TIPS FOR UPCAT TAKERS

I may not be the perfect authority to give tips for students who dream to be one of the Iskolar ng Bayan and I don’t even know whether I would passed the examination. But atleast, I have close friends whom I had talked to and were definite passers of the University of the Philippines College Admission Test and I’ve searched different blogs regarding their experiences who took the UPCAT on the last few years.

Around 70, 000 students each year take UPCAT and assume that 50 percent of them chose UP Diliman as their first choice campus. Most of the students have the notion that Diliman is the best institution among UP schools located in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao but the truth is each campuses has its own specialties. If you realy plan to take UPCAT, there are many factors to be considered:

1. Like I’ve said before, every UP campuses has its own specialties. For example, in the University of the Philippines Los Banos Electrical Engineering Department ( UPLB) in Laguna, out of 14 board exams since 2001, 13 were 100 percent and 1 has 95 percent of passing.

2. Next is, you have to think about the course you would like to pick or you have picked. According to Franz, currently fourth year engineering student of UP Diliman said that UPCAT is one of the easiest admission exam in the country. The thing that makes it difficult to pass is that thousands of them take it every year and there are limited slots for every courses. He suggested that be careful of choosing quota – courses such as nursing, engineering, and accountancy. Perfect example is in nursing, there are only 75 slots alotted.

3. Again, so what course did you pick? UPCAT measures your intelectual ability on the following areas: mathematics, science, language proficiency and reading comprehension. I’ve read blogs that reading comprehension was the hardest part of the examination because it was time consuming. But if you picked engineering or accountancy as your first choice course, you should have high scores in math and science even you slumped english, you’ll pass UPCAT. ( that’s what they said )

4. You’ll get a deduction of .25 point for every wrong answers that’s why I discourage those who plan to take the exam to do random guessing, just educated guess. For example, if there are four to five choices in the test,be sure to have eliminated two to three of those before answering the question you are unsure but I guess it’ll be a great help than random guessing especially in reading comprehension. (If you’ll leave it blank, there’ll be no deduction.)

5. In reading comprehension, patience is very necessary bacause it’s really long and it’ll annoy you. Don’t forget to bring wrist watch so that you could monitor your time. Here are some suggested strategies for reading comprehension passages and questions:

1. Skim the question to find out what you should concentrate on.
2. Read each passsage actively and visually.
3. Paraphrase while you are reading.
4. Read all the answer choices carefully
5. Leave the most difficult questions antil the end of each section.

6. I almost forgot, your high school grades matters! So if you don’t have good grades in your freshman to junior years, there’s no sense in taking UPCAT. Admission to UP depends on a student’s University Predicted Grade ( UPG ) which is a combination of the student’s score in the UPCAT and his average of final grades for the first three years of high school.

Here are some items as far as I can remember that I encountered on this years’s UPCAT but the test varies annualy.

a. Language Profficiency ( Error Spotting, Vocabulary, Arrangement of Sentences)

b. Math (Geometry, no Trigonometry)

c. Science (Chemistry and Genetics)

If you seriously want to be an UPCAT passer, then you must consider your first day of school as your first day of preparation for UPCAT. You really have to be prepared and don’t take high school for granted (what I mean is, some performing students just excel for the meantime but they are not really planning for college).

So that’s it! I hope it helps. You’re on the rightest page if you really dream of becoming a UP student. Remember to sleep well during the night before the test and be at your best shape the actual day. Don’t bring too much snacks to avoid unexpected trips to the bathroom. You’re lucky because I knew all these stuffs just recently.

Always value your time. Admission to UP is a great fulfillment not only for you but also for your family because of its high standard of education and special privileges. However, if you will not pass UPCAT, don’t be depressed. Rather, think that GOD has other plans for you. Don’t forget that there are many successful personalities who just graduated from provincial or even local Universities and Colleges.