87,000 students to take UPCAT

MANILA, Philippines - A record-breaking 87,000 senior high school students are set to take the five-hour University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) this weekend, according to university’s office of admissions.

The estimated number of examinees was higher by 5,000 from the 82,000 who took the exam last year. In 2011 and 2012, the examinees were estimated to be at 71,000 and 75,000, respectively.

Amer Amor, a UP faculty member and a regional examiner, previously wrote in Vera Files that the number of examinees in 2011 was the highest in the history of the university. The record was repeatedly broken in the succeeding years.

Despite the significant increase in the number of examinees, however, the number of admitted students in the previous UPCAT remains at around 12,000 to 13,000.

Last year, only over 13,000 hopefuls passed the admission test administered in more than 80 testing centers nationwide. Around 12,900 and 12,800 students passed the 2011 and 2012 exams, respectively.

Fewer examinees next year

The number of examinees, however, is expected to decrease in 2015 with the implementation of the K-12 program. Instead of college, Grade 10 students next year will have to enroll in the two-year senior high school.

UPCAT, which is administered in August every year, consists of four subtests – language proficiency, science, mathematics and reading comprehension.

Based on information on the UPCAT website, “standardized scores on the subtests are combined with the weighted average of final grades in the first three years of high school to determine qualification into UP.”

“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,” it added.

UP offers more than 170 programs in its eight constituent universities: UP Diliman (with an extension program in Pampanga), UP Baguio, UP Los Baños, UP Manila (with Schools of Health Sciences in Baler, Palo, and Koronadal), UP Visayas (with campuses in Iloilo/Miagao and Tacloban), UP Cebu, UP Mindanao, and the Open University.

The Diliman campus offers the most of the degree programs, while other campuses are known for specific areas of specialization.

The announcement of the results is usually posted on the UPCAT website around February next year. Last year, however, it was released in December.

In case of failure to qualify in his or her preferred campus, the examinee is advised to try in other UP campuses or enroll in a different college and transfer to UP after earning 33 academic units.