The D Spot

Now that the submission of application for UPCAT (SY 2010-2011)  has closed, senior students who will take the UPCAT on 1 or 2 August 2009  should now seriously take last minute steps to have a better chance of passing the UPCAT that will be held in UP Diliman and other provincial testing sites. There were about 62,000 takers for the current school year, for which about 10% have been accepted. As mentioned in the UPCAT’s website,

Admission into UP depends not only on your performance in the UPCAT but also on your high school grades. Your weighted standardized scores on the UPCAT subtests in Language Proficiency, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics and Science, and the weighted average of final grades in your first three years in high school are combined. Moreover, to implement the policy of democratization to make the UP studentry more representative of the nation’s population, socio- economic and geographic considerations are factored in the selection of campus qualifiers.

The website gives only two specific guidelines that have to be followed on the test dates:

1. Go to your designated Test Center on the date specified in your Test Permit. Be there by 6:30 for the morning session or by 12:30 for the afternoon session.

2. Bring only your Test Permit, two good quality pencils, a sharpener, a good quality rubber eraser and snacks. (The test administration will last about five hours). the use of cellphones and/or calculating devices during the test is strictly prohibited and can be a cause for disqualification.

For those of you who are looking for tips for UPCAT, you can go back to my previous post TIPS for UPCAT Takers (and ACET, too). Most of those tips were given by my 3 kids—Angelo, BA, and Vince who passed the UPCAT (one has graduated, while 2 are still on board), and lately by Chato, one of my daughters who is now a freshman. These tips are tried and tested. Only 1 of the 5, Monica, did not pass UPCAT because at that time she was not serious about going to UP, let alone, about going to college. She has since graduated from the Ateneo Law School and is now reviewing for her Bar Exams in September. I have 2 more kids to go—Pau and Alan Jr, though we have been telling them, “No pressures when you take the UPCAT (and ACET). Just try your best.”

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ACET application forms are now available (from 15 June to 15 August 2009), by the way. It’s also time to inquire from other colleges and universities, as well. Take note of their deadlines, and be sure to complete the requirements. I have heard of students who got outright disqualifications because their documentations/requirements were not complete upon submission. The schools will not take time out to call students individually to complete their requirements, and most of the time, these cases will drown because of automation.

And in a few months, after all the results of the tests have been released, the next step will be the decision—what school to choose, ADMU? DLSU? UP? UST? etc.,

A message I am leaving to you, dear seniors (and for your parents, too), like I told my other kids who are yet to take the UPCAT, ACET, etc., “No pressures when you take the UPCAT (and ACET). Just try your best.”

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