UP College Admission Test
The University of the Philippines College Admission Test, commonly known as UP College Admission Test or simply UPCAT is part of the admission requirements of the University of the Philippines System administered to graduates of Philippine and foreign high schools. The UPCAT is considered to be the most competitive college entrance examination for any undergraduate degree program compared to other universities and colleges in the Philippines. The UPCAT examination administered last August 2008 was composed of 66,000 aspiring applicants assuming entrance to the University.[1]
Eligibility and Application to UPCAT
An individual may be considered eligible of taking UPCAT examination if he/she met the following conditions:
- Currently senior high school of any Department of Education accredited schools or secondary schools abroad, and expected to graduate the following year.
- Graduates of any Department of Education accredited schools or secondary schools abroad.
- Declared eligible for admission to college prior to Philippine Educational Placement Test(PEPT) results.
In addition, a prospective examiner should have fully accomplished final grades of first, second and third year high school class cards. They must not have taken UPCAT previously.
Graduates of Department of Education accredited schools and secondary schools abroad that was declared eligible for admission to college via PEPT should not taken any college subject/s, not taking college subject/s or not taking college subject/s prior to the semester which they will take UPCAT examination.
Examiners must be reminded that when taking UPCAT, it does not require minimum grade requirement and UPCAT is taken only once.[2]
University Predicted Grade
The University Predicted Grade (UPG) is a combined score of an applicant's weighted UPCAT score and the weighted average of his/her grades in high school. It is approximately 40% from his/her grades in high school and 60% from the UPCAT. UPCAT results are ranked according to the examinees' University Predicted Grades. In order to make the student population of UP more representative of the country's population, socioeconomic and geographic factors are also considered in selecting campus qualifiers.
In 1976, Mathematics Professor Romeo L. Manlapaz (now retired but a consultant to the University for admissions policies) came up with a system factoring in the actual predictive ability (regression weights) of the high school grades and the UPCAT scores. Using a technique called "multiple regression analysis," Manlapaz arrived at an equation which integrated the high school grades and the UPCAT scores in a formula to come up with the UPG or University Predicted Grade:
