“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,”UP Vice President for Academic Affairs Gisela ConcepcionAccording to a statement by UP Vice President for Academic Affairs Gisela Concepcion last April 14, the UPCAT will be ‘reinvented’ to assess higher skills of graduates of Grade 12.
“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.
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With the upcoming ‘reinvention’ of the UPCAT, several suggestions were offered during the UPD Cluster Workshop 2013 held last September 30. These were:
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