Faith in God and confidence in oneself serve as keys in garnering top spots in the February 2025 Mechanical Engineers Licensure Examination, according to two graduates from the University of Cebu (UC).

Nico Anthony Tejano and John Rey Fabre are now engineers, officially!

Engr. Tejano is overwhelmed that aside from passing the test he is living the dream. He ranked Number 1 with a rating of 93.50 percent. 

He said he is living up to the expectation he set for himself.

Engr. Tejano has aspired to make it to the roster of topnotchers.

In fact, he said, he has set his eyes on Number 1 which is now fulfilled.

He accentuated that the feat happened not because of luck or by chance. He said he went through a series of grueling preparations for the licensure exam.

He pointed out that he found the actual examination to be difficult. There was a point that he started dropping the idea of making it to Number 1. However, Engr. Tejano has always excelled in the academics. He is a consistent honor student since grade school, and graduated Magna Cum Laude in college.

UC offered him to choose between a car and cash worth P500,000 as his reward.

Engr. Tejano chose the cash reward, saying that the cash reward would provide immediate help to his family.

Meanwhile, Engr. Tejano's fellow UC graduate, Engr. Fabre took the tenth spot with a rating of 88.90 percent.

It is interesting to note that Engr. Fabre has embraced a mind-conditioning technique that stimulates his skills in dealing with the exam. He said he focuses on answering questions that he thinks would possibly turn out during the actual examination.

He said that this way he would get used to the questions. Indeed, the method has paid off well.

Engr. Fabre said that he while he does not have academic laurels to flaunt, his determination and diligence, and the support of his loved ones have kept him going. Years of toil has indeed borne fruits.

Dr. Rodel Naval, dean of the College of Engineering, said that the feat of the two new engineers did not come as a surprise because they already demonstrated in their undergraduate years the qualities of achievers.

On top of their achievements, the glory has always been offered to the source of wisdom – The Almighty.