UPCAT Craze

Yesterday we left the house early morning to accompany my son to UP Diliman for the UP College Admission Test (UPCAT). Cyril saw to it that we're on the road by 2 a.m. to make allowance for possible delays along the way. He knocked at our door even before the alarm went off. He was worried about the traffic because of the experience of some of his classmates who were scheduled on Saturday morning. Good thing, that it was not raining and the ride was smooth except for an accident that happened in a lane next to us. 

The car was driving fast as if in a race with another car. Then all of a sudden, the driver lost control of his vehicle which spun around maybe after putting too much pressure on the brakes. The site is still vivid in our minds except for Amyel who was in deep sleep because she worked on her seminar report the whole night until we left. We arrived 15 min before 4 a.m. and parked near the School of Labor and Industrial Relations (SOLAIR). Cyril's testing center is at the National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG). By 6 a.m. the queues of examinees were already long, the roads got clogged due to heavy traffic, and parking areas were full of vehicles. Visitors were not allowed to enter the testing areas so we just stayed in the parking area and used the portalets in between. After sending Amyel to the bus terminal (she has her NSTP community outreach service every Sunday afternoon at UP Los Banos), we rushed back to the same parking lot and we were fortunate enough to find a space. In UP Diliman alone, 30,000 examinees were expected on the two-day schedule (August 1 and 2). There's more on the other campuses of the system. These are the graduating high school students who aspire to become "iskolar ng bayan" next year and avail of the best that UP can offer them.