UPCAT Blues

Saw this video from YouTube although trailer lang siya, I have yet to see the entire film.

I have a hazy memory of my UPCAT days, starting from filling up the application form up to seeing the results.

As it turned out to be a coincidence, last Saturday, as the Congressman & I jogged (well, 1/4 jogged and 3/4 walk hehe) around the UP oval, we reminisced on how we eventually got into our course.

I remember that I selected 3 courses for UP: BS Biology, Dentistry & Statistics. I know we were asked to select 4 course but I can't remember the last one. Anyway, you can play the game "alin ang naiba" and you can see that BS Statistics is the odd one out. Why in the world BS Statistics? Because my dad said it's supposed to be a kinder version of other Math-related courses. My dad's a math geek and would want any of his children to venture into the world of numbers. I'm good in memorizing cellphone numbers, but other than that--wag mo akong asahan, lalo na sa suklian! That's why I have my secretary & my calculator to do the math for me hehehe.

There are a few other things that remind me of UPCAT:
1. UP Diliman campus map


UPCAT is usually scheduled every first week of August. Around the exam date, avoid the Philcoa, Tandang Sora, Katipunan area due to heavy traffic associated in the UP campus vicinity and it's neighboring areas. I remember the "usad pagong" traffic and the copies of the UP Campus map carried by UPCAT takers, walking like zombies while following the map to a T. I took the exam in the College of Home Economics.

When my brother took the UPCAT, there were lots of UP campus maps lying around with a big "MSA Review Center" printed in front. Naks, how helpful!

2. Mongol # 2 pencil



Requirements of a good Mongol # 2 pencil for your entrance exams are as follows:

• Dapat genuine Mongol. Don't get the fake one unless you want to devote almoste half of your exam time re-sharpening your pencil because the lead gets broken all the time
• The tip should be not too sharp, it would take longer to fill the block (circle/bar/space...errr whatever!) with a very sharp pencil, it's like using a mechanical pencil! If you make the mistake of making your pencil needle sharp, give it a "war up" by scraping it against a scratch paper.
• Have it blessed by your priest or at the Sta Clara Monastery. If you don't know the answer, silently recite "eeeny meeny miny moe" and pray to God that the blessed pencil shades the correct answer.
  

In addition to the above requirements, there's the ceremonial "breaking of the pencil" after the exam, well, para hindi na daw maulit. I think this ceremony is more apt for taking the board exams. (Wag mag-deny, ginawa ko to hahaha!)

3. UP Sunken Garden


This was our designated meeting place for our sundo. I didn't realize back then that the Sunken Garden was THIS big! Really, I though parang garden lang sa bahay! Ayun, it took almost an hour for me to look for our driver, plus another hour to find my cousin who took the exam with me.

4. Chippy Red

During the UPCAT, we were allowed to bring in simple snacks which we can eat while taking the exam. To my horror, my seatmate munched bag after bag of red Chippy variant! She munched so loudly, oblivious to my need to concentrate for UPCAT questions such as this:

Totoy has 1 kaing containing 50 kamotes he intended to share with his friend Popoy.
If Totoy was able to eat 6 kamotes per minute, what was Popoy's kamote-eating rate
if both were able to finish the entire kaing in 5 hours?

Now back to the movie, there's a character there who claimed he only took the UPCAT exam and nothing else. I have a former neighbor who's like that. He bragged that he never intended to take the entrance exams from other schools, while I was trying to juggle 5 applications for college: UPCAT, ACET, UST entrance exam and UA&P's (Well, 5th was Miriam College's but that's just back up, sorry to the Miriamites. I need to have assurance that I'd be admitted to at least college at that time). Fast forward a year after and I learned that Mr. UPCAT-or-nothing enrolled in some unknown computer school in Marikina. Fast forward to 6.5 years after, I'm a proud holder of a UP degree!

The protagonist in the story says the only thing he dreams of is to pass the UPCAT. And for us who are fortunate to pass, the pain in the pw*t just starts there. I remember being asked by a professor if I really passed the UPCAT after giving a stupid answer to his question. He said I might have been a computer glitch--the encoder must have accidentally typed in my name among the UPCAT passers in his Wordstar document.

Well, glitch or not, I am happy to be UP Student # 98-11632! :)