The UPCAT is scheduled on September 18, 2016.

The UPCAT is for students who are graduates of secondary school OR senior high school students expecting to graduate in 2017. Grade 10 students are not allowed to take the UPCAT yet since UP does not accept senior high school applications.

Online applications for UPCAT 2016 will start in July 18, 2016

Online UPCAT Review

Aside from the online application, UP is also offering a free online UPCAT review, a service for students who applied to take the test. They started the service last year to help applicants prepare for their test (Review Masters has a free online review since 2009 which you can access here).

UPCAT Coverage

The UPCAT has 4 subtests: Language Proficiency (English and Filipino), Reading Comprehension (English and Filipino), Science and Mathematics. In the previous exams, the Filipino part of the two subtests were not formally announced by UP. This year however, they made a very clear pronouncement about the exam’s coverage.

Bookmark this page for more updates.

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Before the implementation of the K to 12 curriculum, the procedure for application was simple to understand. Those who want to take the UPCAT should belong to any of the following:

• Senior students (Fourth Year, Grade 12, Senior 6) of DepEd accredited schools or secondary schools abroad expecting to graduate at the end of the school year
• Graduates of DepEd accredited schools or secondary schools abroad
• Those declared eligible for admission to college after taking the Philippine Educational Placement Test (PEPT).

With the K to 12 program now being implemented by DepEd, parents, students and school administrators are confused whether Grade 10 students can take the UPCAT.

Now we ask the controversial question: Are Grade 10 students allowed to take the UPCAT this year?

“Only those, mostly coming from private high schools with accelerated programs,” said University of the Philippines president Alfredo Pascual last Saturday, July 18, during an event with some of the university’s alumni.

Can Grade 10 students take the UPCAT this year?

“Only those, mostly coming from private high schools with accelerated programs”Alfredo Pascual, UP President

High schools with accelerated programs are those school that were able to secure a permit from CHED to let their students graduate by 2016. These schools will in a way maintain their 4-year high school but implement the accelerated K to 12 program.

Last Friday, the Commission on Education issued a memo saying that those who can enroll in college in 2016 should graduate from high school. These high schools got permits from CHED to start K to 12 earlier than the mandated year. Some of these schools also served as pilot testers of the Kto 12 curriculum.

The list of schools in the memo are listed at the bottom of this page. There are 391 high schools listed as of writing.

In addition, UP Vice President for Public Affairs Prospero de Vera gave a statement that the UPCAT taker has to have a certification that he or she is graduating this 2016.

Pascual also said that UP estimates only about 20,000 will take the UPCAT in 2015. This is due to the drastic decrease in number of high school students expected to graduate this year. This number pales in comparison to the 87,000 who took the UPCAT last year.

Memorandum From the Chairperson Re. Enrollment for SY 2016-2017 and SY 2017-2018

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The UPCAT is scheduled on August 30, 2015.

According to the website, applications for UPCAT 2015 will start in July. In the previous years, applications were only done through physical and courier/mail submissions. Now, applications can be accomplished online which will enable students faster application processing.

Aside from the online application, UP mentioned that they will include a link to the free Online UPCAT Reviewer, a service for students which they announced early this year (Review Masters has a free online review since 2009 which you can access here).

UP also released the coverage of the UPCAT. The test will consist of 4 subtests: Language Proficiency (English and Filipino), Science, Math and Reading Comprehension (English and Filipino). In the previous exams, the Filipino part of the two subtests were not formally announced by UP. This year however, they made a very clear pronouncement about the exam’s coverage.

The UPCAT general information, however, did not include a provision of who can take the test. We all know that this year is the transition period for the implementation of the K to 12 curriculum and students are still wondering if Grade 10 students can take the test. As of this moment, we are yet to hear the official announcement of UP about this matter.

Bookmark this page for more updates.

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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

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“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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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.

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