37 TIPS TO PASS THE UPCAT

1. It's UP or PMA (pahinga muna anak)

-UP or nothing, do or die, now or never

2. Think of the UPCAT as a GAME

-it's a game of time pressure, accuracy and alertness

3. Know the UPCAT

-6:30/12:30, you'll be asked to form your lines.
-exam consists of: 85-100 English (50mins), 60-80 items Science (50 mins), 60 items
Math (90 mins), Reading comprehension 50-80 items (30 mins)
-5% are in FILIPINO

4. Focus on the basics

-UPCAT IS THE EASIEST EXAM YOU WILL TAKE. but, out of 70,000 applicants; 10,000
will be accepted.
-80% easy

5. Visit the actual room where you will take the test
-be comfortable with the room :)

6. Rehearse taking the UPCAT

-don't practice, rehearse.
-wake up early, prepare your things, have a proper diet...
-avoid morning & afternoon naps for 1 week

7. Don't study the day before the UPCAT

-RELAAAX :)

8. Prepare test materials

-TEST PERMIT
-ID
-Pencils (Mongol No.2)
-watch
-SNACKS
--wear simple & comfortable clothes (jeans, slacks, light shirt & light jacket)

9. Eat a moderate, high energy meal

10. Don't forget your snacks

-your breakfast will not be enough to get you through the exam
-(apple, water, light sandwich)

11. Arrive at the test venue early

-if you arrive late, you will not be able to take the exam.

12. Increase you IQ :)

-"no IQ, no entry"
-Exercise the brain, enhance memory recall, enhance creativity, improve logical
reasoning, improve your guess work

13. Follow instructions

14. Spend time to scan over the entire subtest

-when the examiner says "You may begin" the first thing to do is to STOP
-scan the pages

15. Read the entire question

-tip for long questions, the real question is the last statement.
-knowing the problem is half the solution

16. Cycle through the UPCAT

1st- scan
2nd- read and answer questions that can be solved easily.
3rd- answer moderate items. (the items you know how to solve but will take you a
longer time to do so)

17, use scratch paper wisely

-organize
- the scratch paper is your friend, use it well :)

18. BE CONFIDENT

19. Maintain proper posture

20. Do not ask the proctor

- "use your best judgment" if the question is wrong or has no answer

21. Have a watch when you take the exam

-time the test

22. Eliminate wrong answers

-it's not about getting the correct answers, it's about having the most number of
correct items.

23. hide the choices when reading the question

-to not be distracted y plausible answer choices.

24. Consider every question as a true of false question

25. take note of 100% words & qualifiers

100% words (absolutely, all, always, best, every, certainly, invariably, never,
without exception, only, worst)
100% words are usually false

qualifiers (generally, frequently, many, may, most, might, much, oftne, possibly,
probably, seldom)
*they tend to be true,. more often than not is the correct answer

26.Beware of NOTA & AOTA

*all of the above is often the correct answer
-None of the above is usually wrong

27. keep an eye out for grammatical errors

-the only things important are the questions & the answers.

28. Watch out for negative words

- think of the opposite ;P because they can reverse the meaning of the sentence

29. Choose NOT "funny" options

30. Be alert for repeating topics

31. Cross out extremes

32. skim & scan long paragraphs

33. Work backwards

-work from known to unknown

34. look for breaks in the patterns

-the best possible answer is the most detailed

35. get clues from choices

36. ANSWER THE RIGHT QUESTION

37. GUESS :)

1. Check out twitter and search for 'UPCAT' on the toolbar or have a quick chat
with friends about the test.

This involves reading the tweets or facebook posts of other users and friends who
just took the UPCAT, because more often than not they're going to discuss some
questions very openly and in detail, dropping the answers in the process. You can
do the same with your friends. Have a quick chat and discuss items they found
difficult, together with topics they didn't expect to come out. With that you can
just try to remember some answers and do a bit of reviewing on the difficult topic.

Someone told you that you won't remember anything if you cram the day or the hours
before? Well yes, you won't remember everything, but you'll remember at least some
things that could easily be worth 5 or more points. Just keep your last minute
reviews focused on a few key areas.

CHECK OUT: UPCAT Practice Test

Technically, this isn't allowed, and you're not even allowed to discuss the test,
but we're not in a police state, so (maybe) there's no harm.

2. Bring a whole box of sharpened pencils.

Why? Because sharpening wastes your time. And you'll have to sharpen a lot because
you're filling in over 200 circles, which will surely dull your pencil more than
once. Having a box ready makes sure that you just keep shooting at those questions.

3. Write down all your formulas on your scratch paper the moment you get the test.

You'll only lose maybe a minute initally, but it will save you a chunk time later
on when you're debating with yourself if the slope formula has y2-y1 or x2-x1 in
the numerator. Also, the first section is usually language proficiency, which most
people finish ahead of time anyways, so no worries.

RELATED: UP Admissions

4. (Secretly. Shhh! Not on us though!) Go back or forward to other sections.

Yes, it's very clearly not allowed, but if you're sneaky and you're sitting at the
back while the proctor is chatting with his mate about last night's UAAP matchup,
you'll probably get away with it. Going back is especially useful if you missed
some items in the previous section because of a lack of time. If your proctor is
not really chatting with someone, but is inattentive enough, the least you could do
is guess and shade the circles you haven't filled in. (Answering all items is
better than leaving them blank!! Read up on our UPCAT Tips post!)

Going forward is useful if you're anticipating that the next section will be really
high pressure and short on time. You don't have to answer a lot. Just a few items
will save you a valuable minute or two already. Don't do this if you're short on
time on your current section though.

1. Always answer every single item, even if it is "right minus wrong."

In most tests, you only get a 1/4 point deduction for every mistake, meaning if you
guess blindly, there is a good chance of you breaking even and maybe getting
higher/lower than you should.

You could turn the odds in your favor however.

See this example:

Question 1: What does the word assiduous, used in this sentence, most nearly mean?

She was an assiduous student who promptly submitted her homework and projects on
time.

a. Studious
b. Lazy
c. Quixotic
d. Arduous

Let's assume you know nothing about what the word means. You can still infer from
the sentence that assiduous definitely does not mean "lazy," because it describes
her as someone who submits homework on time, so you could cross it out.

By doing this you've somehow beaten the right minus wrong feature of the test. You
now have a 1/3 chance of getting it right, which could make or break your
application because of the incredible competition for slots in UP

2. Work quickly and never stick to one item.

Remember that each item, no matter the difficulty, is worth only 1 point.

Those crafty professors at UP might even have put all the easy items at the end for
all you know, so its best to run through the entire section and get as many easy
points as you can. You can always come back for the others later on.

3. Bring a lot of pencils

Imagine yourself on test day, sweating over that darn trig item that you've never
even studied.

You're sweating. You can feel your pulse racing in your wrist. You already can see
the look of your mother, eyebrows raised and frying pan in hand, when you find out
you failed the test. "'Yan kasi! Puro facebook na lang ang inaatupag!
blablablablablablabla!"

Then your pencils snaps/becomes too dull. (This will happen again and again
throughout the test)

Is this the moment you'd think you'll have the nerves to sharpen your pencil? I'd
guess not.
Save yourself some time and anxiety by having extra sharpened pencils on the side.
This also lets you focus on being the test answering machine you should have honed
yourself to be by this time.