The UP College Admission Test for the 2011 school year will be held starting this August 7 and 8, 2010. This means thousands of students will be flocking to the UP campuses and other UP Test Centers to sit down and take an exam than can make or break their future. For the Diliman campus, it is expected to handle over 30,000 students who will take the exam (about 70,000 students nationwide will take the UPCAT). For the rest of the residents living nearby a UP campus, that means traffic of biblical proportions.

The UPCAT is the most widely taken college entrance exam in the country. Of the thousands that apply and take the exam, only about 10 percent pass and are accepted. That means only about one out of every seven students who will take the test will pass.

Those are difficult odds to beat.

What makes the UPCAT all the more stressful is that it can only be taken once in a person’s lifetime.  There is no second take when it comes to the UPCAT. If you don’t pass the examination, you better make sure you have a backup plan.

In preparation, many senior students all over the country have taken review classes, enrolled in entrance exam preparation courses and prayed to the high heavens for a passing mark. The agony doesn’t end after three and a half hours of taking the exam. It is simply the start of a long wait until the next year when the results are released.

Students must be excited or nervous depending on how prepared they are for the exam.

Good luck to all the students taking the UPCAT exam this weekend!  And to our students, make us proud!