By Dennis Gorecho
“Basically, your school has all the big fishes that came out of a small pond. You cannot always be the top student. It is impossible.” This is a line from the Netflix Korean drama “When Life Gives You Tangerines” told by Yang Gwan-sik (Park Hae-joon) to his daughter Geum-myeong (IU) about the competitive environment in the South Korean education system.
This heartrending drama delicately captures both the beauty and struggles of three generations of women — Ae-sun (Moon So-ri), her mother Jeon Gwang-Rye (Yum Hye-Ran) and her daughter Geum-myeong — spanning from the 1960s to the present day against the backdrop of Jeju Island.
Ae-sun and Geum-myeong’s professional successes are examples of social progress hard-won across generations. Ae-sun was not able to graduate from high school or go to college “on the mainland” despite her cleverness and ambitions.
Geum-myeong is an ambitious English major at Seoul National University who resolutely forges her own path despite persistent financial hardships.
The series touched on university admission exams as one of the most nerve-wracking experiences for incoming college students.
South Korea and the Philippines are equally situated where academic success is often a source of familial pride and societal esteem, as many individuals see success in education as the primary driver of upward social mobility and the gateway to a better socioeconomic status.
Gwan-sik’s lines reminded me of the Baguio museum scene from the 2014 film “That Thing Called Tadhana” which starred Angelica Panganiban and JM de Guzman.
“Nung high school, sobrang galing ko. Lahat ng competitions na sinalihan ko, panalo ako. T******! Nu’ng pagdating ko ng UP, ang gagaling ng mga kaklase ko! May mga Malang, may Abueva. Akala ko magaling na ‘ko eh. Marunong lang pala,” De Guzman said.
Over the past 55 years, the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) has earned a nationwide reputation as the most competitive college entrance exam in the country.
The UPCAT consists of four subtests: Language Proficiency (in English and Filipino), Reading Comprehension (in English and Filipino), Science, and Mathematics. Standardized UPCAT scores are combined with the composite of final grades in Grades 8 to 11 to determine the admission score.
Selection for admission to a campus is based on the applicant’s rank, campus quota and/or cut-off grade.
The successful applicants for a given campus are ranked according to grade predictors and quotas of their chosen degree programs. Some degree programs are more competitive due to high demand.
If an applicant is not successful for his/her first choice of campus, the process continues in order of priority of the remaining choices.
The UPCAT differs from the other entrance test because it deducts 0.25 or ¼ of a point if one answered an item incorrectly. In a way, the applicant is slightly penalized for a wrong answer. But one does not get a deduction if an item is left blank. Thus, guessing the correct answer does not always help.
The Diliman Campus was my solace for a decade as a student at the UP School of Economics from 1987 to 1991 and later at the UP College of Law from 1992 to 1998.
According to the UP website, current UP admissions data reveal a chronic underrepresentation of students from public schools, particularly those in rural and underserved communities.
In the recently released UPCAT 2024 results, 44 percent of the UPCAT qualifiers came from private schools, and 27 percent came from the different science high schools around the country. Only a measly 29 percent came from public high schools. And among the qualifiers, a vast majority — around 70 percent — come from urban centers, mostly from Luzon.
To implement the policy of democratization to make the UP studentry more representative of the nation’s population, socioeconomic and geographic considerations are now factored in the selection of campus qualifiers.
The title of the Netflix Korean drama (“When Life Gives You Tangerines”) essentially means finding positivity and making the best of difficult situations, even when faced with adversity.
The same applies to our journey as Iskolars ng Bayan. The university was our home during our adolescent lives when we were pursuing both academic excellence and progressive thinking.
If made into a local film, perhaps the title will be “When UP Life Gives You Sunflowers.”
Sunflowers have become the symbol of devotion, loyalty and the ultimate rites of passage in the university as one blossoms inside the campus. Sunflowers, in order to grow, need full sun, just as every student treat every experience inside the university as necessary for their individual growth.
The extended deadline for the filing of UPCAT applications is on April 14, 2025.
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“Peyups” is the moniker of the University of the Philippines.
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Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho is the junior partner who heads the Seafarers’ Division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan Law Offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 0908866578./WDJ