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.

The post 11 Ways to Prepare for the UPCAT and other College Entrance Tests Without Leaving Your Home appeared first on Review Masters.

However, you might be one of those who did not qualify for the course you applied for. Maybe you just had one subtest score not making it to the cutoff.

Almost qualified, but just didn’t make it. Sayang.

The question now is… Is there still a chance to get accepted to UST?

What’s nice about entrance exams and the process of college admission is that even though you do not qualify, universities are still giving students opportunities to get admitted.

This process is referred to as reconsideration.

The good news is UST is offering this option to students whose scores did not quite make the cutoffs.

How to appeal for reconsideration

The process is simple for USTET reconsideration: you just need to write an appeal letter to the Dean of the college you want to apply to. In your letter, explain why you want to enter the college and why they should reconsider your case.

The dean will then evaluate your appeal and give you the details of the requirements and dates for follow-ups.

TIP: Be enthusiastic about being a Thomasian in your letter. Explain with sincerity why you want to be in UST.

Just to be sure, bring the following requirements when you submit your appeal. You’ll never know which document will come in handy when you process your appeal.

• Letter of appeal (REQUIRED) – Prepare two (2) copies, one for the UST office and one for yourself.
• A copy of your high school grades (just in case)
• A copy of your USTET results (just in case)

Please take note that your chance of being admitted still depends on the availability of slots for the degree program you applied for. Remember that the qualifiers are given utmost priority for the slots.

Also, there are courses that are really popular and competition for slots for those courses is tough. So choose your degree programs carefully and manage your expectations.

Your Choice, A Different Adventure

This is where it gets tricky. UST has about 20 colleges serving about 110 undergraduate courses. And each college and course has a different cutoff score requirement and variation of the reconsideration process.

Dates and deadlines will differ per college. Also, some colleges will require a face-to-face interview before you get admitted. However, some students get lucky and go straight to enrollment after their appeal get evaluated.

The Ultimate Tip For Reconsideration

Probably the most important tip in the USTET reconsideration process is to physically inquire at the Dean’s office of your target degree program and ask them about the details of the appeal process.

They are the ones who will evaluate your appeal, right? You need to tap into their minds because they know the ins and outs of the process.

Rejected? There’s still hope.

If your appeal gets rejected, you still have another option to enter UST. Like other major universities, you can still apply for transfer if your really want to be a Thomasian. Study for one year in another school, get good grades, apply for transfer and take the exam.

Good luck!

The post USTET Reconsideration 2020 appeared first on Review Masters.

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1. The high quality of a UP education

It’s unquestionable. UP is the undisputed premier university in the country. Based on the study conducted by Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), UP is ranked number 1 for several years and up to present. Even international surveys and studies recognize UP as a top university globally.

2. The reasonable expectation of professional success upon graduation

The graduates of UP have constantly ranked high if not topped the examinations given by the Philippine Professional Regulatory Commission. Employers prefer UP graduates over other applicants. A lot of UP alumni hold respectable positions in government agencies, private institutions, and even in NGOs. You can find from different industries successful people who excel in their respective fields who were once UP students dreaming of contributing a positive change to society.

3. Tuition fee in UP is free

Because of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (also known as Republic Act 10931), UP has no tuition fee. This is for first-time college students (students who does not have a college degree yet).

UP also has the Student Financial Assistance Program. Through this program, students avail of discounted tuition fees to full tuition fee waivers, cash subsidies, according to their individual income brackets.

Do you want your child to study in UP? Make sure that he/she is well prepared for the UPCAT

4. The academic freedom enjoyed by faculty and students alike

Undaunted by any oppression through the years, democracy and freedom remain to be the tool in breaking any barrier to academic advancement. This is why UP students can freely express themselves and have confidence in facing challenges that await them in and out of the UP campus.

5. The UP’s programs accredited nationally and internationally

The Commission on Higher Education has declared UP as a Center of Excellence in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Marine Science, Music, Physics, English, Foreign Languages, Literature, Economics, Industrial Relations, Political Science, Psychology, Public Administration, Sociology, Communication Arts, Journalism, Architecture, Electrical Engineering, Geodetic Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Anthropology, History, Filipino, Geology, Medicine, Nursing, Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering, Forestry Education, Veterinary Education and Fisheries (Source: http://www.up.edu.ph/).

Also, UP has Memoranda of Agreement with various universities in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia, making its programs accredited abroad.

The post Why Should Your Child Take the UPCAT? appeared first on Review Masters.

This video of UPLB says otherwise. This is the UPLB we know. A beautiful and peaceful campus. Just watch and see for yourself. Who knows? You might be writing it as your first choice campus in you application form.

The video was made by Darryl Santos, a freelance web developer and videographer. You can check more of his work at his Tumblr page.

The post This Video of UPLB Will Mesmerize You appeared first on Review Masters.

We have been learning our whole lives; our entire childhood was spent in school. We attended class, listened to lectures, answered our assignments and took exams. However, it seems that what we remember does not correlate to how much is being taught to us.

What could be causing this?

A body of research shows that the key to effective learning is not just what you know, but what you know about what you know (get it?).

To put it straightforwardly, when a student learns, he or she calls two kinds of prior knowledge from the mind:

• knowledge about the subject at hand (physics, math, history, etc.)


• knowledge about how learning works

Here’s the bad news: the current education system emphasizes on the first point and almost completely disregards the second one. The disregard could be unintentional but it is very damaging, given that one’s ability to learn is a huge predictor of life success, from academics achievements to work milestones.

Parents and educators are pretty good at imparting the first kind of knowledge. We’re comfortable talking about concrete information: names, dates, numbers, facts. But the guidance we offer on the act of learning itself — the ‘metacognitive’ aspects of learning — is more hit-or-miss, and it shows.Annie Murphy Paul

Putting this in perspective, our current education teaches students what to learn and NOT how to learn.

New researches show that there is great variations in what students know about how to learn.

The most striking finding is that low-achieving students show “substantial deficits” in their awareness of the cognitive and metacognitive strategies that lead to effective learning. This means that these students are struggling due to a gap in their knowledge about how learning works.

So how do we learn how to learn? Here are the learning techniques that work. Make sure that you apply these when you study and review for your tests.

1. Force yourself to recall

By default, learning is a bit hard and not fun. Recall needs effort. However, when you trying to recall things and you are having difficulty with it, that’s when you are learning best. It just like weightlifting; the more weight you lift, the stronger you get.

2. Make connections

The author of the book Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning tells us that “the more you can explain about the way your new learning relates to prior knowledge, the stronger your grasp of the new learning will be, and the more connections you create that will help you remember it later.”

Using real-life examples of concepts you just recently learned is one effective technique to remember in making connections. If you have just learned about gas laws, think of what happens when you inflate a tire or when you put a balloon in the fridge.

3. Answer the question WHY?

Knowing the underlying reason why a phenomenon is happening or a concept is proven is one way of learning effectively. With questioning, our brains are making connections, doing logical processes and creating images that facilitates our understanding.

Asking why is part of a larger technique, which is reflection. Contemplating on why things are, what happened during the day and how something works helps improves our self-efficacy.

4. Avoid fluency

Fluency is the feeling of ease when you’re reading something.

It’s a trap!

Say, for example, you are in a commercial building and you are trying to remember the room number where you went to. On the door says 112-B. You then think, “Oh, 112-B. Easy!” Then as you walk away, you forgot it instantly.

Instead of just reading the room number, a better way to do it is after looking away, ask yourself, what’s the room number? If you recall it’s 112-B, then you’re good to go.

5. Be hilarious and make exaggerations

Consider this statement: DO NOT think of a pink flying elephant. Were you able to avoid thinking about it? Compare that to an ordinary elephant, which is easier to remember?

Words and pictures work great together. If properly put into use, it can be a powerful learning technique.

If you can put a concept in a mental image that is unforgettable, then it is easier for you to recall things. One way of doing that is by imagining concepts using hilarious and exaggerated images. Adding more details using the other senses aside from sight to you mental image will enhance your recall.

For example, if you are studying European history, imagine a bobble-head Napoleon Bonaparte wearing a shiny crown riding a red tank eating french fries. You can use these cues to remember that he is a French (hence, the fries) military leader (indicated by the tank) and emperor (the crown).

Final Thoughts

Learning is not just about content and subjects matter. It’s also about the process. Learning how to learn is probably one of the major factors that could spell success or failure in one’s academic life.

The post 5 Techniques to Remember Everything You Learn appeared first on Review Masters.

DepEd released the partial list online, composed of DepEd and non-DepEd schools, technical vocational institutions (TVIs), higher education institutions (HEIs), state universities and colleges (SUCs).

DepEd Secretary Br. Armin Luistro issued a statement that the 2014 and 2015 budgets already have allocations for 30,000 classrooms for SHS. In addition, he said that the government will further allocate funds for the SHS. The 2016 proposed budget targets the construction of over 20,000 classrooms for SHS.

3,839 public schools that were part of the list was submitted to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for funding and to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for bidding and construction. Aside from public schools, the list also includes 1,866 non-DepEd schools (includes private schools), HEIS, TVIs, LUCs, and SUCs which were already given the go signal to offer SHS this June 2016.

The partial list of schools are available here:
DepEd schools – SHS
non-DepEd schools – SHS

The post Partial List of High Schools Offering Senior High School Released appeared first on Review Masters.

“UPCAT, our admissions exam in UP, will be reinvented to be able to assess higher skills: knowledge, values, skills and competencies of our senior high school graduates from grade 12,”UP Vice President for Academic Affairs Gisela Concepcion

“UPCAT, our admissions exam in UP, will be reinvented to be able to assess higher skills: knowledge, values, skills and competencies of our senior high school graduates from grade 12,” said VP Concepcion.

UP has been preparing for the K to 12 transition for the past years and the changes in its admission system is part of the pipeline. These changes are part of UP’s medium-term goal in its K to 12 road map. Aside from this, part of the preparation for K to 12 is UP’s participation in training public school teachers who will be teaching senior high school students.

The UPCAT is the most competitive and is probably the most popular entrance examination in the country. About 86,000 students take the exam each year, vying for a slot in the country’s premier university.

Preparing for the UPCAT? – click here

With the upcoming ‘reinvention’ of the UPCAT, several suggestions were offered during the UPD Cluster Workshop 2013 held last September 30. These were:

• a 2-stage admission through UPCAT and a track test
• a program-specific exam on top of the UPCAT


• and make a position paper to the government re-establishing an assessment exam for K-12 graduates beginning 2018.

Aside from these suggestions, UP President Alfredo Pascual suggested that the UPCAT and its questions should be reviewed to make it “less achievement-based and more aptitude-based to identify geniuses from all walks of life…the bright students from poor families.” – Review Masters

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However, according to the Jobs and Salary Report 2015 by Jobstreet.com, the school you came from is NOT the number one basis for acceptance.

Eighty percent (80%) of the employers surveyed in the study said that they would like applicants to emphasize INTERNSHIP when they are interviewed.

Your grades is not at the top either.

If you are newly out of college, you know how daunting it feels to create your resume, hand it to companies and employers and wait for them to call you back for an interview. Job hunting is not that simple.

So what is the secret sauce?

INTERNSHIP.

Based on the report, internship is the main factor that employer look into when hiring applicants fresh out of college. Eighty percent (80%) of the employers surveyed in the study said that they would like applicants to emphasize this when they are interviewed.

Grades come in second in the employers’ list (at 52% – lower that the 58% of last year’s result).

Surprisingly, coming in third at 50% (2% shy of the 2nd place) is a part-time job. This factor was at 40% last year, thus a significant 10% increase for this year’s study.

Aside from these factors, communication skills, trainability, willingness to learn and initiative also came up in the survey. Although minor, employers prioritize these skills as well over other factors.

This stresses that on-the-job experience and work experience while in college matter a lot for a fresh graduate to land a job.

So the next time you plan out your career path, make sure that you get work experience while in college.

The post Employers Prioritize This In A Fresh Grad’s Resume – And It’s Not Your Grades Or Your Alma Mater appeared first on Review Masters.

But what really is the K to 12 program (aside from the fact that there will be 2 additional years to the basic education of children)? Here are 12 things that you should know about it.

1. The Philippines is the last country in Asia to implement K-12

There are only 3 countries in the world that has a 10-year basic education (pre-college) program: Angola, Djibouti and Philippines. In Asia, we are the last country to implement K to 12.

2. K to 12 is free to public schools.

That’s what the government is trying to do. Of course there are indirect and miscellaneous costs to parents and schools but government agencies are collaborating to enable everyone free access to quality education, especially to those who belong to lower income brackets.

Critics however, are not keen to the extra years of schooling. They say that it will just be an additional burden to parents and the government is not ready to accommodate the students for the additional years due to lack of preparation, implementation, planning and funding.

3. The K in K to 12 is mandatory.

In the previous school system, the Kindergarten level is not required for a student to enter elementary. But in Republic Act no. 10157 or the Kindergarten Education Act, Kindergarten became a prerequisite for students to be admitted to Grade 1. In total, the number of basic education years for a student is 13 (a “lucky” number, perhaps?).

4. Mother tongue will be used as the medium of instruction in the first few grade levels.

In Kinder, mother tongue or lingua franca, shall be used as the medium of instruction. The language used in the locality, may it be Ilokano, Tagalog, Bisaya, Bicolano, etc., will serve as the medium in teaching the topics and concepts.

In Grades 1-3, the mother tongue will be used in teaching all subjects, except in teaching Filipino and English subjects.

Beginning Grade 4, the languages for instruction will be Filipino and English.

5. K to 12 has 13 years of schooling.

As mentioned in the previous item, there is a total of 13 year levels in the K to 12 program. These are:

• Kindergarten – 1 year


• Grade School (Grade 1 to Grade 6) – 6 years


• Junior High School (Grade 7 to Grade 10) – 4 years


• Senior High School (Grade 11 to Grade 12) – 2 years

6. K to 12 was rolled out “gradually” by DepEd.

Here’s how DepEd is rolling out K to 12.

Kindergarten implementation began SY 2011-2012

The enhanced curriculum for Grade 1 and Grade 7 (also known as 1st Year Junior High School) was rolled out in SY 2012–2013.

Grade 11 will be introduced in SY 2016–2017 and Grade 12 in SY 2017–2018.

If there was full implementation of K to 12, the first batch of K-12 students will graduate in March 2018. Thus there will be no college freshmen for SY 2016-2017 and SY 2017-2018.

However, there are private schools that implemented “relabeling” of their students and they will have graduates for the two mentioned school years (Get our free report about this here).

7. Not all schools will offer Grades 11 and 12.

Contrary to what most people know, not all schools will offer Grades 11 and 12 (Senior High). Some schools will not offer them not because they don’t want to, but because they can’t.

Thus, if a school (public or private) does not offer Senior high, the student needs to look for another school that offers Senior high.

8. K to 12 graduates are ready to be employed – even without a college degree.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro said that “the K to 12 program would like to ensure that even if they don’t choose to go to college, they finish studying what is basic.” K to 12 graduates may already be employed in several industries. This is because the curriculum enables students to acquire Certificates of Competency (COCs) and National Certifications (NCs).

9. Students will choose career tracks in the latter part of high school.

There are several major tracks that the student can choose from:

• Academic Track


• TechVoc


• Sports


• Arts and Design

Students will undergo several assessments to determine their interests and strengths. These will include an aptitude test, a career assessment test, and an occupational inventory for high schools. With these components, students are properly guided in their decision on what specialization they want to take.

10. DepEd will partner with colleges and universities for K to 12.

Starting SY 2016-2017, DepEd will partner with colleges, universities and technical-vocational institutions to use their facilities and teaching staff for the Senior High implementation. This is to offset the reduction in enrollment in these institutions as well as to offset the lack of teachers and facilities in existing high school.

In fact, several colleges have already offered Grade 11 this school year as a test run for the K to 12 program. They will have Grade 12 graduates one year ahead of the K-12 full implementation.

11. The government is actively involved in K to 12.

A Joint Oversight Committee from the Senate and the House of Representatives shall be formed to oversee, monitor, and evaluate implementation.

12. DepEd made a video about K to 12.

The post 12 Things You Need To Know About K to 12 appeared first on Review Masters.