the examination's highest-ranking candidates in any given testing cycle.
A Record Built Over Four Years at NORSU
Futalan's NMAT result is the latest in a string of academic achievements that began when she enrolled at NORSU's College of Nursing, Pharmacy, and Allied Health Sciences. She graduated Magna Cum Laude, finishing just 0.02 grade points short of becoming the first Summa Cum Laude in the college's recorded history.
She ranked first in her BS Pharmacy graduating class and was the only student across her entire college batch to receive Latin honors. A scholar under the Department of Science and Technology–Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI), she made the Dean's List every academic year from 2022 to 2025 and was named a Presidential Academic Awardee.
In school year 2023–2024, she was the sole Dean's Lister from her batch. Her academic trajectory began earlier at Siaton Science High School, where she graduated with High Honors before entering NORSU.
Hospital Duty on the Day She Took the Exam
The circumstances under which Futalan took the NMAT are notable in themselves. She was on active hospital duty and completing her final pharmacy coursework requirements at the time of the examination — conditions that would challenge most test-takers attempting a high-stakes national assessment.
The result, confirmed by her Examinee Report Form dated May 6, 2026, placed her in the 99th percentile or higher nationally, meaning she performed at or above the level of at least 99 percent of all examinees in her testing cohort. The perfect General Performance Standard score of 800 is the maximum attainable under the NMAT's current scoring system.
Quiz Bowls, Community Service, and National Competition
Beyond the classroom, Futalan built a record of academic competition and public service throughout her time at NORSU. She won the championship at the College Day Quiz Bowl in 2025 and placed third at NORSU's 117th and 118th Founding Anniversary Quiz Bowls.
At the national level, she finished 10th at the FCJPPha National Pharmacy Quiz Bowl in 2024, competing against student teams from universities across the Philippines. She also served as Marketing Representative of the Junior Philippine Pharmacists Association–NORSU Chapter and helped write examination questions for the World Pharmacists Day 2025 Quiz Bowl held at NORSU.
Her service commitments extended outside campus. Earlier in 2026, she volunteered at the De Mira Memorial Medical-Dental Mission in Dauin, Negros Oriental, where medical and dental services were provided to community members.
Scholarship Program Shapes Her Medical School Choices
Despite a score that would qualify her for admission at any medical school in the Philippines, Futalan is limiting her applications to two institutions. She is applying to West Visayas State University and Cebu Normal University–Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, the two schools currently eligible under CHED's Medical Scholarship and Return Service (MSRS) Program.
The MSRS Program covers tuition and related costs in exchange for a post-graduation commitment to serve in the public health system, typically in underserved or rural areas. For Futalan, the financial dimension of the decision was decisive.
"I am only applying to these two schools that are eligible for the CHED MSRS Program to lessen the financial strain on my family," she said.
Without that financial constraint, she said she would have also considered St. Luke's College of Medicine, the Cebu Institute of Medicine, and the University of the Philippines College of Medicine — institutions consistently ranked among the most competitive in the country.
The Cost of Medical Education and Who It Excludes
Futalan's situation reflects a structural reality in Philippine medical education. The cost of completing a medical degree at a private institution can run into several million pesos over the course of a full program, placing the country's most prestigious schools out of reach for many high-achieving students from middle- and lower-income families, regardless of academic qualifications.
Government scholarship programs such as the CHED MSRS are designed specifically to address this gap. By tying financial support to a return-service agreement, the program both funds qualified students and directs newly trained physicians toward public hospitals and community health facilities where physician shortages are most acute — settings that include provincial and rural areas throughout the Philippines.
For a student from Siaton, a municipality in southern Negros Oriental, the scholarship represents a viable pathway into medicine that private financing alone could not have provided.
Anesthesiology and Surgery Among Her Target Specializations
Futalan is currently in a gap year, which she is using to prepare for the medical school admission process. She has identified anesthesiology and surgery as her intended areas of specialization — fields she describes as suited to her precise, methodical approach to academic and professional work.
Both are among the more demanding specializations in medicine, requiring extended residency and fellowship training beyond the standard medical degree. Anesthesiology in particular is a field where shortages are documented in many provincial hospitals across the Philippines.
Return Service Would Bring Her Back to Public Health Settings
If Futalan proceeds under the CHED MSRS commitment, her post-graduation path would require her to render service in the public health system — the kind of provincial hospital and community clinic environment where trained physicians are most needed and, historically, most difficult to retain.
The return-service component of the MSRS Program is designed to ensure that scholarship-funded graduates do not immediately move into private or urban practice, a common pattern that has historically contributed to health worker shortages in rural and underserved areas of the country.
For Futalan, whose academic record at NORSU and perfect NMAT score reflect years of consistent high performance, the commitment represents a decision to align her career with public service from its earliest stages — a choice shaped as much by practical necessity as by professional aspiration.
Her Examinee Report Form, confirming the perfect score of 800 and a percentile rank of 99 or higher, stands as the most recent marker in an academic record that began with High Honors at Siaton Science High School and has not plateaued since.
Photo credit: Photo courtesy of Queenie Roda Futalan