ALKHOBAR, 30 October 2003 — Some 166 Filipino students in the Kingdom will be taking the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) on Friday for the schoolyear 2004-2005.
Professor Maria Theresa de Villa, supervising examiner for this year’s UPCAT to be held in the Kingdom, told Arab News that 55 students are from the Eastern Province, 54 from Riyadh, and another 55 from Jeddah.
De Villa said that the students from Alkhobar and Dammam will take the exams together with the Riyadh students at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh.
Students in Jeddah will be taking their UPCAT in Jeddah on a date and venue to be announced later since Mrs. Esperanza Iba?ez, who is assigned to administer the Jeddah exams is still in Abu Dhabi also supervising the UPCAT for Filipino students coming from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait.
Out of the 55 students from the Eastern Province, 41 are from the International Philippine School in Alkhobar (IPSA), nine from the Philippine School in Dammam (PSD), and five from the Asian Alkhobar International School (AAIS).
In Riyadh, 20 out of the 54 students are from the Second Philippine International School in Riyadh (SPISR), 16 are from the International Philippine School in Riyadh (IPSR), 11 from Millenium International School (MIS), four from Elite International School (EIS), and three from the Nour Al-Maarefa International School (NAMIS).
There are 40 students from the International Philippine School in Jeddah (IPSJ) who will take the test. Fourteen more students are from the Al-Hekma International School (AHIS) and three are from Bader International School (BIS).
UP sends examiners to administer the test to children of OFWs in the Middle East, every year sparing them the burden of having to spend too much for travel.
De Villa also clarified that there is no passing or failing marks in the UPCAT. One qualifies on the university predicted grade (UPG) cut-off in each campus which the students pre-selected before taking the exams. The UPG will depend on the performance of the whole batch each year and the cut-off will vary from campus to campus she said.
The performance of students will be taken from their grades on their first three years in high school plus their performance in the admission test.
There are no minimum school grades requirement for the students to try UPCAT. All Filipino students are allowed to take it, according to de Villa.
She said students who do not qualify for the campuses in Metro Manila may still qualify with other campuses particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao, which have a lower UPG cut-off. She also added that UP Baguio, which used to be a part of the UP Diliman in Quezon City, is now fully an autonomous campus like the ones in Manila and Los Ba?os.
UP is the premier state university in the Philippines and has one of the toughest entrance examinations in the country. Hundreds of thousands of high school students throughout the Philippines aspire to study at UP for excellence and prestige. Their expenses are subsidized by the Philippine government.
