My UPCAT story

My UPCAT story’s a very simple one.  It first started when i had a crush on a guy, a guy named James. He was my busmate and he’s a volunteer sacristan in our church. He’s very nice, fair skinned, well tanned. He’s also tall and plays basketball. He lived very near our place and i always notice him, sitting beside the door of the bus. He’s very good at drawing, while wait he’d draw marvel characters and such. Oh and he’s got a very deep voice too.  I was the president of the World of Art Club then, and he was also one of the members.

James has been my crush for a long time. I even wanted to cut my swimming class just so I could watch him perform on a play! Oh gosh! He was older than me by 1 level and then I found out that he passed the UPCAT. I didn’t know UPCAT then, I just knew he passed the UP entrance exam and was going to go study there.

When I entered my senior year, that was my goal, pass the UPCAT. Well, it was my goal on the summer too. But it was intensified when I started studying again. It’s the only buzz people was talking about, “have you filled up your form?” “what’s your first choice?” “what campus are you going to choose?” “don’t put a quota-quota combination.. do a quoata-non-quota mix up just in case you didn’t qualify for your first choice.”

It was the most important thing, at least that was, in my opinion. I remember losing my first cellphone because of it. Gwen and I were busy looking at the UP course list, making comments on what was a quota course, and what other weird courses UP has come up with. I was leaning in on Gwen in the jeepney too engrossed in our conversation that I didn’t even notice that the guy on my right slashed opened my bag and took my cellphone! I lost my cellphone and a decent bag that day.

Our school arranged our papers for us, so we didn’t have to go to Diliman to do everything. All we had to do was pass the requirements to the guidance councillor. After a few days of waiting you’d get your schedule and all the reminders about taking the exam. Bring two pens, eraser. All that shiz. So the day came when i had to take the exam. Was i ready? May be, who knows. I was studying everybit as hard as anyone, im sure. I was going to take the exam in the morning at the Palma Hall, which in my uni years i would eventually call AS. I remember, Gwen even took the exam at the math building, my mom bought KFC for me, for my lunch.

I went down our van and saw the queue of students outside the building. I saw Len Camit and JB waived at them and went behind them. Jb and I weren’t friends back then, mere acquaintances. I remember jb saying, “i really don’t care for this exam, what really matters to me is the ACET.” Jb went on and passed the ACET and studied in ateneo.

Anyway, we entered our designated rooms. They allowed you to eat food during the exams as there were no breaks. So there were tons of food underneath my armchair. I could still recall my seatmate, whose chair  was filled with chips and chocolates. During the line, we were even talking about what kind of food people would bring. “pano kaya kung magdala ka ng bagoong?” Then the proctor came in, now i don’t remember if it was a boy or girl. Really bad memory.

I took the test. I came out not feeling confident at all. Everyone found it easy, but I didn’t. It was deflating and i told my mom not to keep her hopes up.

You take the UPCAT at August, and the results come on only after February. It was a very long wait. But, like anything else, you’ll forget about it. You won’t feel agitated about it anymore. Next bout was the ACET, then the DLSU exam and lastly the UST exam.  So many things will happen. Senior year, we had CAT. I joined the model company to compete with other schools for dumbass rifle drills. We sucked and lost. Haha. I procrastinated during the exam months on my modules, so now I was trying to catch up. It was easy to catch up anyhow, all you have to do is study on the important subjects and copy exams on the lame ones.  We had tons of extracurricular too. First was that song and dance interpretation of a religious original song. We had to practice during and after class hours. It was an inter-class competition. We came in 2nd place! Then we had this Song-lyrics recited. It was a play but the words should be lyrics of songs. Gwen and I wrote it, and I directed the play. We came in 3rd place! Yey! So really no time for studying. We even had to go to school every Saturday for the stupid NSAT review.

Then during December came in the retreat and the bivouac. Retreat, for me was super fun, like afterwards you feel like you can die and you’re surely going to heaven. But it didn’t start out like that of course. Junnis and I were always late when it came to the group activities.

Then there was the bivouac! I miss the Charlie Company and Leslie! In CAT, you always had to have a buddy with you. Unfortunately, Leslie my closest friend in the Charlie Company was NOT my buddy. So what we did, we made a 4-woman buddy system. We dragged along our assigned buddies wherever so that we can still hang out! Hehe. Leslie was super fun to be with when it was time for CAT. She sang the Three blind mice, rock version! And we’re always making fun of our dorky CAT officers behind their backs. Especially those who were taking it waaaay too seriously. We’d always get punished for it though. But annoying them was worth it. I remember the lameass terms they wanted us to adapt. Oh gosh, just remembering makes me want to puke! And here they are:

“Pusang allowance” – how lame! They shout this when they want to curse.

“Pipe down” – term for quiet down, i guess they didn’t invent this one, but it was used sooo much, i just wanted to say, up your ass. Hehe.

“Why laugh?” – removing linking verbs! Ugh! We always got this one.

Hehe. It was so much fun how the officers get annoyed when you didn’t salute them on corridors though! Hehe. But all in all, i super enjoyed the bivouac. Our company commander was super laid back. He didn’t care about all the power trip shiz. And we were all in all the happiest company, for sure. We even won the intercompany competition the following year! That’s only coz we copied each other’s answers during the exam. Since we all studied for the model exam, me and other model members shared everything with everyone. CAT can be so much fun. I learned alot about marching. cramming for exams!


The following year came in. DLSU and ACET came in... i didn’t pass both! Huhu



Just kidding. I passed. Hehe.


But I didn’t hold my breath for them. I was suffocated by the uncertainty of the UPCAT results. Then February came. People immediately went to Diliman, and I learned from my friends, that my name wasn’t on the list.



Just kidding. It was on the list. And I passed! YEY again! Of course, i still had to go there and confirm, even if I already checked it online.

So that’s it, I enrolled in the University of the Philippines, Diliman. BS Computer Science. Batch 2001. Block G26. Then it went back to James. I was excited, maybe I might see him on campus. I wonder what college he was on. Come to think of it, I didn’t even know what he was taking up. So I asked Tina, about it. Then she told me, James was taking up BS Biology. I was thrilled! ... Tina continued, He’s taking up Biology in UP Manila.

Bummer.