11 Ways to Prepare for the UPCAT and other College Entrance Tests Without Leaving Your Home

You home?! Most probably.

The COVID-19 crisis has affected our day-to-day lives and disrupted the way we do things dramatically. Staying at home for the moment is the safest way to avoid getting infected.

However, we will eventually recover and move on with our lives. And one thing is certain – there will be college entrance tests (CETs) in a few months from now. The UPCAT, ACET, DCAT and USTET are just around the corner.

The question is, “Are you prepared for them?”

At this moment you should have already started your preparation and review for CETs. Starting early is the key to your CET success. However, due to the current situation, the traditional way of preparation such as classroom reviews is not possible.

Here are 11 ways on how you can prepare for the UPCAT and other CETs without the need to leave the comfort and safety of your home.

Going Online

The internet is probably the best thing that happened to us humans, especially in these times that we need to stay at home. It has enabled us to do a lot of things such as shop, socialize, talk to friends and get updated with current events without leaving our spot. Being online enabled us to learn and study without going to a physical school of learning center. Thus we can use the internet to review and study for our CETs.

The first set of tips uses the internet to aid your CET preparation.

1. Download reviewers and use them

There are tons of reviewers available in the internet nowadays. Just one Google search and you’ll stumble on a plethora of online reviewers which you can download.

Aside from search, you can also get reviewers from the following sources:

• Facebook groups
• Reddit discussions
• Online friends

Review Masters has a set of free UPCAT reviewers available for download. You may get them here.

IMPORTANT: Did you notice the second part of the title of this tip? It says, “USE THEM”. Yes, you have to use the reviewers (obvious ba?).

I have seen students who just downloaded reviewers here and there and not use them for review and practice. They just collected and downloaded and kept it in their devices.   Sayang.

So I urge you to answer the reviewers you have downloaded. Please.

A word of caution about reviewers: Be sure to obtain your reviewers from legitimate sources. Most of these materials are still copyrighted. Authors can go after you for unauthorized distribution and reproduction.

2. Sign up to an online review portal/e-learning site

An online review portal or e-learning platform will greatly help you prepare for the test. E-learning sites such as these will provide you with the following:

• review questions and explanations
• video tutorials
• tips & strategies
• guides, cheat sheets, notes and other resource materials

The great thing about review portals is that the things you need on college entrance test preparation is all in one place. It’s a one-stop-shop for your preparation.

One example of this is the Review Masters Online Review Portal. You may sign up for a free account and you may also upgrade to unlock exclusive features.

3. Watch CET-related videos

Video is a great tool to refresh what you have learned in school and learn new things about the UPCAT and other CETs. Multiple studies have shown that video, specifically, can be a highly effective educational tool for learning.

There are tons of content about your high school lessons on YouTube. You may search for the specific topic you want to learn about and view it on-demand.

Review Masters has a YouTube channel with videos on CET tips and strategies. I invite you to subscribe to our YouTube channel here.

4. Attend live online classes

Videos are great. But what’s better for your CET preparation are live online classes.

With a live class, you can interact with your online instructor and classmates. You can ask a question and receive a reply right away.

Live online classes lets you experience hands-on teaching at the comfort of your home. You have your instructor, classmates and the lesson at hand. It’s just like your regular review classes: without physical contact (and with the given situation, you don’t want anyway, right?).

The Review Masters Online Review Platinum Program has the Virtual Classes. These are live online classes which let teachers and students learn and interact together through a virtual classroom. Read more about the Platinum program on this page.

5. Join online groups and communities

Wouldn’t it be great to prepare for your entrance exams with friends and other test-takers? Online groups and communities are great avenues for these.

By joining online group discussions, you can ask your peers about their course choices, review methods, application issues and whole lot of other concerns.

Also in these groups, some professors and experts chime in to assist students. Take advantage of these opportunities.

I invite you to join the Ka-TOURs (Tropang Online UPCAT Review) community on Facebook. Get to talk about CETs and learn with your peers and friends.

6. Consult with tutors, professors and experts

Being at home should not stop you from getting expert help on your CETs. You should use this time to catch up with your high school teachers and probably consult them about your college entrance plans.

If you have a personal tutor, it would be great to contact them, too. Ask them for tips and about their CET experience.

Aside from your high school teachers and tutors, you can also get help from experts specifically on college entrance exams. This is probably the best source of info that you should look for if you want to increase your chance of passing your CETs. These are professors and instructors who have experience directly with college entrance exams.

The Review Masters team is one such group of experts. We have been helping students prepare for CETs for the past 18 years. Personally, I have spoken to thousands of test takers and given them tips and gotten feedback from them.

Get to connect with the Review Masters through our online review program.

No internet? No problem!

Yes, we have the internet and all but that is not just the way to prepare for CETs at home. You can also go with the traditional offline review methods.

7. Review your high school notes

The UPCAT and other CETs are, of course, based on your high school topics and lessons. What better resource to use are your good ol’ high school notes.

According to scientific research, writing notes improves your memory recall. Since you are the ones who wrote the notes of your lessons, it would be easier for you to recall the things you studied in school and apply them in your CET preparation.

You can read your notes, answer again the given examples by your teachers and organize these notes into bitesize pieces by using index cards (we will discuss this in the tip #10).

8. Answer review books

There are books and reviewers available for sale in bookstores and online sellers. It would be best if you can secure your copies of these reviewers and use them for your practice.

You can buy the books from bookstores if you want a fresh copy of the reviewer. You can also order online.  I know of some groups who sell online and ship their reviewers to students.

If you want to save some cash though, you can just borrow available copies from your friends and upper classmen. Advantage and disadvantage though is that most probably, it has already been answered and there are already marks on the reviewer.

The Review Masters Platinum membership include physical review books aside from the online review. You can go to this page to see all the details.

9. Print and answer downloaded reviewers

Remember the reviewers you downloaded from the internet in tip #1? Now is the time to print them and answer them the traditional way.

Yes, you can answer these reviewer on-screen, however, you will get better practice if you answer them on paper. The act of writing down the answers and doing computations by hand will improve your performance during the test.  In the actual exam, you will use a scratch sheet and shade the answer sheet by hand anyway so it would be best to use your time at home to practice writing on paper.

10. Create cheat sheets, flash cards and index cards

Organizing your notes is a great way to improve your study habit and use of review time. Creating index cards helps you locate lessons more efficiently thus helping you maximize your review time. Plus writing your notes on index cards will help you recall those lessons, as we have discussed in the previous tip.

In tip #7, I told to review your high school notes. Writing them down on index cards will help you organize those notes and help you recall your high school lessons easier. Hitting two birds with one stone, right?

11. Pray, reflect and meditate

Your time at home is the best opportunity to get to know yourself more and think about your plans for CETs and college life in general.

Spend a few minutes each day meditating and reflecting on the choices you’ll make and the preparation that you will do.

Asking the Almighty for enlightenment and guidance will surely work wonders on your test results and life in general.

As we help flatten the curve while staying at home, I hope you do these tips for your UPCAT and CETs preparation. Yes, we can’t go outside like before, but we can still improve ourselves and do something positive for our college entrance test readiness.