It’s the UPG.

Here are some information to shed some light…

What is the UPG?

UPG, or the University Predicted Grade, is a composite score made up of the applicant’s weighted UPCAT test scores and weighted grades from high school. In addition, other factors like geographical location and school type are incorporated in the UPG as palugit and pabigat. The UPG is the basis upon which a student may be admitted to the University of the Philippines.

A Brief History of the UPCAT and the UPG

The UP Charter mandates that UP is not to deny admission to the University “by reason of age, sex, nationality, religious belief, or political affiliation.” Although it is not mentioned in the charter, UP also recognizes equity considerations on the economic or social status of applicants.

If this is the case, then why doesn’t UP just admit all applying students?

The University is bound to ensure that they have high academic standards since it is the university that bears the country’s name. Also, resources are scarce and budget is limited. Thus, the selection process is put into place, focusing on excellence.

Back then there was no entrance test. A student only needs some evidence that he or she had enough college preparation; he or she has taken the specified subjects by UP and has done some laboratory experiments. However,  by the 1920’s, UP has gained its reputation for excellence and was getting a lot of student application. In 1928 an entrance exam was administered and only the top students were admitted, depending on the number of slots available.

This might have been the first UPCAT.

Although there seems to be no problem of having an entrance exam, UP took steps to democratize admission in the 1940’s. It automatically admitted top students from high schools; public and private, urban and rural. In the late 1950’s, achievement, psychological and intelligence tests were given but these were for guidance purposes only. No UPG’s were implemented here. It was in 1961-1962 when the UP Scholastic Aptitude Examination (SAE) was employed to pick candidates for admission.

As years passed, the University noted a 30% delinquency rate which was quite high. To solve this, UP did some research. One of the findings was to combine test scores and scholastic performance to give a reliable way of predicting a student’s performance in college.

It was the UPG’s conception.

1967 was the year the UPCAT was born (although this is still different from today’s UPCAT). The UPG was not yet invented and the UPCAT was used on its own as a selection tool. To enter UP, you may then either pass the UPCAT or be at the top of your class.

In the 1970’s a resolution was passed to combine the three year high school average and the College Admissions Test scores. This made entrance to UP more difficult. It was 80% CAT and 20% high school grades back then. Then a series of studies showed that the high school grade’s weight should be increased.

Then in 1976, Prof. Romeo Manlapaz came up with a system that uses “multiple regression analysis” (I also don’t know what it is if you’re asking) to integrate the high school grades and the UPCAT scores.

The UPG was born.

(to know more about the UP Admission System’s history, you may also want to read Jo Florendo Lontoc’s Excellence and Equity: UP’s Great Balancing Act)

The UPG Formula

Shown below is the equation to compute the UPG.

But the UPG, simply put, is just comprised of the following:

• UPCAT test scores – about 60% of the UPG
• Academic grades from Grade 9 to Grade 11, – about 40% of the UPG

This however is not yet its entirety. The UPG is affected by so called palugit and pabigat.

The EEAS: Palugit and Pabigat

If you remember a while ago, I mentioned that UP took steps to democratize the admission system, meaning give every sector a fighting chance to be admitted to UP. In 1998, UP took it to the next level by implementing the Excellence-Equity Admissions System (EEAS). This adds a twist to the UPG computation.

Basically, the EEAS adjusts the UPG of applicants by a palugit of 0.5 who are coming from public barangay, public vocational, and public general high schools, excluding those administered by state universities and colleges and science high schools. Minorities are also given palugit.

The EEAS also has a pabigat.

A pabigat, on the other hand, is an adjustment going in the opposite direction. One instance that it happens is when a student applies for a campus that is not near his locality. He is given a penalty so it becomes more difficult for him to be admitted to the campus. Applicants in the locality gets more chances to be admitted.

Final Words

With all these things coming together, you now have your UPG; an amalgamation of scholastic performance, test scores and democratization factors. Complicated? Maybe.

Nonetheless, whatever the computation of the UPG may be, it is the university’s discretion and not yours. Your job as a student is to get the best grades that you can get and prepare well for the UPCAT.

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If you said yes to any of the questions above then you should read this before you enroll in a review center.

What are UPCAT Review Centers?

A few decades ago, College Entrance Test Review Centers or UPCAT Review Centers were practically non-existent. This is primarily the reason why your parents, uncles, aunts, family friends, teachers and the like who are above 30 would often say:

“I didn’t need a review center before, self-study is all you need.”

“It’s mostly stock knowledge.”

“They (review centers) only give you confidence, nothing more.”

But the same way that the internet has changed education, the effect of review centers have also changed.

So what exactly are UPCAT Review Centers?

The recent explosion of College Entrance Test Reviews or UPCAT Review Centers have some people scratching their heads.

In a nutshell an UPCAT Review Center is a tutorial center that specializes in helping students improve their chances of qualifying to prestigious universities here in the Philippines.

In a review center, students are guided on the relevant materials to study, familiarized with entrance exams, given mock exams and tips how to answer them effectively.

This guided review results in a more efficient use of time for the student. All this to improve the chances of a student to qualify for the university of their choice.

High School vs. Review Center

A colleague of mine once summarized the difference of a review center and a high school. He said “High Schools teaches you in 4 years (this was before K-12) all the information you’ll need to start college, a review center will guide you in 1 month which lessons in high school you need remember to qualify for college.”

High Schools teaches you in 4 years (this was before K-12) all the information you’ll need to start college, a review center will guide you in 1 month which lessons in high school you need remember to qualify for college.

Essentially, a review center is focused on how students will pass their entrance test and qualify for college.

On the other hand, a high school equips students with knowledge for college and life in general.

Is it required to enroll in a review center?

Several students and parents have been asking us whether UP requires students to enroll in a review center.

The answer is NO.

Students are not required to enroll in any UPCAT review center before they can take the test. In addition, UP does not and will not endorse any review center for that matter.

I need to mention this because some students are under the impression that they won’t be allowed to take the UPCAT if they don’t review. There is no truth to this.

We encourage students to study for the UPCAT like what they do for their other exams. However, unlike regular exams in school, they have to consider that college entrance tests like the UPCAT is a major test that needs extra attention and preparation.

A review center would facilitate proper preparation in terms of content and technique.

If enrolling in a review center is not required, do I need to enroll in one?

The choice is up to you.

You may study on your own and do the preparation yourself. I have seen students make it to their dream college without enrolling in review centers. Some of them reviewed on their own online.

On the other side of the story, I have also seen students whom I believe could have made it, but didn’t, because he/she didn’t get proper guidance that a review center can give.

We found out that students who enrolled in a comprehensive review program have higher chances of passing the test.

Our data in Review Masters reveals that the review program increases the chances of passing by about 2 to 3 times. (This is our own data and is not representative of all review centers.)

So do you need to enroll in a review center? If you want higher chances, I think the choice is apparent.

If you are a student, I invite you to look into our Student’s Guide page.

If you are a parent, you might want to look into our Parents’ Guide page.

Stay tuned for the next article in this series… What to Look For in a Review Center.

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As the UPCAT day is fast approaching, the University of the Philippines has released the status of test permits. Also, the university has also announced some relevant statictics such as the number of issued test permits and the number of expected test takers.

A post at the Office of Admission in UP Diliman indicated the following data:

Expected Number of Examinees

0

Number of Issued Test Permits

0

Here’s an image of the announcement:

Based on these numbers, the examinees for this year is significantly lower than the number of test takers prior to 2015, which range from 60,000 to 80,000 students. This is due the implementation of the K to 12 program by the government.

The number of examinees is expected to increase again next year, 2017, for UPCAT 2018.

To all the test takers… good luck and God bless!

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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

The post Are Grade 10 Students Allowed to Take the UPCAT? Here’s the Answer. appeared first on Review Masters.

This is the first time that UP will have an online application for the UPCAT.

Here’s a screen shot of the online application homepage:

The UPCAT online application website is also mobile-ready. You may create your account and complete your application using your smartphones.

To create your account, here is a simplified guide:

• Visit https://upcatonline.up.edu.ph
• Create an account. You will be asked to enter your name, email and password. Make sure that your email is active for it will serve as your username for the account. A verification link will also be sent to your email.
• Access your email inbox and look for the email from “UPCAT” with the subject “Activate your account.” Click on the verification link. If you can’t find the email, look into your Spam or Junk folder.
• Once verification is complete, you may log in to your account.

After creating your account, you need to complete the process of filling the necessary information, submitting the requirements and paying the application fee. For a more detailed procedure on this, visit the UPCAT General Information page.

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“How is the UPCAT computed?”

“When will the results be released?”

“I missed the UPCAT last August, is there another UPCAT this year?” (a recent question and the answer is “NO”)

While most of the answers to these questions are readily available at the UPCAT website, plenty of students still prefer to ask them anyway. There is, however, a new question that is being asked only this school year both by students and schools alike:

“MAY UPCAT BA THIS YEAR?” (Is there an UPCAT this year 2015?)

Why is the answer to this question both important, and as of the moment… uncertain?

THE FACTS

K-12 was implemented in the Philippines in 2012, 3rd year High School students are now Grade 9.

In 2011, DepEd allowed private schools to calibrate their grade levels during the K-12 transition. Schools who took the program now have Grade 11 students instead of Grade 9 for most other schools. This means that the grade 11 students will be graduating in March 2016. The exact numbers are vague but could be as high as 10,000 or more.

If so, there will be students who will finish their K-12 program next year.

Some students will already graduate.

And they have to go to college.

However, most students who are already part of the K-12 program will not graduate yet. Isn’t it odd to have students of the same batch/class who will graduate ahead of their batchmates while the others tackle the K-12?

THE QUESTION:

For the sake of analysis, discussion or a simple thought exercise… Let’s try to tackle the series of questions below. The first series is we assume there is no UPCAT in 2015, the second series, we assume there is an UPCAT in 2015.

SET 1: May UPCAT ba this year? “NO”

• What will private school graduates which had calibration do after they graduate in 2016? Where will they study for college if there is no UPCAT in 2015?
• UP qualifiers from the Middle East and the US will not have a regular freshman batch they will join, and since their numbers are so few, will UP still accept them for their programs?
• Will UP deny these students the chance to study in UP despite being part of the transition and pilot program of the DepEd K-12?

SET 2: May UPCAT ba this year? “YES”

• Who will be allowed to take the UPCAT?
• Will schools that were part of the transition be allowed to accept students this late so that the students can be eligible for the UPCAT?
• K-12 was designed to fill in gaps in education and give our graduates competitiveness and competence in the workplace and global scale. However, Top Tier High Schools such as the Philippine Science High School, public science high schools and private school honor graduates are already more than competent and competitive after 4 years of high school. Will the K-12 Law penalize these students and not allow them to take the UPCAT or any other college entrance exams when they finish grade 10?
• Will UP allow grade 10 students take the UPCAT?

For an in-depth discussion on these questions, download the free report:

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We would like to hear your take on this. Feel free to write on the comments below.

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I guess you would most likely vote for Jimmy Neutron, right?

Why, this 11-year-old American genius has sudden surges of thought which he calls Brain Blasts. So it would be a hands-down choice for Jimmy.

But don’t jump yet to this conclusion because our underdog favorite, SpongeBob, has something that Jimmy doesn’t have. And because of this “something”, the story (as the title of this article suggests) is given an interesting twist.

If you could describe SpongeBob with three words they would be optimistic, fearless, and relentless.

1. Optimistic

SpongeBob is a jolly sponge with a shining personality. When something terrible happens to him, he never panics. He analyzes the situation, and sees it from the best possible angle. When he and Patrick took the UPCAT, Patrick panicked while taking the test especially the Math section and was terrified at the thought of failing the UPCAT and the possibility of never making it to UP.

SpongeBob was completely optimistic. He had faith in his test-taking skills. These skills enable him to pass the UPCAT. Spongebob might have failed the UPCAT had he not been his usual optimistic self. Acquiring even a tiny portion of Spongebob’s optimism would surely boost your confidence level while taking the UPCAT.

2. Fearless

Although SpongeBob exhibits fear in many situations, his innocence mixed with fearlessness makes an exciting combination.

He knew that he was competing with 86,000 other UPCAT examinees when he took the test and many of them (like Jimmy Neutron) are a lot more intelligent then he is. But he was able to convince himself that no amount of scare tactics (e.g. UPCAT is extremely difficult, UPCAT is only for the genius, etc.) could derail his dream of making it to UP. He was able to erase test anxiety completely from his system.

3. Relentless

Just ask Squidward! Remember when SpongeBob wanted to play games with Squidward; 95% of the time, the latter said “No!” But SpongeBob kept asking, literally dozens of times, until Squidward finally gave in. He did the same during the time that he was still reviewing for the UPCAT. He kept on practicing with the UPCAT review materials he had. He kept on asking his teachers on difficult concepts and problems. He kept on visualizing himself as a freshman (I mean freshsponge) in UP. His relentlessness proved to be a key factor in his success of passing the UPCAT.

Now, how on earth did Jimmy Neutron fail in the UPCAT?

We all know that James Isaac Neutron (a.k.a. Jimmy Neutron) goes to grade school during the day and invents crazy gadgets at night. In fact, he has even designed a rocket that propels him high enough beyond the earth´s atmosphere, permitting him to launch a communications satellite made from…a toaster.

Well, indeed Jimmy’s a genius.

He belongs to the upper 2% of the population set apart from others by their ability to reason, problem-solve, and answer questions based on learned information. This is not to say that a genius is somehow better than everyone else. Work skills, social skills, and simple and complex motor skills may escape these brainy folks — and all these skills are just as important as smarts for determining an individual’s success. And that differentiate Jimmy from SpongeBob.

Here are the three things that made Jimmy lose his chance of qualifying in the UPCAT:

1. Pride

Because of so many achievements in and out of school, Jimmy became proud and it hindered him from growing and learning the techniques and tips to ace the UPCAT. He never asked for any help from anyone; neither did he take time reviewing for the UPCAT when everybody was! He was so overconfident in believing that his Brain Blasts would be enough to get a perfect score in the UPCAT.

2. Lack of Focus

Aside from the fact that he became complacent, he never intentionally prepare for the UPCAT. In fact, he was so pessimistic about the mental exercise (i.e. the UPCAT) especially that his love interest, Cindy Vortex, was allotting so much time reviewing for the UPCAT. So instead of studying with his girlfriend, he tried to invent stuffs that could annoy her and his other classmates while they were reviewing. He became so obsessed with destructive things that they occupied almost all his time when he was supposed to be reviewing.

3. Stress

Because he was endowed with highly unusual gifts, he was expected to pass the UPCAT with flying colors. His parents, his friends, his teachers, and everyone in Retroville were anticipating his spot among the Oblation Awardees. But because of lack of preparation, he became anxious during the UPCAT day. He made careless mistakes. He did not follow instructions correctly. He was even reprimanded by the proctor and threatened to be disqualified because he wrote his solutions on the test booklet instead on the scratch sheet. It was all messed up. And worse, he was not able to answer 30 items in the Math sub-test! It is now no wonder why Jimmy did not make it. This just proves that a genius is just as likely to fail in the UPCAT as anyone else.

The post Why SpongeBob Passed the UPCAT and Jimmy Neutron Did Not appeared first on Review Masters.