What You See is Not and is What You'll Get

“Can you come with me tomorrow at CASURECO?” Our university Psychometrician popped her question towards me when I was busy tiptyping on the desktop computer. I immediately replied: “Sure ma’am! But does Ma’am Shie (our director) know?”. “Yes, she recommended that you will be the one to come with me for the administration of the test to the trainees/applicants”. As one of the GC's it's a done deal for me to join our Psychometrician coz as much as possible I would also like to be exposed to the different areas of work in our office. So that’s how the potato got cooked. The next morning, I and Ma’am Gaile was supposed to be fetched at 8:00 am by the people from Casureco, but then they came at around 8:40 already. Off we went to Iriga (Casureco III) then arrived at San Isidro at 10:00 AM. That was one of the longest trip from Naga to Iriga that I have experienced and it was due to the heavy traffic going out from Naga.

Number of examinees? 41. Location: Function Room, but then they looked like sardines in it so we had to disperse them. 14 of the trainees under my supervision got to occupy the seats outside the function room. We had to rearranged the chairs and tables.. whew. By the way it was a huge office and there were some disturbances from time to time. Oops! What happened to standardization? This all against to all that I have learned in Psychometrics 1 and 2. And for sure there were a lot of extraneous variables during the exam. =D. Two types of tests were given, an IQ test which was the PNLT and a personality test the 16 PF. Then I administered the exam and considering the background of the examinees I tried to give the instructions in the simplest manner as possible.

Number of trainees to be employed as a LINEMAN? 20 out of 41. Because of the big number, the trainees themselves became so engrossed in answering the questions. Some staffs of Casureco would even joke “dinibdib ng mga nagexam ung test” (they answered the test wholeheartedly) because some of them took the 16 PF for 2 hours.

During the administration of the test, as I was walking around I saw two interesting things.

I saw a replica of R2D2! It was near the glass window of the 2nd floor office. One of the coolest things ever that I’ve ever seen. Even though I didn’t get to touch it and get a closer look still it pays off a feeling of privilege because only a few owns action figures such as those and as big as that one. Maybe the owner is a Star Wars enthusiast, I wonder if he/she has a collection. People can find meaning in their passion for things and it’s not just a collection or an action figure but it’s an extension of their “child life” in their hearts. We all love to be child once in a while right?

Then again I was walking around the vicinity of the office of Casureco. Near the examiners was a paper posted on the wall. It was quite old and filthy, but I got so curious with it. What in the world is this? What is it doing on the wall? It’s so nonsense then why is it on the wall? I really can’t decipher what was it, so? Back to work!! I now turned my back and continued to check on the examiners. After a few minutes when I was about 10 feet away from the posted paper I suddenly saw a name on it! I even said to myself “waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I’m so sorry!”. I just felt that somehow I should have seen it first than look at the paper’s useless part. Knowing how perception works from General Psychology I know why my eyes saw it that way. But on the contrary, I somehow got guilty that I was not able to see it first.

Try to look at the picture.. then tell me what you saw first. Be honest huh! I even showed it to our students when we got back in our campus and they had the same experience as mine :P

It’s not the test administration and honorarium that had made me happy today because it will be charged to my work experience. But the two simplest yet meaningful things that I saw on the wall and up the office. Yep, I did saw two interesting things. But it’s only R2D2 that I’m not able to get, coz I don’t like to be imprisoned just because of a replica. Hahahaha But with the second one? What I saw is what I got and I'll always get! It’s faith!